The route took us clockwise from Watsonville, over Highway 17 and the Lexington Reservoir, up the peninsula, just west of SFO and AT&T Park, then East of the financial district at about 2,500 feet. The airspace around KSFO was very busy as evidenced by ATC chatter. I often had up to 7 targets on my TIS display (Garmin 430W) at a time.

Over the bay, we passed near Alcatraz, the Golden Gate and Angel Island. After flying over San Pablo Bay, we headed east to the Carquinez Straights and the mothball fleet, then southeast over Concord and down the valley toward Dublin.

The controller at Livermore was up to his armpits in weekend warriors, as evidenced by his comments to some of the inbound aircraft. At one point, the controller told one of the pilots who was having difficulty orienting himself, to leave the airspace because he couldn’t follow instructions (I removed that conversation from the footage so not to embarrass the pilot who’s N number and call sign were clearly audible).

Landing was a bit left of the centerline but there was pretty stiff crosswind blowing from left to right and I didn’t want drift into the soft stuff.

Three GoPro Hero cameras were used to capture the footage; one attached to the port wing just aft of the pitot tube, one below the horizontal stab on the starboard side and one handheld in the cockpit. The cockpit camera was a new GoPro Hero 2 that allowed me to capture ATC chatter by plugging it on to the 1/4 jack in the plane that is connected to the audio panel. The external cameras were attached using suction cup mounts. Video was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 (first time for this program) and time compressed from 2.2 hours to just over 20 minutes.

Overall it was a great day and flight!
Steve

Google Earth map of the flight track

Map

This is a video of commercial jets landing at Düsseldorf during a storm with a nice crosswind!

On Wednesday evening (1800 hours), November 9, 2011, a public meeting crucial to the future safety and utility of Watsonville Airport will be held at the Armory Building (30 Aviation Way) at WVI. This will be the first of three public meetings called by the City to address future development in the area to the North and West of WVI. It is essential that we turn out a large number of airport supporters at these meetings. We expect airport opponents to appear in force, and we must show the public, by our presence, that a safe, vibrant airport is vital to the future of Santa Cruz and North Monterey Counties.

You are probably aware that the extreme cost of the recent lawsuits to the City of Watsonville has impelled them to seek reasonable compromise regarding development around Watsonville Airport. In the course of a series of meetings with WPA, an understanding has been achieved that limits development to the guidelines permitted by the Manual of the Caltrans Division of Aeronautics as required by Court decisions. In particular, an understanding has been reached regarding zones and densities that will protect the airport from further encroachment affecting aircraft operations, possible runway closures and restrictions, and long-term airport viability. The meeting will present proposed land use planning that deals primarily with the approach ends of all runways, especially Runway 26 in Freedom and Runway 8 in the Buena Vista area. Expect to see an aerial photograph map with an overlay of new safety zones, adjusted in the Buena Vista area to reflect departures from runway 26, with turns to both the left, and to the right as utilized when stratus conditions cover the south side of the airport.

In the past, we have asked you for money and your response has been beyond gratifying – without it, we could never have won the judicial victories that led to these meetings. Now we must ask for your presence at these meetings, as well. We are in the fourth quarter of a grueling game of political football. Please turn out and help us wrap up this difficult situation for the foreseeable future. Many thanks for your continuing support.

Keep Watsonville Airport Safe!

Dan Chauvet – Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Watsonville Pilots Association
John Cowan – Vice President Watsonville Pilots Association

More information on the Watsonville Pilots Association can be found at watsonvillepilots.org

You would be working as an independent contractor at the Santa Cruz Flying Club, typical instructor rates are $50/hour and instructors are paid directly by the students in most cases. We do have instructor membership dues of $120/month which gives you access to the club, classroom space, simulator, scheduler and aircraft. As prospective students call the club office they are passed along to the various flight instructors based on their schedule and availability.

If you would like to inquire for more information or if you have any questions please contact the Santa Cruz Flying Club at 831-722-4580 or via email at scfcmgr@scfc.org. Additional information about the club can be found at http://scfc.org.

Greetings Aviators

Heads up, the SEVENTH annual Day in the Sky Watsonville is heading our way like a freight train… only 2.5 weeks away!

Who: Thousands of Central Coast families, especially families with kids with disabilities + low income families.

What: Biggest springtime Watsonville Airport festival ever. Plus about 100 exhibitors of Science/Technology/EngineeringMath/Aviation. Hot air balloons. Static aircraft displays + tours. Tons of hands-on fun for kids of all ages!

When: Saturday April 30, 9am-4pm

Where: Watsonville Municipal Airport, Watsonville. Easy access…
Take Hwy 1 to the “Airport Blvd” exit. Turn east, drive about 2 miles, you’re there. Or if you’re flying in, follow the coast until your GPS starts flashing WVI. (If it’s flashing LAX, you’ve gone too far

Why: We’re continuing the 7 year long tradition of getting hoards of kids interested in general aviation and science, in an incredibly fun hands-on way.

How can you help? Many ways:

1. Escort kids to the airplanes. Tell fun tales of aviation. Whatever you would like to get them hooked on GA.
2. OR if you can fly in, come on down and give tours of your aircraft to the captivated families.
3. OR Help give ground school and teach families how the planes work.
4. OR just come on down and hang out with us and have some fun in the Watsonville sun…

We hope you can join us Saturday April 30…

See the website for more info:
http://www.dayinthesky.com/pilot.htm (for pilot registration — go to the homepage for lots more info…)

Blue Skies!
Dean McCully
Shared Adventures Day in the Sky

John brought along his camera and a GoPro that we mounted in the back window. I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit of what a Bay Tour looks like from a Cessna 150. If you’ve never been on a Bay Tour, I highly recommend giving your instructor a call and ask them to show you what it’s all about! Give the Santa Cruz Flying Club a call at 831-722-4580 if you’re looking for an instructor or rental aircraft!

Final Flight of 2010 from John Hamilton on Vimeo.

Can aviation be fun? YOU BET!

I had recently gotten a Canon 5D Mark II camera that could shoot video, so I decided to make a little video project out of my flight, so what you’re going to see is some flight planning, pre-flighting the plane, and some shots from my flight to King City, Hollister and back to Watsonville.

It does look like they mostly cover the smaller General Aviation aircraft like Cessnas for now, maybe they’ll expand it to include larger aircraft later. To see the other videos they’ve posed you can check out their YouTube channel here and there is an introductory video posted on Vimeo here.

This evening I found a solution and added some additional area airports to the list. I have kept them as plain coded METARs to keep the display compact and allow you to quickly at a glance get the information you need from it. If you have any comments, suggestions, or difficulty viewing it, leave a comment and let us know.

Link to the SCFC Weather page.