Alex's Flying Trips

Paso Roble (PRB)

Aug. 15, 2020

This trip's final destination was El Monte in SoCal. Typically, I would fly along Central Valley (along Hwy. 5) then over Gorman to El Monte. But for this trip, there's a wildfire near Lake Hughes (aptly named Lake Fire), and potential thunderstorm forecast at the Sierras. So I planned to take the Central Coast route (along Hwy. 101), fuel stop at Paso Robles, then continue over Santa Barbara, then to El Monte. This route is not as direct and typically takes additional half-an-hour. But also it doesn't need to climb as high since it doesn't cross over the Sierra's.

During this flight, there's a heat wave all over California. It's very warm even at the cruising altitude of 7,500 feet. So, it was a bit strange when we start seeing rain clouds near Paso Robles. Then we start seeing lightning, and hearing radio traffic from other aircrafts diverting due to the weather. Where did this weather come from? This is not the typical thunderstorm season. The forecast did say potential thunderstorm but at high elevation at the Sierras. But we're near the coast, away from the Sierras. Good thing we're already landing. By the time we landed and taxiing to the ramp, the rain was pouring.

The terminal facilities at Paso Robles --- FBO office, rest rooms, lounge --- were clean and well maintained. The FBO staffs were helpful and wearing masks. They let me use their computer to check with weather and discussed with me the current weather situation. Also gave me the wifi connection so I can continue monitoring the weather from my tablet. There's also a restaurant called Joe's One-Niner inside the terminal building. So, we decided to have lunch as we wait out the weather. After about an hour, the weather did move northwards, rain stopped, and the sky was clearing. But the lightnings did cause some wildfires. We see firefighting airplanes busy taking off and landing as we were getting ready to takeoff.

The final leg of our flight from Paso Robles to El Monte over Santa Barbara was uneventful. Just very warm. And as we landed at El Monte, it was just HOT.

Overflying Vallejo along Mare Island; Mare Island Draw Bridge at the middle of the right wing.

A view of Bay Area at 3,500' above Dublin.

As we approached Paso Robles, we started seeing these rain clouds; then some lightning. Then hearing radio radio traffic of aircrafts diverting to get out of this developing weather. This definitely came out of nowhere.

Overflying the Paso Robles runway at pattern altitude setting up for landing at Runway 19.
With this weather, it's good we're landing.

Landed while raining; I did noticed other aircrafts also landed for the weather. The transient parking was not that close to the terminal building. We end up walking to the terminal building in the rain. But after few minutes, the rain did stop. Notice the wet parking area. The transiet parking have chain tie downs.

Good thing the terminal has a nice restaurant. We spent time waiting out for the weather to pass having a nice lunch. This the view from the restaurant to the ramp.

The passing thunderstorm caused lightning fires. Several fire fighting aircrafts were busy taking off and landing in Paso Robles.

Weather was clear along the coast as we continue to flight overflying Santa Barbara.

It was hot in SoCal and a lot of people are seen cooling off at the beach. From the view above, not sure if they're social distancing.