Night Flight California

       The West has been enjoying incredible weather the last few days: record high temps for early November.  A high pressure zone has parked itself over the coast with its offshore breezes.  Beach towns have been basking in warm sunshine for days.
       The Mayor and his deputy drove down the coast to San Luis Obispo for a conference on agriculture and to examine some farming equipment.  The Minister of Industrial Production was to be there with the Minister of Industrial Commodities and Metals.  They would be driving from Long Beach to the conference.  The Minister of Aviation and Flight suggested he fly south and pick them up to prevent fatigue.  Done!  We took off from SLO airport about 4:15pm and landed at Long Beach airport at 5:20pm.  We loaded the 2 passengers and lifted off at 5:45pm.  We touched down in SLO at 6;45pm.
      It was well worth the price of gas.   A beautiful sunset was observed as we cruised past the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Anacapa.  The Santa Barbara channel was easily seen with its 11 offshore oil rigs all lit up.   We cruised at 5500' going and 8500' coming back at a speed of about 175kts or 195mph.  Both flights were smooth as ever.
     Our passengers were new to private plane transport but thoroughly enjoyed the experience, including the return trip Sunday night.   When folks fly commercial jets at night, it rarely includes much of a view of the night landscape except on take off and landing.  The rest of the trip at 30-35000' is too high for night vision to be meaningful.  But in a small plane(4 pass.) prop, it's a different experience entirely:  landmarks are identified, traffic on roads observed, other aircraft observed readily and the appreciation of geography is acute.  As an example of observation, we flew right over Los Angeles International airport.  There is a special rules corridor right over the center to allow air traffic the safe route north-south without disturbing LAX operations.  So all on board were able to get a bird's eye view of the entire airport.
       This mode of travel helps the casual observer get an understanding as to how places relate to one another; the classic definition of geography.  Needless to say, flying over Southern California is a treat in a small private plane at 5500'.

Latin American Update
      The Minister of LAtin American  Affairs returned to Washington, DC, on Sunday with some health issues.  He picked up a bug, as yet unidentified during his trip to Lima, Peru.  The lab report will be out today or tomorrow with results.  We hope he'll be on the mend pronto.  His post confernce report will be submitted to the office by next week.