My First Time

After seven months of training, I finally flew from my home ultralight airport in Camarillo, to a real airport 15 miles away. It may not seem like much, but it is a big step towards getting my Sport Pilot Licence. The big challenge will be to fly solo and make a 75 mile trek, visiting two different airports. The FAA will be out in a couple of weekends for check out flights and I'd like to be flying solo by then. Jeff is really helping me with my confidence and flying abilities.

It was a beautiful day for flying, so Jeff and I decided to fly over to the Santa Paula airport and do a couple of full stop takeoff and landings. This airport is usually quite busy on the weekends but today it was very quiet with only a few planes buzzing around. The ride over the farmlands to Santa Paula was fairly calm, but a few updrafts near the mountains made it quite a fun flight. When you're only flying 500 ft above the ground, a sudden change of 50 ft can really get your attention. The approach to Santa Paula airport is along the mountains, to the southeast, then a short base turn to the final approach. What a difference landing on an airstrip that is 100 ft wide and 3500 ft long after all the time I've spent learning how to land on a airstrip 8 ft wide and 1300 ft long.

After doing a couple of takeoff and landings at the Santa Paula airport, we set off for our return to the Camarillo airport via the Santa Clara river. Following the river to the freeway, then down the freeway to the west end of the Camarillo airport, we were back in just over an hour. A nice scenic tour of our local real estate.