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FBZ's Fast Flight's
KSTS (Santa Rosa, CA) to O69 (Petaluma, CA)
KSTS (Santa Rosa, CA) to O69 (Petaluma, CA)
This installment of FBZ's Fast Flight's takes you to my backyard, Santa Rosa, California, USA. In my quest for exotic, beautiful places to turn you on to, sometimes the most obvious is right under your nose! The famed horticulturist,Luther Burbank moved to Santa Rosa in 1875, and stated that the area was one of god's chosen spots, or words to that effect. He was right! I know I'm a bit biased, being a fourth generation Californian, but you have to admit, those of us up here in the northern part of the state truly have it all! Beaches, mountains, lakes, rivers, snow skiing, deserts...the list is a full one! For this Fast Flight, I'll take you on a little tour of my "backyard", and fly out of my home airfield, KSTS.
KSTS is located about 60 miles or so north of San Francisco, and about 20 miles from the coast. Since we live in a valley, the summers tend to be hot, and the flatlands get a bit soggy during the rains. Santa Rosa is bordered by the Sonoma Mountains. I must admit here, having done a little traveling in my earlier days, that compared to "real" mountains, these look like foothills, but it's what we've got, and we're sticking to the Title Mountains! The average height of this range is no more than a couple of thousand feet, but they are beautiful, nonetheless. Bass ponds galore! You fishermen out there know what I mean!
In the image at left, I am taking off out of KSTS, and you can see Mount St. Helena, minus it's top. It's an "inactive" volcano (is there really such a thing?) and the thermal geysers in the area provide electrical power. Mt. St. Helena is not to be confused with Mount St. Helens, the more
recent Big Boom. For the most part, the area is agriculture. The faces of what’s been grown here have changed over the years, and now it seems everyone wants to jump on the vineyard bandwagon. The first waypoint on our journey though, is going to take us to the coast, out over some beautiful rolling hills that are speckled with oak groves galore. A Druid's delight!
The image to the right shows the general area of Farmboyzim's Area of Operations! I'm on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, in the middle of the livestock ranches. Oh, the sweet smells of country air!
The great thing about aviating in this area, is that within just a short distance, there is just so much to see! I followed the Russian River, home of the Russian River Jazz Festival, out to the coast. The river empties out at Jenner, a local hot spot and meeting place for the large population of seals that
inhabit the area. The mouth of the river, which gets partially closed with a build up of sand, needs to be bulldozed open every year to prevent flooding. With all these landmarks, VFR flying is great around this area. The coastline of California is about as varied as it's weather. Most of the Northern CA coast is on the rugged side, but there are
numerous beaches to enjoy. It's wetsuit time if you're thinking of swimming though! That water is COLD! Turning south down the coast at Jenner, we start to head toward the stretch where the beaches are more accessible. Lots of bonfires over the years! North of Jenner, you'll usually find the ocean head-butting up against some very sheer and tall cliffs. It is a spectacular site though, to see the giant Redwoods come right up to the edge of some of these cliffs, waiting their turn for a swim after growing for hundreds, some, thousands of years! In a future article, I'll bore you (joking I hope!) with some real life pics of the area we just returned from on our camping trip.
Under the yellow dot...
North of San Francisco
Aerial View of KSTS
Take off
You can almost see my Tomato Field!
Following the Russian River
A few miles south of Jenner, we pass over Bodega Bay, where parts of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was filmed. There's some great rock fishing and poke-pole fishing around this area. Bodega Bay is the home to many commercial and private fishing boats. The Dungeness crab is real tasty! One of the dock owners used to let us throw crab nets in right off his dock. We figured we'd get the one's that got away! He was a nice fellow, who, if he saw that we were having a slow day, would pour some crab into each of our buckets for us!
Heading South
Bodega Bay
Just a bit further on south we come to Tomales Bay, which is actually the San Andreas Fault, where it passes into the ocean. This is one of California's major fault lines, and runs well into southern CA. This bay happens to be another favorite hangout, this time for Great White Sharks, who use it as there "singles club", if you know what I mean! I've been kayaking out in Tomales bay a few times with some friends, and each time I went, I couldn't help thinking of how much I must look like a great big tasty seal snack! There's an island out in the middle of the Bay called Hog Island, which isn't rendered in the scenery. There used to be wild hogs on the island years ago, and so the name...There's no more hogs calling it home, but it is abundant with other wild life and is protected by the Audubon Society as a nature refuge. There's a great Oyster joint out there called Nick's Cove. Ummm... On the Western side of the bay is the town of Point Reyes. My father worked for RCA out there at a Ship-to-Shore relay station, back in the days of Morse code and Teletype machines. He belonged to the Wireless Pioneer Society. We'd go out there as kids for a visit and walk along the shore and find old glass fishing net floats. Just south of Point Reyes is Drakes Bay, where Sir Francis Drake stepped onto the beach looking for a hot dog stand. Well, maybe he wasn't looking for a hot dog, but he found a beautiful coast!
Tomales Bay and Point Reyes
From Tomales Bay, it's just a few minutes to San Francisco, but we're going to head east back over Santa Rosa and over the top of the Sonoma Mountains into the Napa Valley, known for its wines. It also gets baking hot there in the summer! There's a glider strip over in Calistoga that's been there ever since I can remember. The thermals off the mountains and out of the valley provide some excellent glider time!
Santa Rosa, CA
The Napa Valley
Heading back inland looking back at the coast
If you continue east up and over the hills of Napa, you'll find plenty of interesting bodies of water to explore. The image at left is of Lake Berryessa. This is a man made reservoir, created back in the 40's or 50's, and replaced the town that was there originally. During the drought years, when the water levels are especially low, some remnants of the town are still visible above the water line.
Time to turn around and head back to my own valley! Our destination is O69 - Petaluma, CA, and our route will take us back over some spectacular scenery. Petaluma was once known as the "Egg Basket of the World", producing more chicken eggs than anywhere else on the globe. There were chicken ranches everywhere, and still are quite a few to this day. Dairy products are also very big in my neck of the woods. Loads of hay out there in those hills for livestock to munch on! I'm the fourth generation from Petaluma, and I have seen this small country town grow quite rapidly over the years. Petaluma has been the setting for many motion pictures, among them American Graffiti, one of my favorites. From either KSTS or O69, you can have many hours of fun exploring the varied landscapes and terrain that my home state has to offer.
Lake Berryessa
Heading back to my own valley!
O69, Petaluma, CA
For this flight, I have MegaScenery Northern California scenery mesh and BirdsEyeView Textures loaded up, and it really makes a huge difference in what there is to see! I hope you take a flight in the area and enjoy the views as much as I do!
Remember, if you have a particular area you'd like to let others know about, drop me an email and we'll get the word out! It's a great big world out there, virtually!
O69, Petaluma, CA
Lake Berryessa
Santa Rosa, CA X
KSTS
The Napa Valley
Mt. St. Helena
Tomales Bay and Point Reyes
My Vegetable Garden