Article by Steve Bond

Elsie H, Terry S, and Steve B jumped into Steve S's 172 (thank you Steve!) and cruised over the coastal mountains and across the central valley to the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, CA, now known as Castle Airport.  It was a sunny day, perfect weather for the trip.  Around 80 other private planes with pilots and passengers made the trip as well.  There was plenty of room, the air base has a 11,802 foot runway and the facilities for former air wings of USAF bombers and tankers of the cold war era.

What a treat it is for us who adore flying machines to be able to wander among scores of airplanes representing 80 years of aviation history.   Castle AIr Museum has more than 50 warbirds and this day was "Open Cockpit Day"  Each aircraft has a group or organization of volunteers to restore and maintain the old birds and they were on hand to provide background informations and conduct tours of the planes.  There was more to see and explore than anyone could do in a single day.  From the pre WW-II warbirds, bombers trainers and transport, to the modern cold war fighters, tankers, and bombers including a B-52, an SR-71 'Blackbird' spy-plane.  Some aircraft are historically obscure, such as the North American B-45 Tornado from the 1950's period of early jet aircraft.

We rode the shuttle van from the airport to the museum.  It was operated, like everything at the museum by volunteers.  Once inside the gates, we split up and wandered throughout the museum exploring various pieces of history and technology.  For example, we visited the behemoth warplane, the Convair B-36 "Peacemaker".  I stood in line for 20 minutes waiting for my turn in the flight deck under the expansive wingspan of the B-36.  It is the largest piston powered aircraft in the world.  It carried up to 22 crew and could stay aloft for more than two days (51 hours record) without refueling.  This thing weighed 410,000 pounds and had ten engines.  Elsie and I agreed that George Lucas must have seen its retractable gun turrets and used them as the prototypes for  the Star Wars turbo-lasers on the Imperial Starships.

In the giant delta wing British Avro 'Vulcan' B-2 Bomber.  I channeled an experience from the 007 film adventure "Thunderball" by climbing the passageways and exploring the cockpit and navigation stations of the 60-year-old nuclear bomber.

This place is haunted.  For years, museum staff have reported apparitions, voices, and other paranormal events around some of the warbirds. The museum was featured on an episode of UPN's  Real Ghosts (1995).   We brought our lunches, but there were vendors and with food and drink for the thousands of visitors that day.

We stayed until the museum closed the gates at 5 pm and sent us on our way.  No doubt they were concerned about visitors encountering the poltergeist that wander the museum.   It was a clear flight back. Elsie piloting, delivered Terry and I to KWVI before departing for KSNS.

For more information on the Castle Air Museum visit castleairmuseum.org.

On New Years Eve 2010 I took my co-worker John Hamilton up for a flight in my Cessna 150. We headed up to San Francisco, did a Bay Tour, then returned via Half Moon Bay Airport where we had lunch at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. Then we continued down the coast back to Watsonville.

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.

I'm quite surprised I never blogged this video previously, but thought it would be worth sharing with you now. One day last year I stayed home sick from work because I didn't want to spread my cold. So, I decided to head to the airport and fly since it was a beautiful day and I didn't have to work!

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.

One of my favorite local destinations is still Half Moon Bay, KHAF. On Sunday after church my wife and I were planning on having lunch with another couple, and I proposed Half Moon Bay as an option. The other guy was a pilot but not current, and the girls liked the idea, so we headed to the airport. The girls and my infant daughter were going to drive up, so they dropped us off and departed.

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.

Angel Flight is an organization that helps connect pilots with people who need transportation for medical reasons.  Often when someone is receiving treatment, the specialists or facilities they need the most are hundreds of miles away.

Traveling in cars for many hours can be very uncomfortable for those patients, but a flight in a small aircraft can easily cut that travel time in half, often cutting off even more time than that! And, with the speed of transport, the patients are often able to return home that same day saving the expense of a night in a hotel or in a distant city.

Angel Flight West is the branch of the organization that covers our area, and a collection of member pilots at the Watsonville Airport were recognized for their assistance to the organization. I was able to photograph the group of pilots and provide the image for the Santa Cruz Sentinel article discussing their recognition.