ArVeeNiner
Well Known Member
My good friend Paul and I have been eyeing a flight to the Fender Guitar Factory in Corona, CA. We’re both guitar players and both love flying so this was a no brainer. Timing has been an issue but on Monday July 7th, we both found ourselves off on a day when the marine layer was light. This was important since there are two tours per day…one at 10 am and the second one at 11:30 am. For this to work, we’d have to get a fairly early start. We didn’t have the time to spend waiting for the marine layer to burn off.
Our route of choice from my home airport of Reid-Hillview (RHV) in San Jose, CA was down the Salinas Valley, past Paso Robles, over Santa Barbara, down the coast, over Malibu, Santa Monica, and finally to Corona.
We got off the ground at 7:50 am. Here are the two intrepid flyers at the start of the trip. Paul seems a bit tense:
We saw a bit of the marine layer over by Salinas but it didn’t extend too far down the valley:
After about an hour and twenty minutes, we were over Santa Barbara. The marine layer there had moved offshore by the time we arrived. This is Coal Oil Point which is just to the north of the city limits:
In no time at all, we were over the LA area. I had been getting flight following the entire way which turned out to be very easy. This photo was taken after we had passed over Santa Monica and it’s looking north to the San Fernando Valley. The tan spot is Burbank Airport. Lockheed was a big presence there a few years back. My first job out of college was as a Flight Test Engineer at the Skunk Works there in the early 80’s. Now the area is a parking lot. Lots of history gone. Sad:
Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy bally hooey Hollywood…(Don’t blame me, I didn’t write that song!):
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm a cop (not really):
Dodger’s Stadium (GO GIANTS!):
I was pretty busy flying over the area making sure that I didn’t miss a call or flying into somebody’s airspace. I’d have to say it would have probably been a little bit more enjoyable as a passenger!
Just a few minutes from Dodger’s Stadium, we found ourselves in Corona. It took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes total. What a time machine:
After parking the plane I called up Aircraft Spruce to get a free ride to their facility which just happens to be across the street from the Fender factory. Here’s yours truly in front of the place where I’ve spent a lot of money over the years. I’m sure I paid for at least one of the letters in this sign:
Note: We bought something at Aircraft Spruce to justify our ride in the van after our visit to the factory.
We crossed the street and knew right away we were getting close:
Our route of choice from my home airport of Reid-Hillview (RHV) in San Jose, CA was down the Salinas Valley, past Paso Robles, over Santa Barbara, down the coast, over Malibu, Santa Monica, and finally to Corona.
We got off the ground at 7:50 am. Here are the two intrepid flyers at the start of the trip. Paul seems a bit tense:
We saw a bit of the marine layer over by Salinas but it didn’t extend too far down the valley:
After about an hour and twenty minutes, we were over Santa Barbara. The marine layer there had moved offshore by the time we arrived. This is Coal Oil Point which is just to the north of the city limits:
In no time at all, we were over the LA area. I had been getting flight following the entire way which turned out to be very easy. This photo was taken after we had passed over Santa Monica and it’s looking north to the San Fernando Valley. The tan spot is Burbank Airport. Lockheed was a big presence there a few years back. My first job out of college was as a Flight Test Engineer at the Skunk Works there in the early 80’s. Now the area is a parking lot. Lots of history gone. Sad:
Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy bally hooey Hollywood…(Don’t blame me, I didn’t write that song!):
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm a cop (not really):
Dodger’s Stadium (GO GIANTS!):
I was pretty busy flying over the area making sure that I didn’t miss a call or flying into somebody’s airspace. I’d have to say it would have probably been a little bit more enjoyable as a passenger!
Just a few minutes from Dodger’s Stadium, we found ourselves in Corona. It took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes total. What a time machine:
After parking the plane I called up Aircraft Spruce to get a free ride to their facility which just happens to be across the street from the Fender factory. Here’s yours truly in front of the place where I’ve spent a lot of money over the years. I’m sure I paid for at least one of the letters in this sign:
Note: We bought something at Aircraft Spruce to justify our ride in the van after our visit to the factory.
We crossed the street and knew right away we were getting close:
Last edited: