Hi all,

I got a crazy idea to land at all California public airports. I figured that would be a good way go get experience in my plane. Over the first 32 years of flying I had been to around 92 of the 259 public airports listed for the state. Since I got the Husky I've added 26 more airfields but have a ways to go! The airfields are anything from remote "nothing there's" to the kind with $7 100LL. I don't have any particular timeframe and I'll have to get some amphibs in order to count the handful of seaplane bases, but I'm having fun so far. Today I hit 12 more fields:

Lincoln
Marysville
Yuba City
Colusa
Willows
Orland
Corning
Red Bluff
Chico Muni
Chico Ranchaero
Oroville
Brownsville

As this isn't totally backcountry stuff I plan on creating a blog elsewhere dedicated to this endeavor with more pics and flying info. Has anyone "done" an entire state before?

Here's a couple of pics:

Brownsville (F25)


Chico Ranchaero (O23)


Sutter Buttes (Earth's smallest official mountain range)


Yuba City Sutter County (O52)

onthegas-

I think your project is totally at home here on BCP. If I can post about vintage aircraft you can certainly blog about your public airport checklist here.

Sounds like a good time, onthegas!! Something I hope to do someday. Nice pictures.

I'm guilty of "collecting airports", too. Oregon has 97 public airports in the airport directory, and I've been to 76 of them. Got 21 to go.

I like the challenge of going to unfamiliar airstrips, and doing a dozen in a day is lots of fun.

Here's where I've been:



The red Xs are the to be done ones. There are quite a few extras that aren't in the Oregon directory such as gravel bars on the Willamette, farmers fields, dry lake beds, and dirt roads. They are on the map, too.

tom

Onthegas,

Very commendable project/goal! Isn't Ranchaero a cool little airport? I just dropped my son off at Chico State for his first year of engineering school, so I plan on dropping into Ranchaero fairly often over the next 5 years or so.

If you decide to head down to So Cal and need someplace to base out of for a few days let me know. I live under the downwing leg of Fallbrook Airpark (L18) in northern San Diego County and have a guest house available.

Mark

Oh yeah, my vote would be to have you keep this "project" right where it is on the BCP site.

Taildown wrote:Onthegas,
my vote would be to have you keep this "project" right where it is on the BCP site.

I second that vote!!

flew up to Chico last winter for a wedding. Landed at Ranchaero and stayed the weekend. The airport loaner car was a big plus but my brother in law and i looked like the foster farms chickens in that thing. It's an old volvo, the lights don't work, the seats are torn and the glove box keeps opening hitting the passenger in the knees. The price was right though Had a great time there...

Give me a heads up when you do Montague (1O5). Best burn and serve buritos in the state.

Tim

Have a freind in Colorado who has flown to all of the airports in CO...been to a few with him.

I thought about that when I got my license to learn and hit all of LA county Including LAX (at 2 am to avoid traffic) I love your plan.

If you hit O27 on a Saturday I'll buy you a coke.

It's all I can afford.

For a free Coke I'll fly anywhere! By golly, Oakdale is on the list! Along with Calaveras County, Pine Mtn Lake, Mariposa and Turlock. I'll get you an ETA!

Not sure why you are doing CA instead of NV . . . if you were doing your and my home state you could probably polish it off in a couple of days! 'Cept they do spread 'em far apart, don't they?

bumper

Just land at each airport between the runways and taxiways....that will keep it "backcountry" and people will be more tolerant on this site about it ,,bet no one has done the whole state like that..... that will also keep you from eating up your tires too much on the asphalt.Sounds like a fun misson

Don't know if you've seen this site before...

http://www.goflyamerica.org/

once&futr_alaskaflyer wrote:Don't know if you've seen this site before...

http://www.goflyamerica.org/

Very cool website!! I can have fun doing that!! Thanks for sharing!

onthegas wrote:For a free Coke I'll fly anywhere! By golly, Oakdale is on the list! Along with Calaveras County, Pine Mtn Lake, Mariposa and Turlock. I'll get you an ETA!

Well, heck if you stop by Oakdale first I can fly high cover in the the RV-4. Don't forget Columbia too. I could also show you some nice dirt strips in the area.

Let me know if you come into KRHV. I'll chase ya to the next airport in the Citabria!

Chris

You can log them on www.ourairports.com

Onthegas,

This is a project that I've been working on myself for the past year or so. I can tell you, it's a HUGE task, but so far it's been a total blast. I know of one or two other people who are also working on it. So far I've been to 161 airports and have 89 left to go. (I'm not counting seaplane bases, since I don't have floats!) Along the way I've found a couple of airports that are still on the sectional, but are actually closed (cross off Holtville-L04 and Pixley-P27 if they're still on your list!). Maybe you can do the same for NorCal? I made a Google map to show my progress:

http://www.craigmorton.com/ca_map.htm

The beauty of this project is that it takes you to some real off-the-beaten-track places; airports and small towns that you would never have a reason to visit otherwise. There's a sense of serendipity in finding something of interest at almost every one. If you need pireps from any of the ones I've been to, just ask. And keep us posted of your progress!

C.