Eric di Luccio
Stardust and other Intergalactic considerations
11.20
2008

by Eric

in flight

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The Golden-Gate Bridge from 2500ft

California is awesome for many things. Among them, San-Francisco, the bay area, Marin County, the Pacific ocean offer great scenic views especially from the sky. California is also great for the weather which make flying a real pleasure around here. So I flew a couple of Cessna 172 skyhawk (N4624D and N411PG) over the bay area for a stunning and premium sight of San-Francisco, the Golden-Gate Bridge and Sausalito and of course the shinning pacific ocean. Flying from Davis airport (KEDU) is pretty straitforward. In order to avoid Travis AFB airspace, I flight straight over Napa airport at 4500ft and stay above the class Delta airspace, then turn south west and track the Sausalito VOR. When reaching the end of the Napa class Delta airspace, I descent to 2500ft to sneak underneath the SFO airport class Bravo airspace. I translate altitude loss into extra speed which bring the C-172 over Sausalito real fast. Then the view is daunting. I turn south over Marin County and stay north of the Golden-Gate Bridge so air-traffic controllers don’t freak out too much. In this area, the airspace is crowed with aircrafts flying pretty much everywhere at the same altitude (we all avoid SFO class B airspace). Then it’s time to head back to Davis unfortunately. At the Richmond bridge I pull up and climb to 5500ft to clear both Napa airspace and the mountains. Around Vacaville, I start a quick descent which bring extra speed and cooling to the engine. After a quick descent at 115kt, I slow down to 90kt for a left downwind entry at Davis. Flaps 10 and 80kt abeam the numbers; flaps 20 and 70 kt in base; flaps 30 and 65 Kt in final then 60kt on short final. Flare and gentle touchdown. It’s done already ? Maybe I should taxi back to runway 16 for some more fun don’t you think ?

Altitude profileGPS track close-upGPS track overviewGPS track close-up over Davisimg_0537img_0540img_0547img_0548img_0549img_0550img_0553img_0556img_0560img_0561img_0562img_3404img_3420img_3422img_3423img_3424img_3429img_3442img_3462San-Francisco on the left and the Golden-Gate bridge on the rightimg_3494img_3501img_3502img_3511The pacific ocean. Gently banking left toward the Golden-Gate.img_3530img_3532img_3539img_3542San-Franciscoimg_3592img_3599