On Monday Andrew and I had the pleasure of taking a Bay Tour with family friend John Goldsmith. John has been flying for several years and I have been flying with him on several occassions. We happened to mention him at a recent barbecue that we were looking to go on a bay tour through one of the local flying schools. He said that if he was able to, he'd take us up. He immediately dashed off in search of a computer to check the availability of the aircraft. Alas, they were all booked up.
Monday morning I received a message from John's son David asking me to give his father a call. It turned out that someone had cancelled their flight and the Cessna 182 was now available!
We met John at LVK that evening and embarked on a wonderful trip around the bay. Our route took us up 680 through San Ramon, north to Walnut Creek where we headed west and descended to 1500ft. We flew towards the Bay, past Alcatraz and towards the Golden Gate bridge which we overflew before turning 180 and heading back East. We then veered south and flew over the Bay Bridge, and abeam SBC Park we turned back North and retraced our steps back to LVK.
The beauty of this route is that although you're close to very crowded airpspace (with SFO, OAK and SJC all within a few miles) you don't have to talk to any controller as you remain below the (Bravo and Charlie) airspace.
Andrew and I snapped over 60 photos on the trip, with some of them coming out really well. Take a look!
Our deepest thanks to John for taking us up on this fantastic flight.