Weather In Califorina...

[Apollo_Kid]

Did any one had any experience flying in California (San Francisco Bay Area and around) in January and February? How is the weather for PPL flying and building hours? I am planning to go there next year and do some flying! :ok:

[Kerosene Kraut]

Coastal areas can be foggy. (in the morning hours all year long all along the cali coast) Some more inland located base would be safer for maximum VFR hour building.

Maybe the greater LA area is more of a choice for you? You could stay behind the mountains and enjoy predictable VMC.

[Apollo_Kid]

Did anyone had a chance to fly in SF Bay area?

[drogue chute]

Yeah, as previous chap said... gets foggy.
And I'll second his advice about staying on the other side of the mountains.
I rented an arrow in LA to do some hour building and the smog was so bad that I had to escape into Arizona and Nevada to get decent weather. I was there for the whole of march and half of april and lost about 2 weeks due rubbish weather - until I went east.
PM me if you want any details.

[SkyHawk-N]

Coastal areas can be foggy. (in the morning hours all year long all along the cali coast)

Sea fog can happen ANYTIME during the day all along the Pacific Coast, not just the morning.

[englishal]

You are more likely to get frontal weather in the winter in California. When you do and the rain moves into the desert it is no place to be IMHO - low cloud high terrain :eek:. Bearing in mind the icing level drops to 3-4000' too it may not be possible to get on top of it or fly IFR either.

However if it is "marine layer" low stratus and you can get through it (with your instructor in your case) then the deserts will probably be 100 mile vis - and beautiful weather.

Regarding the fog, I've seen it often burn off around midday only to reform at 2-3pm so careful you don't get caught out.

[BHenderson]

You're most likely to get blue skies at the start of the year i.e. Jan-April. The fog is more of a problem in the Summer where the strong heating of the earth draws in the fog from the sea.

Last year saw 6 weeks of absolutely cloudless skies from mid February till April in the LA basin.

[Captain Stable]

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/54/93854-004-7FCC6B28.jpg

[SkyHawk-N]

Regarding the fog, I've seen it often burn off around midday only to reform at 2-3pm so careful you don't get caught out.

My experience of the sea fog on the Oregon/North California coast is that it does not burn off. It can sit off shore all day, stationary and then retreat within an hour or so. Other times it can spill over the shoreline by several miles and block out the sun all day. It can also travel along the coast at 20 or 30 mph hardly travelling inland at all. Certainly unpredictable and you are right about being careful not to be caught out.

[n5296s]

Did anyone had a chance to fly in SF Bay area?
Just the odd once or twice...

Talk of "the coast" is a bit irrelevant since there aren't many airports there anyway (Half Moon Bay, Monterey). In the bay itself where there are numerous GA airports, it's common to have a marine layer in the morning which burns off by around 11. Sometimes you can fly under it, but more often you can't (VFR anyway). Once it burns off you have clear weather until the small hours. (Though today for example we have blue sky at 9am). To be safer you can go a bit further inland, e.g. Livermore, which is still within easy reach of the city.

During the winter we get a few storm systems come through, usually with cold fronts, which make pleasure flying a bad idea for 2-3 days at a time. (Since that's the only rain we get, we're grateful even though it does mess up flying).

n5296s

[sjeh]

On a related note - I'm heading out to Berkeley next week for work and would quite like to get a bit of flying in too. Can anyone recommend a) a good organisation who could rent me an aircraft/instructor (I have a FAA PPL but not sure it's worth a checkout for an hour or two) and b) a good sightseeing route?

[david viewing]

The West Coast weather is something of a lottery in January. I've flown out of Prescott, Az in January for a number of years now and generally the fine desert weather ends at the Sierras and it isn't worth going further West. Occasionally I've got to Sacramento or Monterey, but had to scurry back ahead of the next storm system.

However this year I flew from Prescott Az. to Portland Or. via Salinas (for Monterey) in perfect high pressure conditions that sat over the entire area for 2 weeks or more. The Bay area had perfect conditions the whole time though there was some fog over the Oregon coast (accurately predicted by Flight Service) but not enough to intefere with my routing via North Bend until reaching Portland where some airports were fogged in for days and others in the clear. Progress beyond Portland was impossible with a permanent weather barrier running along the Columbia river.

Here's a couple of shots of the Bay area taken on 14 January 2009:

http://www.viewing.com/January%202009/DSCN1089%20(Small).JPG

http://www.viewing.com/January%202009/DSCN1096%20(Small).JPG

[Apollo_Kid]

This looks like great weather for flying. I do hope that the weather next year will be same as this one. Thanx for the pics!

[Captain Stable]

Incidentally, if flying in N. California, a visit to Columbia is an absolute must. The town is walking distance from the airport, and is a real eye-opener.

Put Columbia California into google images.