June 23, 2019
We could have arrived at the airport earlier than we did, but according to the forecast that would have had us arriving in Fullerton before the morning marine layer had burned off. It was going to be about a 2 1/2 flight and I was planning on arriving between 10-10:30am.
After saying our goodbyes we walked out to the plane, loaded everything, conducted a pre-flight, and climbed in. The airport was not busy and we began our taxi to 30L. For small planes the tower offers an intersection departure at taxiway Kilo. I know some pilots that will never take an intersection departure, but there are times that it makes sense. Mesa Gateway (KIWA) was formerly Williams Air Force Base and prior to the closing was training 25% of the Air Force’s pilots. Runway 12R/30L is 10,401′ long and taking the intersection departure at Kilo gives you a little over 5,200′ of runway which is more than 2,000′ longer than my current home of KFUL or former home of KAJO.
Normally for a 30L departure at Kilo the tower will have you complete your run-up on taxiway Bravo just past Kilo, but as quiet as everything was this morning the tower told me to just complete my run-up on Kilo at the runway hold short line.
We took off and made a turn to the Southwest, picking up flight following in the air from Phoenix departure who cleared us to continue our climb through the Bravo airspace. Even though it was June, at our cruising altitude of 10,500′ it was a cool 55° F outside.
It was a smooth flight in the morning air as we passed all the familiar sights between Phoenix and California. Descending into Fullerton we could see the remains of the Marine layer still hanging along the coast, but it had burned off over Fullerton, leaving a little bit of haze and a few small, thin clouds here and there. Just over 2 1/2 hours after taking the runway in Mesa we were wheels down in Fullerton. A great end to an incredible journey!
