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                                                          USA ROAD TRIP - CALIFORNIA / NEVADA

It was time for the summer hols and I thought we would visit the States for a couple of weeks, this being a "Non-spotting" trip with the odd bit sneaking in!! The trip began with an overnight at LHR followed by a Virgin B744 flight(G-VROC) to San Francisco, arriving at 2pm on the sunday afternoon after a 10 hour cruise over Iceland, Greenland and Canada. The flight was smooth with an arrival over the coast at SFO with an excellent view of the Golden Gate bridge, followed by a swing round and landing on runway 28L. A steward had noticed me with my bins through the window and kindly asked if I wanted to meet the Captain "upstairs"!! so everyone disembarked and we headed to the flight deck, the crew were closing down the systems but spent 15 minutes showing me around as well as giving me a copy of the flight plan!! Good start. 

Flight Deck	Flight Plan LHR-SFO

 

SFO 14/6/09
	N	307AT	Boeing 737	7BD	AirTran Airways	34862
	N	772AS	Boeing 737	4Q8	Alaska Airlines	25105
	N	31412	Boeing 737	924	Continental Airlines	30129
	N	73275	Boeing 737	824	Continental Airlines	31593
	N	687DL	Boeing 757	232	Delta Airlines	27586
	N	801FR	Airbus A318	111	Frontier Airlines	1939
	N	591NW	Boeing 757	351	Northwest Airlines	32991
	N	676SW	Boeing 737	3A4	Southwest Airlines	23288
	N	737JW	Boeing 737	7H4	Southwest Airlines	27869
	N	836AW	Airbus A319	132	US Airways	2570
	N	523VA	Airbus A319	112	Virgin America	3181
	N	624VA	Airbus A320	214	Virgin America	2778
	N	628VA	Airbus A320	214	Virgin America	2993

On approach to SFO we passed the following fields -

Moffett Field	Palo Alto Field

The next 2 days were spent in San Francisco, well recommended. We then headed back to SFO to pick up the hire car that would get us to Las Vegas, managing an hour spotting around the field -

SF0 16/6/09
	N	752QS	1126	G200		152
	N	841UA	Airbus A319	131	United Airlines	1545
	N	806UA	Airbus A319	131	United Airlines	788
	N	476UA	Airbus A320	232	United Airlines	1508
	N	898QS	BAe 125	800XP		258593
	N	489EV	Boeing 747	230B	Evergreen International Airlines	23393
	N	187UA	Boeing 747	422	United Airlines	26876
	N	517UA	Boeing 757	222	United Airlines	24861
	N	588UA	Boeing 757	222	United Airlines	26717
	N	799AX	Boeing 767	281	ABX Air	23432
	N	799UA	Boeing 777	222ER	United Airlines	26926
	JA	783A	Boeing 777	381ER	All Nippon Airways	27940
	N	535DT	Cessna 525B			525B-0069
	N	901MV	Cessna 525B			525B-0114
	N	996QS	Cessna 750	X		750-0196
	N	90AR	CL601	R		5137
	N	52N	Falcon 100			197
	N	801WW	Falcon 2000EX			021
	N	42SK	Falcon 50EX			290
	N	650KA	G 2			50
	N	888MF	G 4	SP		1268
	N	495QS	G 4	SP		1295

N650KA G2 at SFO

I had planned to route down the California coast and then cut inland, our first night stop was in Carmel about 100 miles south. The route took in a few fields, the first being Salinas which is what they call "Municipal" and consisting on GA and a few twins etc. These interesting Bell 47 crop sprayers were parked near the perimeter -

N4427F Bell 47G at Salinas	N811EV Rotax Sportstar at Salinas	N222UT Bell 222 at Salinas

 

SALINAS 16/6/09
	N	222UT	Bell 222			47559
	N	811EV	Rotax Sportstar			811
	N	4427F	Bell 47G			7971
	N	7914S	Bell 47G			7848

Carmel and Monterey are close together and I had noticed a fairly large field at Monterey so Mrs R went shopping the following day and I drove to Monterey. Its an average sized field with services by Skywest, Allegiant and also has 2 FBOs.

MONTEREY 16/6/09
	N	150NC	BAe 125	800XP		258293
	N	855QS	BAe 125	800XP		258355
	N	208AM	Cessna 208			20800323
	N	762FE	Cessna 208B		Federal Express	208B0255
	N	688DB	Cessna 525A			525-A0192
	N	400TB	CL601			5120
	N	290SW	EMB 120	ER	Skywest Airlines	120317
	N	73MR	Falcon 20	F		449
	N	870CM	G 5	G550		5076
	C	FSDL	LJ 45			45-255
	N	96NC	Raytheon Premier			RB-86

 

N870CM G5 at Monterey	N762FE C208 Caravan at Monterey	N290SW Brasilia at Monterey

After hugging the coast for 4 hours we came across the town of Santa Maria, just off highway 101 was the obligitory airfield!! It obviously is an old USAF base and had a small museum next door. Other than light GA there is feeder freighters parked up all day.

SANTA MARIA 17/6/09
	N	985FE	Cessna 208B	(F)	Federal Express / Westair	0117
	N	475AF	SA227	Metro III	Ameriflight	AC-475

Santa Maria Museum	Santa Maria Museum	Santa Maria Museum	N475AF Metro at Santa Maria	N985FE CE208 Caravan at Santa Maria

Our next night stop was the coastal town of Santa Barbara, aboy 80 miles north of Los Angeles and home of the rich and famous. The field is next to highway 101 and seemed busy, with a mix of light, Biz and airliners up to 737 size. Its easy to see everything and the field is split into two parts with the terminal on the south side.

SANTA BARBARA 17/6/09
	N	801G	1125	SPX		081
	N	912FX	ATR 42	300	Federal Express	047
	N	330AF	Beech 1900C		Piedmont Airlines	UB-38
	N	702NV	BJ400A			RK-120
	N	601QX	Canadair RJ700		Horizon Air	10009
	N	801PJ	Cessna 525			525-0092
	N	350BV	Cessna 525A			525A-0186
	N	394QS	Cessna 560	Ultra		560-0394
	N	888KG	Cessna 650			650-0119
	N	511CM	DHC2 Mk111			1627
	N	562SW	EMB 120	ER	Skywest Airlines	120336
	N	939KM	G 3			492
	N	492RM	LJ 35	A		35-492

 

N511CM DHC2 Turbo Beaver at Santa Barbara	N912FX ATR42 at Santa Barbara

Click to PART 2 

 

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