This is the first time we landed at John Wayne-Santa Ana airport (SNA). In the past, when visiting the LA Basin,
I land somewhere else like Fullerton, Ontario, Cable or Brackett because John Wayne has a reputation of a very
busy airport. Also, John Wayne is closer to the coast and at times get fogged or with low ceiling.
But this time, we need to have a quick visit at UC-Irvine and the forecast for the weekend was CAVU. And true to its
notariety, the airport was indeed very busy. Just approaching alone to John Wayne, I was handed off several times
in quick succession to different ATCs. And even when handed to John Wayne tower, my runway assignment was change a few
times between 20L and 20R --- I was even asked to go around and do a left 360. Eventually, I was cleared to land at 20R.
We used ACI Jet FBO to park overnight and refuel. We received outstanding service from their personnel --- from helping us with our luggage to
even loaning as a crew car for 2 hours. And they have a nice, spacious facility with complimentary snacks and clean restrooms.
On departure the following day, we tried a different route. Instead of going through Gorman,
this time, we transitioned through the LAX Bravo airspace
via the Coastal Route. I studied the route the night before and marked the route in my GPS. We got the initial flight
following squawk code from John Wayne Clearance Delivery, and the whole transition went smoothly as planned. The Coastal Route
is definitely more scenic since it overflys the LA area along the coast. And it helped that the entire coast was free
from any marine layer or fog.
For our fuel stop, we landed at Oceano --- also a first to land to this airport. And had a late lunch at Rock and Roll
Diner -- a nice diner in a train car within few minutes walk from the airport. On departure from Oceano, I was able
to get flight following from Santa Barbara Approach at 124.15.
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| Loading our luggage for departure; the C172 parked between private jets. |
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| Transitioning through LAX Class Bravo airspace overflys the LAX airport; we were assigned at 6,500 feet. |
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| Flying over Long Beach. |
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| Flying over Sunset Beach/Huntington Harbour area. |
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| Oceano beach dunes on the approach. |
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| Landing and refueling at Oceano. |
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| Oceano terminal office and rest rooms. |
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| Airport bikes that can be borrowed. |
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| Nice park across the airport as we walked to the diner for a quick lunch. |
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| Rock and Roll Diner in train cars with fun oldies theme interior; food was good; service was friendly and quick. |
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| Oceano Dunes and town; next visit I may take some time to check out the sand dunes. |
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| Interesting terrain near Paso Robles/Parkfield area; cracks may have been part of San Andreas fault. |
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| Sun starting to set towards Monterey Bay. |
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| Back in Napa. |
| Awesome trip; got to transit class bravo, enjoyed view along coast, able to visit oceano. | |