AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2020 - 71

IF YOU GO
THE OVERWATER DISTANCE direct from Torrance to

Catalina is nearly the same as the Strait of Dover,
which is the narrowest part of the English Channel
and was a key location during the Battle of Britain. If
renting, the FBO/flight school likely will have inflatable life vests for you to borrow. If you own and plan
on flying overwater often, an investment in your own
low-profile life vests might be worthwhile.

trip to Avalon I've never explored the island beyond
the airport. Today AOPA Senior Photographer Chris
Rose, AOPA Air Safety Institute Video Producer Kurt
Sensenbrenner, and I plan to tour the interior of
Catalina by car, and it'll be a first for all of us.
We depart Zamperini Field in Torrance (TOA) for
Catalina Airport (AVX) on an overcast, dead calm morning. The Torrance airport, named after local hero Louis
Zamperini, is home to Robinson Helicopter Company
and multiple flight schools, and is the mainland airfield
closest to Catalina.
An inversion is keeping that infamous L.A. smog
around the thousand-foot-and-below mark. Above, the
visibility is unlimited, and we can see the island almost
immediately after departure. A rare storm left the San
Gabriel Mountains snowcapped, and the haze makes the
peaks to the northeast look like floating islands.
The flight to the Airport in the Sky is straightforward and the island is impossible to miss. Unless you're
flying a floatplane (and if you are, lucky you), the main
flight plan consideration is choosing an altitude high
enough to glide back to the Los Angeles coast or make
it-with a margin-to the Airport in the Sky.
The calmness of the air and the stability of the airplane make it feel as though we are the ones suspended
at a point in space, and that the glassy Pacific is rotating to
bring the island closer to us. At about 22 nautical miles, the
flight from Torrance is short and easy, but there's enough
time to overthink the overwater part. The oil pressure and
temperature look good (for now) but any slight variation
in sound gets more of a reaction than it would over land.
We have no interest in an unplanned swim today.

Cars are few and far between-residents and visitors typically use
golf carts (which you can rent), the local bus, and shuttles to get
around. From the airport, head into Avalon with the Wildlands Express.
Reservations are required-call ahead. A trip to the Airport in the Sky
is not complete without a bite to eat from the locally run DC-3 Grill.
First-timers should try the famous Buffalo Burger, which are not made
from the Catalina bison but are still delicious!

The radio is quiet, a rarity in the L.A. basin. In
between getting the AWOS for the airport-we'll land
on Runway 22, which has the more dramatic approach-
and making position reports, I subtly adjust the volume,
make sure my headset's plugged in, and see if we have a
stuck mic. The silence is welcome, but so unusual that
I'm sure I've missed some call. It seems we have the
place to ourselves. We fly around the west end of the
island and get ready for the part of the trip that every
pilot talks about: the approach.
THE APPROACH

The airport was created to accommodate Philip Wrigley's
DC-3 by shaving off the top of a mountain, so the runway starts and ends with drop-offs. Coming in to land
over a cliff, with your absolute altitude changing from a
couple thousand feet to a couple hundred in just a few
minutes, can be unnerving. Fear of the cliff leads many
pilots to come in too high-knowing you'll likely be too
high, though, can lead to dragging it in low and slow.
A successful landing requires the practical application of potentially rusty checkride skills. The key is in
the setup, and in having the judgment to go around if
things start looking iffy.
We first fly over the town of Two Harbors, then turn
direct to the field, which sets us up almost perfectly for a
45-degree entry to a right downwind for 22. The rest of
the approach is about discipline and mind over matter.
If you're one of those pilots who has gotten into the
bad habit of flying a faster approach speed (and hey, I've
been there), you'll need to break that and practice a few
landings before you head over to Airport in the Sky. There
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2020

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