Fly In/Drive In
Southern California is a required destination for aviators and aviation buffs of all kinds. Why not make
Flabob your headquarters for your Southern California visit? If the budget will allow it, stay at the beautiful and historic Mission Inn, www.missioninn.com, nearby in downtown Riverside. Even if you don't stay there, drop in and see the Famous Flyers Wall, just outside the Aviators' Chapel.Riverside boasts many other fine hotels in all price levels www.riversidecb.com Enterprise will deliver a car to Flabob,
With your headquarters airport and hotel arranged, drive or fly to Chino Airport for a visit to the Air Museum -- Planes of Fame www.planesoffame.org, or the Yanks Air Museum www.yanksair.com.
Nearby March Air Reserve Base, with a rich history back to its founding in 1917, has the superb March Field Museum www.rth.org/march/mfm.html, and the associated P-38 museum and 475th Fighter Group Museum.
Less than an hour's scenic drive and an even shorter flight is Palm Springs Air Museum www.air-museum.org. Or travel the other direction to Santa Paula Airport and its museum www.amszp.org, with stops at Cable www.cableairport.com.
If these aren't enough, or if your travel party includes some whose primary interests lie elsewhere than in aviation, it is not possible to run out of interesting things to do in Southern California. Make Flabob your home base, hang out at the historic cafe, and get all the advice you'll ever need. Who knows, some of it may even be good advice.
FIRST TIME FLYING TO FLABOB? HERE ARE SOME TIPS.
Some pilots who fly into Flabob for the first time find it scary because of the mountain which is right in your face on downwind leg. Friend, this is because you are too high. Daytime pattern altitude at Flabob is 1,464 feet, which is 700 feet AGL, lower than most patterns. The reason for this is Mt. Rubidoux, which sits about where you would want to turn base. If you are at the proper, low, altitude, the "key spot" will be well inside the mountain and it will work out fine. If you are too high, the mountain is in your way. So fly the pattern altitude and it will work out well. Flavio used to advise flying right at the cross on top of Mt. Rubidoux until "you feel an irresistible urge to cross yourself, then turn base and there you are." The guy in this video does it right, and makes the first turnoff.
At night, the pattern altitude is 1,764 feet, 1,000 feet agl, and you fly outside the mountain. This is for the obvious reason that it is harder to see at night. The lights are pilot-controlled on 122.8, which is our CTAF and not attended. You can get all this information and much more from that great web resource, Airnav.com.
We are very close to our friendly instrument airport, Riverside Municipal (KRAL). So close, indeed, that we are in a cutout in their Class D. If you want to go south or west, or approach from those directions, give the cheerful folks at Riverside Tower (121.0) a call. The Riverside ATIS (128.8) is a good source of weather since we are only 2.8 nautical miles away -- heck, there are airports bigger than that -- so our weather is pretty much the same. That's why, when you click the "WEATHER" tab on our website, it takes you to the current weather for KRAL.
Our traffic pattern is lefthand for both Runway 24 (in use 90% of the time) and Runway 06. If you are approaching from the east while 24 is active, we usually make a left upwind, x-wind, downwind and so on. From the north, we enter on a left x-wind.
A new development is the inauguration of a control tower at San Bernardino International (KSBD), the former Norton Air Force Base, which is a little over 10 nm NE. If you are coming from that direction, or going that way, call them on 119.45. They should have plenty of time to chat, since their own statistics show that they have all of 45 operations per day.
We ourselves are proud to boast that we are "tower free."
4130 Mennes Ave. Riverside, CA 92509
All content © 2008 Thomas W. Wathen Foundation