Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Agua Dulce Airpark - Catalina / Beechcraft Baron 58 / VFR

Time to brush up on VFR and GA, so I took the Baron out to Catalina Island to pick up some virtual friends. There was a fair amount of traffic in the area, but I flew silently through the airspace, VFR all the way, carefully avoiding any airspace that would require ATC interaction. I squeaked through the LAX Bravo via the SFRA, following it with great precision, then continued on that heading and turned west after passing the shoreline and Angel's Gate. The weather was clear so getting out to Catalina wasn't too difficult (it's much more of a challenge in poor weather, which isn't unusual). Catalina is a bit problematic in that there are no navaids at which you can aim (SXC is significantly skewed with respect to the airport), so good visibility is a great advantage. The 1600-foot drop-offs at either end of the runway motivate you to get the landing right. Fortunately, I landed without incident, despite some gusting winds over the field.

Blog Archive