Ok, I know, I don't update this very often.  But, it has actually been a long time since I've had a flying "Adventure." What with flying under the hood every few months to keep my instrument rating current, and all that jazz, I just don't fly that much any more.

Anyway, on Friday, March 6, 2009, my brother-in-law, who my wife (his sister) and I raised since he was 9, graduated from the Marine Corp basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot - San Diego.  We flew out to San Diego (commercially, of course) the prior Wednesday so that we could attend the Family Day activities Thursday morning. 

I decided to rent an airplane and go do some sight seeing.  Since I would be flying in some of the busiest and complex airspace in the country, I also decided to rent a CFI.

The process started about three weeks ago, when I put out a query to my local flight club asking for recommendation.  It took less than a day before I received word recommending a particular fellow named Jean-Jacques Bellier who flew with the Armed Forces Aero Club.   I made a few phone calls and arranged to meet Monsieur Bellier at Montgomery Field at 4:00pm Thursday.

When he arrived, he handed me the keys to a 172, a fuel cup, a dip tube gauge, and told me to do the preflight while he de-briefed the student that he had just flown with.  I spent a little extra time doing the preflight since I wasn't as familiar with the history of that plane as all the others I flew; it took me about 15-20 minutes.   I awaited his return in the left seat.

When he came back out, he told me that I would be unable to be the left-seater because of the AFAC's insurance requirements, and I could not act as PIC.  So, he would be legally responsible for the flight and act as sole PIC.  But he assured me that I would be handling the controls...from the right seat!  That'd be a first for me.   I've "Flown" from the right side, but never done any takeoffs or landings sitting on the wrong side.  This would be a new experience.

We spent about 10 minutes talking about our route, which had special significance in order to avoid the SUA's surrounding Montgomery (MYF).   So, I read him the checklist items, he started it up, pulled us out of the cramped parking spot, and turned control over to me once we were on the yellow line.

We started out at Gibb's Flying Service, listened to ATIS, got ground clearance (Mr. Bellier handled the radios for the entire flight since he knew all the magic words and numbers.), and we taxied to runway 28R, the largest of the three runways at MYF at 4577 feet.  After doing a flawless run-up, we were cleared for takeoff on a westerly departure without any delay. 

First order of business was to climb above Traffic Pattern Altitude, then point our nose westward to Mt. Solidad, and toward the coastline.  The floor of SAN's Class B lies above at 4800 feet, and there's a segment of airspace north of Mt. Solidad where Mirimar Marnine Corps Air Station and SAN's Class B's overlap, with a slice of freedom between 3200 and 6800, so we needed to be above 3200 to enter it, and we were climbing to 4500 on a northwestly route.   We flew a few miles offshore, following the coastline as far north as Carlsbad.  We could see about 20 miles offshore the USS Nimitz doing flight ops before circling back toward the southeast, again along the coast.   We entered the same slot of airspace, but this time followed an established VFR corridor further south, which brought us over the eastern end of SAN, near the North Island Naval Air Station, Coronado Island and the famed Hotel del Coronado, then southeast to Chula Vista and into the pattern at Brown, which is about a mile from the Mexico border and Tijuana. 

At Brown, we did four Touch and Goes, then headed back out at 4500 to go through the corridor, back over the Bay (and again the USS Ronald Reagan in port), to head back to MYF.   The routing and the way airspace works makes one have to lose about 3000 feet of altitude in just a few miles to avoid busting the Class B.  That was a bit of a trick, but was easily accomplished by flying a long downwind after we had been cleared "Left Downwind for 28R."   However, before turning base, we were told to land on 28L, which is the 2nd shortest runway at 3401 feet.  Two feet shorter and it'd be the shortest... 

28L has no PAPI or VASI, is short and narrow, so I came it a bit low and fast, but was able to correct without issue.  We were back in our stall about 20 minutes before deep dark.

What a fun afternoon!!!