[Feb 9] Surf's Up Santa Barbara

[Keith Smith]

We thought we'd try something a little different this time and shoot for an event during the week. Hop in our favorite plane and hop a ride between Santa Barbara and Bakersfield (SBA-BFL), in either direction, or even there and back!

Action starts at 6pm PST on Thursday, Feb 9.

[lwilliams]

Looks like fun!!

[James Burns]

Sounds great.

[matt]

I will try to be there.

[Jeff N]

Me too. I haven't been on PE much lately, hopefully I can get away from work tonight and join you guys.

Late notice, but can anyone point me toward scenery for either airport? The KSBA scenery I downloaded from the ORG is way off.

[Keith Smith]

Jeff, I don't know about having actual buildings, but the stock apt.dat file's representation of SBA isn't bad afaik (just make sure you have the most recent one)

[Keith Smith]

Quick note, we may have some additional controllers plugged in tonight for this event, depending on traffic level and controller availability. This may result in certain frequencies not being captured by the ATC recording function that we have. We are current configured to record the combined ground, combined tower and radar position, but none of the individual approach sectors, or ground/tower positions. What this means is that if we do have a controller on these additional positions, those interactions will take place in a voice room that isn't being recorded.

Consequently, there may be some interactions that aren't covered on the MP3 files on the audio section of the web site. I just thought I'd let you know so nobody was confused or disappointed.

[Keith Smith]

Very cool, guys, great job! The turn out was solid and provided for some nice traffic point outs, vectors for separation, etc.

Any pilot feedback is greatly appreciated (good or bad, we would like to hear it all!)

Note: as predicted, we did run with a dedicated controller on Santa Barbara approach. As a result, the recordings during the event will not capture any of the activity on 120.55. However, the Santa Barbara clearance, ground and tower frequencies were covered by the standard recording configuration.

[Steven Winslow]

I was able to do a round trip from SBA to BFL and back to SBA tonight. Great night for flying and especially great night to fly on PE. On the way to BFL, I was alerted to traffic that I already had in sight. Turns out is was my good friend Lee (also an ANW pilot) on his way to SBA on the same V183. He was vectored out of my path and I watched his turn. Not sure if you saw me wave, Lee. It was a bit dark by then.

I had to laugh as I was landing at BFL as the tower told me to turn right and taxi via whatever it was, assuming I had touched down. Funny thing was I had not! I know the Skywagon is slow, but I love her anyway. I need to do some touch and go's to get a better feel for landing that sweet taildragger.

When I called for clearance back to SBA, I had filed for the MEADO1.MEADO departure. Kind of a copout departure, if you ask me, but I asked for it anyway. However, ATC had different plans for me and told me to do the MARIC3.MARIC departure. I'm actually grateful for that departure switch. As it turns out it was much more fun than being vectored for departure. It just made me think harder on takeoff.

Thanks for a great event tonight! PE gets better and better every time I fly! Or is it that I'm learning more and more? Either way, I love PE!

[lwilliams]

A fun night, although I had to cut it short.

I did see you Steve. I toasted you with a bottle of vodka that I keep below my pilot seat. Those occurances have been too few with my schedule lately.

It was great to see lots of traffic aside from the bots and I was hopeful of seeing more on the ground also going through the taxiing at the airports.

Let's do it again sometime.