San Diego - Los Angeles / Cessna 182RG II / VFR

My virtual passengers were clamoring for another plane ride, so no sooner had I landed at Lindbergh Field and fueled up than I was ready to depart again, this time for Los Angeles.

Jimsair is right near runway 27, so ATC just had me taxi over to the runway. My instructions were to make a right crosswind to the shoreline and to stay at or below 3000 feet. I heard the other Cessna making an intersection departure just before me. I hoped that our paths would not too closely approach.

Take-off was uneventful. The tower removed the altitude restriction, handed me off to SoCal Departure for flight following, and I was on my way. My routing was roughly MZB.OCN.SLI, but I mostly just followed the shoreline, taking care to avoid the restricted areas around Camp Pendleton. I followed the shore until I was due south of Seal Beach, then turned north and called SoCal Approach again for a clearance into the Los Angeles Class B, which I promptly received with instructions to remain at or below 4500 feet.

Once in the Bravo, I was briefly vectored to the northeast for spacing, then turned back towards LAX. There was other traffic and it was called out to me by ATC, but visual contact was always negative—it's so hard to actually see aircraft out the window sometimes. Finally I was pointed towards 24R, and I called the tower on a five-mile final and got cleared to land. I saw a jet airliner rolling into position on 24L as I landed. Initially ground directed me towards the gates, but I pointed out that I needed to go to Mercury Aviation south of 25L, so I was given instructions to taxi over there, waiting briefly at the runways for traffic.

All great fun. It's nice when there's a bit of other traffic in the sky.