SF Bay Tour pictures

[BayAreaLondoner]

If anyone is interested, they can take a look at pictures taken on a tour of the San Francisco Bay earlier this afternoon. http://communities.msn.com/DavidandJaci ntha/sanfranciscobaytour.msnw?Page=1 (http://communities.msn.com/DavidandJacintha/sanfranciscobaytour.msnw?Page=1)

You can see San Francisco International airport pretty clearly, PacBell park baseball stadium and various other landmarks. What you can't see is the Golden Gate bridge (other than the approach), since it was covered by a marine layer.

Aircraft: Diamond Katana DA-20
Altitude: about 1,400ft
Camera: Canon Digital Ixus/Elph S300

Enjoy,

David.

[ 03 September 2001: Message edited by: BayAreaLondoner ]

[Simon W]

Really really nice pictures. Thanks for letting us see them.

Regards,

Simon

[poetpilot]

Excellent, thank you David - my favouritist city in the world. Reminds me that I must keep trying to get a job there! What field did you fly from? I've used Concord Buchanan in the past.

[Wycombe]

David,

Excellent pics. Brought back memories of when I did this myself, in '98, in a 172 flying from KPAO (Palo Alto). Did my trip with "Sundance Flying Club". They were very friendly - had a few PA28's as well.

Cheers,
EGTB

[BayAreaLondoner]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!
I flew from San Carlos (KSQL), which is just south of the San Mateo bridge and a few miles north of Palo Alto airport. You can see the chart here: http://www.aerochart.com/mapping/chart /chart.cfm?chart=Aero&typ=APT&txt=ksql (http://www.aerochart.com/mapping/chart/chart.cfm?chart=Aero&typ=APT&txt=ksql)

Even though this is where I learnt to fly (and my "discovery flight" was a Bay tour), this is the first time I've flown a Bay tour since getting my PPL. Still amazes me that you can be so close to SFO and to the City!

Sometime I'll go up with a 35mm camera with a polarising filter to have better control over focus and attempt to reduce the reflections from the canopy. Does anyone have any good tips about taking pics from the air?

David.

[ 04 September 2001: Message edited by: BayAreaLondoner ]

[FrontWindowSeat]

Great photographs - and I'm especially jealous of your opportunity.

I also learned to fly in the Bay Area - my first solo was at KPAO - and one thing that motivated me during the gloomy times learning to land was the day I could fly the Bay Tour with my family.

However, work took us to New England, and I never have managed to get back West with enough free time to go flying. Mind you, the short hop over to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard or even whale watching over Cape Cod is a reasonable consolation prize.

Also the weather over here provides plenty of motivation to complete the Instrument Rating :D