Art Craft finished up the touch up work and it was time to pickup the plane. The only problem was my ride to Santa Maria fell through and I needed a new ride to save driving. Who wants to drive four hours when it can be done in a one hour flight?
The General Aviation community is amazing. None of my close friends were available, so I posted up on the SoCal Aviators Facebook group to see if anyone could help out. In a short period of time I had multiple offers. These are just other pilots willing to lend a hand.
A pilot based out of Camarillo with a Cirrus Sr22 Turbo was able to fit his schedule to mine and we made the plans. I offered to have my wife drop me off at Camarillo but he was happy to make the flight to Fullerton to pick me up.
This was my first time in a Cirrus, and I’ll stay away from all the Cirrus jokes… It is a very nice plane, and I can see why they are popular. The one thing that I really liked, which is available in other planes besides the Cirrus, was when he turned on the AC while we were on the ground. It was warm, not hot outside, and that AC was nice.
The flight to Santa Maria was nice and smooth. We chatted along the way and I was very grateful that he would take a few hours out of his schedule to help out a complete stranger.
I know I have sung the praises of Art Craft in my review of the paint job on my plane, and many other times, but I must do it again. The paint needed a little more time so they didn’t want me to pick it up on Friday. My problem was that the following week I had no time to get there during the week to pick it up.
What did they do? The owner, Teresa took the time to come in on a Saturday, when they are closed, to meet me and deliver the plane. She loves her company, their work, and their customers.
One of her sons who also works there happened to be there and the three of us visited for I think over an hour. They are exceptional people running an exceptional business.
The flight back to Fullerton was smooth and beautiful, the afternoon sun shining off the Pacific. I passed by Santa Barbara and headed to the coastline, flying east along Malibu and Pacific Palisades before turning southeast to fly over LAX via the Special Flight Rules Area.
As I said earlier, the flight in the Cirrus was nice, but there is something about the slick feel of a Mooney, with the gear tucked up inside, and the laminar wing slicing through the air.
