Last weekend my dad and my friend Doug and I flew down to Chino to see the airshow. The flight down was uneventful and since I had filed IFR it was a fairly stress-free trip through the LA airspace. The airport was scheduled to be closed for the airshow right around 10:00 and we we arrived at about 9:30. Once we started getting close I could tell that it was going to be very busy, while socal approach is usually pretty busy in that area it was jam packed! There were people calling up constantly, it was nearly impossible to get a word in edge-wise. I had asked earlier for vectors onto the ILS into chino and had gotten sent direct-to PDZ vor. As I got closer and closer to PDZ I didn't receive any further instructions, once I passed the vor I was fairly sure that the controller had forgotten about me, I hit the ident button on my transponder (it makes my icon light up bright on the controller's screen ) and a few seconds later I got the turn that I needed onto the ILS. Other than being forgotten in was an uneventful approach into jam-packed airspace.
The airshow itself was absolutely incredible! There was a B-17, two B-25's, an FW-190! 14 or so P-51's multiple Corsairs and Hellcats, and the absolute highlight for me, the last flying Zero in the US with it's original engine. In short I was totally blown away, I had read a little about the show but I had no idea it would have so many unique and incredible warbirds. All three of us had a really good time and I'm sure that we'll be going back next year!
At 3:30 the airport opened back up after the show and there was a mad dash to get taxi clearance out to the runways. At about 3:25 we were all sitting in the plane when my dad announced that he had to get out and run to the bathroom! This meant that we started our taxi out at about 3:40 and we ended up behind a huge number of planes who were all taxing out for take-off. 45 minutes later we were airborne and on our way back home.
Today was the first annual Mooney Madness event created by Art-craft paint in Santa Maria. The event was created by Art-Craft as a gathering for Mooney pilots all over California. The event was supposed to have 19 planes, but due to the weather (it was quite windy today) we only ended up with 7 planes and a few other pilots who drove in.
Even with the smaller than expected turnout the event was incredible! Upon arriving we received a free t-shirt as well as a nice little back-pack with our N-numbed on it. There was a fully catered breakfast (mmm donuts.....) and we met with all the pilots who had flown in. I had already met a few at Shafter a month or so ago as well as at Oceano a few weeks ago. After breakfast Art-craft, as well as Avionics West, Central Coast Jet Center, and Coastal Valley Aviation put on a series of very interesting seminars. We were very impressed with Art-craft and we almost wish our paint was in worse shape so we could have them paint our plane! Steve at Avionics West was very friendly and we may be bringing our plane back to him to get a GPS put in the panel. There was a raffle held and we won a free interior/exterior detailing and waxing at Art-craft! The whole day was a ton of fun and I can't wait for the next Mooney Ambassadors event.
Here is a link to the Picasa photo-album from our trip to chino, unfortunately I don't have any pictures from Mooney Madness right now but if I get some from someone in the future I'll be sure to post them here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/qmwalton/Chino?feat=directlink
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