Hemet Breakfast Hop
July 30, 2005

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A morning breakfast hop to Hemet's on-field Hangar One Cafe.  I made this breakfast flight once before with Mark Beaulieu, but this time it was Scott Schwartz in the right seat as photographer.

We took N9488G departing Montgomery (MYF) on 28R. The tower switched us to SOCAL Air Traffic Control (ATC) for a class B clearance over Miramar and north along I-15.  Lake Hodges, the CA-78 / I-15 interchange, French Valley (Temecula) airfield, and Diamond Valley Lake (Hemet) were visual waypoints enroute (see chart below).

CA-52, I-5, I-805, CA-163 while we did a left 270 turn outside the Miramar class B getting our clearance

Once cleared to enter the class B airspace, we flew directly over the Miramar airfield, then past Lake Miramar.

Some of the hilly terrain enroute - once we exited the class B airspace at Lake Hodges, SOCAL released us from the ATC system

French Valley airfield, Temecula - enroute Hemet (left) at 4,500 ft, enroute MYF (right) at 5,500 ft

The flatter terrain of the Temecula area, and the hilly terrain again when returning

The original plan was to fly to Big Bear for breakfast, but the heat and moisture were patterned for thunderstorm clouds over Bear, so our plan B was to go to Hemet, which was directly along the ground track to Bear.  By 8:30 am when enroute over Temecula, storm clouds were already lofting skywards to 24,000 ft over the Bear area... so plan B it was.

Not shown: the actual cafe! Hangar One Cafe is a nice place - the food is good (even if a bit slow), and the locals seem ever-present. Seems we always strike up a conversation there. We watched a sailplane practicing towed takeoffs and approaches. We also watched the clouds to the SW to ensure our route home to MYF stayed clear.

Over-flying midfield Miramar airfield, enroute returning

SOCAL handed us off to MYF just past Miramar.  MYF cleared us to land 28L - crossing midfield @ 2,000 ft on a left-270 descending turn into the traffic pattern.

Desending left turn into MYF - Clairemont mesa, I-805 & CA-163, Qualcomm stadium, and on approach

Final approach to landing MYF 28L

The route of flight is the 55 NM (63 miles) red line on the chart below. The blue is the route that would have taken us to Big Bear, if not for the storm clouds.