Here are a few more miles on our flight from SB to SD, starting near where I left off in the last post about the private polo field. This one is condos with attached polo fields, and I’ll bet those people with overlooking balconies have fun watching the play.
1984 Marco Condo Polo
It might seem amazing that you can make out horses, given that we’re a couple of thousand feet above ground level and at least a mile away offshore. Nearly as far away is this telephoto shot of the beach crowds on this lovely early Autumn day. Notice how deep the hole is that guy dug near the waterline (bottom of photo).
1988 Sandcastle Basement
Another example of telephoto magic is this next shot of a “taildragger” Champ, clear enough that on my uncropped original it’s easy to read the “tail” number. Let me rush to assure you it’s completely safe to be this distance, yet also pretty rare. At last we’ve reached Ventura. On this relatively brief hop to SD I actually got four or five pix of other planes in flight, and that’s probably more than I’d collected in all my flying since 2006. Busiest air traffic day I recall, yet still plenty of open air up there.
2026 Traffic Nine O'Clock
Fun for private pilots: flying over military airfields. Often the controllers we’re talking to are happy to route us over Pt. Mugu or Vandenberg. Maybe because it gives the guys in the tower something to look at with their high power binoculars, or because going directly over the field keeps us out of the way if they have any traffic arriving or departing beneath us. For me it’s fun to look at planes we don’t often see at SBA, especially the old Vietnam era A-4 jets lined up at the top-right of the photo. Also the big cargo turboprops. I saw one of these slate blue babies in the air over Anacapa once on a scenic flight along the Channel Islands.
2037 Mr. Mugu
OK, next post we’ll finally be passing offshore of Hwy. 1 and I’ll look for pix of some interesting Malibu manses to share.
John & Anne Wiley 
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