no sponsor,
I also fly in CA a lot, and just to add to the other good points....
LA BAsin, vis can be rubbish, even on a VFR day. Go east out into the deserts and you are pretty much guaranteed 100 mile vis, and clear skies. LA doesn't suffer from too much frontal stuff, mainly Marine layer IFR stuff (low stratus cloud caused by the cold ocean) which tends to roll in in the late afternoon / evening, and burn off by 11am, tops around 1500'. June is the worst month for this (June gloom) and October / Nov should be ok.
Heading North can be ok, or you can get caught IFR. Northern California tends to get more frontal systems, and also the San Wankeen (never did find out how to spell it:-)) can suffer from dense fog / marine layer, called Tulle fog. However, during the hrs of daylight you should be ok. I did my IR last November, and we had a fair amount of IMC, especially when returning late at night (mainly marine layer).
There are some great places to go East of LA basin, Phoenix, Vegas, Sedona, Laughlin etc etc......
Have fun and maybe see you out there as a few of us will be flying out of Long Beach during October...
Rgds
EA
