Me, Dwight, and Buck

I'm enjoying my low & slow California tour. Time to examine things and details, watch the traffic, check the mountains. My flights have become shorter. 150 miles is a good length. I can sit and watch the world pass. Yes, I usually run the cruise portion of the flight at 2X speed, but when your cruise speed is only 130 kts, that's still slower than a jet, or even a King Air, and I'm down there where I can see the details. It's like traveling on a bicycle but with less physical effort.

Hemet to Bakersfield.

Just off the ground at Hemet-Ryan Airport KHMT. I'll settle in at 8000 ft msl for about an hour and then drop into the San Joaquin Valley. Bakersfield is at the lower end of the valley but northeast of Los Angeles.

Dry river bed down there.

Although I'm more than high enough to satisfy the MSA requirement, having that pass down there adds a margin of safety. If I remember correctly, Bill C just brought that up too. Plus, in my slow Cessna I can maybe land on the Interstate if worse comes to worser.

Here we are, just over the pass and descending into the San Joaquin Valley. Yeah, one of the most productive farming areas of CA but with oil and other energy products as well.

Bakersfield is known as "Nashville West". Check out the music video below. IMHO better country music than today's "rock and roll with a hat".

On the ground at Bakersfield KBFL. I'll continue north and also a little west next flight, maybe.