Santa Catalina Island Aviation and Living in the 1930’s
My father, Fred Austin, while living in Avalon and flying the Douglas Dolphin for the Wrigley’s circa 1937-38. He is pictured with his wife Grace and filmed by Dr. Hurst of Trona, California, while visiting with his wife and son Elvin. Elvin provided this footage that I have edited. Fred went on to fly for TWA for almost 30 years (1939-1968) and later operated Golden West Airlines which bought Catalina Airlines and operated Grumman Gooses in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Catalina Island Clouds
Fly Away
2011 KAVX – First Landing at Catalina Island – Chuck Hansen – N460YR
People say that landing at KAVX (Avalon, Catalina Island) is like landing on a aircraft carrier; 3000ft of runway, 60ft wide, with large drops at both ends of the runway. Add to that the fact that no one seems to maintain the runway very well, so loose chunks of pavement riddle the place. I had flown right seat into Avalon in a Beechcraft King Air F90, piloted by Sacramento’s Mike Traud, but at least that aircraft had reverse thrusters. Interestingly, the scrap remains of a Piper were crumpled up on the side of the runway, after an aborted takeoff that went bad. Winds were a little turned around on May 1, 2011, so while we planned a straight in landing on RW 22, winds had changed so we had to circle to land on RW 4. Flying a Bonanza G36, I was careful to treat this like the runway that I had done my first solo landing, and made sure my power was a comfortable 85-90 knots ‘over the fence.’ The worst part of my trip out to Catalina? I really wanted a few beers to celebrate, but knew I couldn’t and fly back to Long Beach.
Fly Fishing Bonito Catalina Island.mp4
11-24-09 Fishing Catalina Island for bonito on the fly. This one was 27″ long.
Flying Over Hollywood
Learning to fly Santa Monica Airport, California 2010 Flying over Catalina Island, Santa Monica, Hollywood Sign California twitter.com MelissaSmich.com http Music: Everlasting Light By The Black Keys Today Is Gonna Be Mine By Dave Kilgour