Easy flying on Saturday, June 17

 We were told that today (Saturday) was going to be the best - and possibly only - flying day in the next week. We watched the overcast as it didn't seem to lighten at all. FINALLY about 11:00 a.n. it started to break up and we were in our planes and ready to leave Petaluma.

We flew east since the San Francisco coastline was fogged in. I didn't mind, since I really wanted to see the California delta. We had to climb over the hills to get out of the valley and head east. It was gorgeous and a little bumpy flying. The delta was so beautiful it was bumpy enough that I didn't take many pictures. Dennis used to live in this area, and over the radio he regaled me with stories about his time here. He wasn't flying when he lived here, so he really enjoyed seeing everything from the air for the first time.

I was astounded to see a stretch of channel so completely silted up that it looked as though the boats were sitting in mud.

Our first stop was Watsonville. (KWVI) I messed up and was going to land on the correct runway but in the wrong direction. Another pilot radio'd me and politely said that although I'd called in for 20, I was actually in a pattern for 02. I immediately corrected course and landed the right way. Watsonville is a very, very busy airport and there is also a jump school, so the sky was pretty crowded.

As you know from my previous posts, Dennis really wants to fly the coast. So that's where we headed, again over hills.

As we got closer to the coast, we could see a blanket of clouds.

It didn't take long for me to realize that the low cloud bank was beyond my personal comfort level. So I radio'd Dennis that I was going to go inland. He was going to scud run under the clouds. We agreed to meet up in Paso Robles. (KPRB)

My flight to Paso Robles was smooth and easy.  The entire flight was over brown hills and occasional valleys. The valleys had many large irrigated fields. It was a lovely, very relaxing flight. Dennis and I stayed in touch via radio, and as he described looking for holes in the clouds, diving down to fly the coast for a ways, then looking for another hole to get above the clouds when they lowered - I was VERY glad I hadn't chosen to go that route!!! Then we lost radio contact but we were expecting that so it wasn't a concern. 

I was baffled by this farmer's decision as to where to leave trees in the obviously planted field.

Then more hills en route to Paso Robles.

We both landed at Paso Robles, which was very hot and deserted. We quickly agreed that since Santa Ynez (our overnight stop) was only an hour's flight, there was no need to refuel.

The flight to Santa Ynez was absolutely lovely, although as we got closer I wondered if it was going to be fogged in. Happily, it wasn't.

The Santa Ynez airport is the prettiest I've ever seen. (This is the front door of the FBO.) We had called ahead and gotten permission to camp out on their golf-course grass camping area, so I set up my tent.

Dennis had tweaked his back, so instead of setting up his tent, he got permission from the airport manager to sleep in the FBO.

Here's our flight path from Saturday.

Now it's 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, and the fog is still with us, so we'll go out to breakfast (using the airport's courtesy car.)

We're not sure where we'll be going today; after breakfast we'll get out the sectionals and figure it out.