The first thing that made me want to join him on this short trip would be that I would get to fly one of their new Light Sport aircraft, the Tecnam Sierra, also known as the Tecnam P2002 Sierra. You can read more about my experience with the aircraft in my post at http://light-sport.org.

The other reason I was glad to join him was he told me about the grand opening of Jet West over at the Salinas Airport. We arrived in time for their ribbon cutting ceremony and got to meet a lot of great people and enjoy some of their food and beverages.

The facility itself is incredible, they put a lot of work and thought in to the layout and design of it to make it comfortable for those they would be serving. They had a variety of crew cars and vans out front, a well set up waiting room, pool table, pilots lounge, flight planning area, and even sleeping quarters and showers. Below are some pictures of their amazing facility.

I’m posting this message on behalf of Jolie Lucas and Mitch Latting. They are a couple of central coast airplane owners involved with Oceano Airport. They’ve been made aware of a developer’s desire to buy the airport property for redevelopment.

From Jolie:

Oceano, in addition to perhaps being the closest airport to the Pacific Ocean, is a vital link in emergency services in San Luis Obispo County. Life-flight, California Highway Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, Diablo Canyon evacuation, Beach rescues, Angel Flights all make use of Oceano airport. It is a great field for training and is used by regional CFIs.

The opportunities for recreation are bountiful, with on field camping and walking distance to the dunes/restaurants. Several businesses are located on the field including Banner Airways owned by JR Smith. He gives rides in his 1943 Stearman. JR’s father, and my father were both trainers in the Army Air Corps at Rankin Field in Tulare, CA.

Mitch and I organized a Vintage Mooney Group event in December of 2008. The event was a service event, as it benefitted Toys for Tots. We had 23 Mooneys on the ramp that day, loaded with toys. I was told by Toys for Tots, that because of our event, the children in our area got one extra toy under the tree. Oceano is a good neighbor!

We are fighting the closure of Oceano Airport! A developer is trying to close L52! We need pilots from all over CA to attend this meeting in a show of force. AOPA has been made aware and is on-board. Anyone flying into Oceano who needs a ride, please email us.

We are working closely with AOPA’s Bill Dunn, the airport administration, EAA, the FAA, NATA, and the San Luis Obispo County Supervisors.

Article in the Tribune:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/02/25/1045185/oceano-county-airport-future-in.html

Both AOPA and AVWeb have run the story.
AVWeb: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/oceano_airport_developer_edwards_202087-1.html

A group of local pilots and business owners will be attending a San Luis Obispo County Supervisors meeting next Tuesday, March 2nd, at morning at 9:00. The Board of Supervisors meetings start at 9:00 a.m. in the County Government Center Board Chambers located at 1055 Monterey Street, Room D-170, San Luis Obispo.

A March 17th meeting is being planned by the developer at 5:00 p.m. at the Grover Beach Rabobank. We hope to have good attendance at this meeting.

Jolie Lucas
jolielucas@charter.net

Mitch Latting
sanluisjazzband@charter.net

To answer a few questions for the newcomers to aviation you might have after watching this video, I just wanted to point out that Santa Cruz Flying Club is a Part 61 school. What this means for you is it is a less expensive and less rigid program than the 141 programs such as you would experience at an aviation college. The training is based on your own skill level, and your Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) will tailor each lesson to exactly what you need most for that flight instead of following a rigid syllabus.

To get answers to any of the other questions he Jason brings up in that video I invite you to take a look around our website, give us a call at 831-722-4580, or the best option would be to just set up an appointment with one of our flight instructors and bring a list of your questions.

We started preflighting my Cessna 150, N88808, hopped in, and were disappointed to find a dead battery. No fear, that’s the benefit of being checked out in multiple aircraft at the airport! We put the 150 away and switched to a C172, within a few minutes we were airborn! The nice thing about the 172 in this case is it was faster, so even after our delay of preflighting two aircraft, we still beat the girls by about 10 minutes.

Below is an image I didn’t photograph, but I found it on Flickr and was licensed via Creative Commons so I thought I might share it here to give you an idea of the airport environment. That is the Half Moon Bay airport in the foreground. The restaurant is just off the South end of the field by the boats inside the harbor. Upper left of the image is San Francisco International, and the San Carlos Airport is on the right side, with Palo Alto Airport just a bit further South. Oakland International is directly across the bay from SFO.

My favorite restaurant up there is the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, they’ve got excellent food, plus indoor and outdoor dining. We didn’t take the dogs this time, but if you eat outdoors, dogs are welcome. We had a great meal, walked the girls out to the parking area so they could see the plane, then departed back for Watsonville.

This time, since there were no delays in switching aircraft, even though we flew down along the coast, we still beat them by probably an hour, and got to see a great sunset starting along the way Here’s a picture of my wife Ellen and I, along with our daughter Daria.