Well….Kevin called me up today and we decided to combine two of our hobbies into one big day…..photography and flying. The plan was to head up to Fallbrook, put Kevin on the ground with my Canon Digital Rebel XT, a tripod, a few filters, and a few lenses, and he would shoot me while I made a bunch of landings in my Mooney M20J – N1157N. For those of you that don’t know Fallbrook(L18) very well, it is a tiny almost deserted runway just east of Oceanside (OKB). The runway is somewhat small (2160 feet long), but that isn’t a problem for me in the Mooney (I can make the mid-field turnoff 99 out of 100 times). We figured that this would make the perfect spot for out little shoot as there is almost no traffic so we wouldn’t have to deal with other planes in the pattern. The field is uncontrolled (it doesn’t have a control tower) which would allow me to fly how I need and allow Kevin to set the tripod up on the side of the runway and get really close-up shots. Everything went well at first:

Just after lift-off:

Me geeking the camera on take-off:

Coming in for a fly-by:

Going around:

Coming in for a fly-by:

Up close and personal:

Going around:

On every trip around the pattern, Kevin would let me know how much time he needed to change lenses, change filters, reposition, etc. and I would adjust my pattern to give him sufficient time. Then on the 4th trip around the pattern, I don’t hear his usual radio call, just “Andy, I have to go.” I think to myself “Huh!?!?!” We flew in together….and you have the whole afternoon off….what do you mean “I have to go?”

Well….I look down and there is a police truck with the lights flashing and Kevin is being dragged away in the back. I start to get very worried and try to decide what to do. I don’t want to get in trouble by landing and possible having them take down my tail number or start hassling me about how I was flying. But there is now way I can leave Kevin there alone….so I land and try to figure out what is going on. I see the truck pull up to a bungalow up on the top of the hill on the east side of the runway. The guy gets out of the truck and starts talking to Kevin outside. Luckily it was just some rent-a-cop security guard and he let Kevin go after a stern talking to.

Needless to say, we left immediately and decided to head home. We hadn’t satisfied our photo craving yet though, so we were scheming on where we could take some more photos. Usually, an airplane would be a great photo platform as you get great views of the ground below. My Mooney, however, isn’t the best for taking pictures. The problem is that you really need an open window to take the pictures out of so that you don’t get reflections off the glass and the camera doesn’t have focusing problems. In the Mooney, there is only a tiny pilot’s side window. When we saw some hot air balloons, however, we decided to try and shoot of the little thing:

It worked decently and before we knew it, we were photographing everything. Here is Del Mar race track:

Geisel Library and UCSD:

Muir college / my dorm from first year / my apartment from second year:

Marigold area / my hanger at KMYF:

We finally landed at KMYF and stopped at the gas pump to fill up. The sun was just setting and it seemed like another great opportunity to take some artsy photos of my plane and some photos of me in front of it

Setting sun and the Mooney:

The Mooney on a golden ramp:

Me and my baby:

I love my baby….we get along soooo well:

Mooney and me:

You can see all the photos we took in the gallery below. I have high resolution versions of all the pictures so just email me if you want one.
Low-res gallery

After we got done putting the plane away, cleaning it, downloading the pictures, burning them to CD, and closing up the hanger, I got a quick bite to eat at CPK. My buddy Marco from Potenza, Italy called me and invited me to go bar hopping in the gaslamp (downtown San Diego) as it was his girlfriend’s last night here in the states before returning to Italy. We spent a while drinking, socializing, and dancing…….I spoke almost exclusively in Italian and convinced two Sicilian girls that I was an Italian, and then came home wayyyyyy too late. Good times