Come Fly Away ... A biplane ride near San Diego - Page 2

On a recent trip to southern California, a friend and I took biplane rides from a company called Barnstorming Adventures (see link to their website below). They fly out of Montgomery Field, which is in the northern suburbs of San Diego. The flights were in vintage biplanes that dated to the 1920's. They began life as Travel Air 2000's, fitted with inline engines. They have since been fitted with more reliable radial engines, and as such would be considered to be Travel Air 4000's. They are painted in the original factory color scheme of navy blue and orange.

I have tried to map the course of my own flight with the "map this" feature. The two planes flew close together part of the time, and separately part of the time. It was great fun, and I highly recommend this to any of you planning a visit to the area. Check the company out at:

http://www.barnstorming.com/index.html

The company offers a wide range of flights, not just in biplanes, but also in an SNJ-4 'Texan' (a WWII advanced trainer) and in Varga VG-21s (for simulated aerial combat).

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arctangent > La Jolla, California, from the air.

Look carefully and see a string of reddish kayaks in the cove at the far right center. The curve of the coastline near the center is "mapped" for this picture.

arctangent > Lost Horizon...Travel Air 2000 out over the Pacific Ocean off La Jolla, CA.

arctangent > Looking inland from somewhere near La Jolla, CA.

arctangent > Looking northward along the coast at Del Mar, where the San Dieguito River flows into the Pacific. The estuary near the center of the picture is the San Elijo Lagoon. The western end of Del Mar Race Track is in the lower right of the picture.

For the map tag, I chose the race track infield.

arctangent > Pricey real estate, Rancho Santa Fe, I think.

arctangent > Jaw-dropping example of wretched excess in Rancho Santa Fe.

Since I couldn't locate in Google Maps the exact estate seen here, I just tagged the center of the community of Ranch Santa Fe, and you can have fun searching for it yourself. Actually, it may be too new to show up on Google Maps.

arctangent > Rancho Santa Fe estate from the other side. Now you can see some serious landscaping in the cactus garden and the maze of hedging, as well as the more conventional plantings nearer the mansion. Several large sculptures are visible in the various lawn areas.

arctangent > Somewhere north of San Diego, probably in the Torrey Pines State Preserve area, north of La Jolla.

Travel Air 2000 heading out over La Jolla, California.

The tall white building in the lower right makes a good landmark for the heart of La Jolla. The tall hill on the left, with few buildings showing on it, is possibly Soledad Natural Park. I've tagged downtown La Jolla for this picture.