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This was a spur of the moment flight to Merced (KMCE) to meet Susanne (who had driven up from Fresno) for dinner. And by spur of the moment I mean that I made the "go" decision on the same afternoon as the flight. I still got in a good hour of flight planning - figuring out my routes to get there and back, drawing them on the charts, preparing the navlog, checking weather, notams and TFRs and so on. So it was relatively short notice but not exactly like I just headed down to the airport and took off.

A direct route from Palo Alto to Merced goes straight over some mountains which I wanted to avoid. It's possible to get around the high terrain by going to either side so I decided to make things interesting by taking both different routes. I took the northern route there and the southern route back thus making a sort of loop.

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I flew in N2324N again, the Cessna 120. It's cheap to rent and fun to fly but it doesn't have much space inside, doesn't go very fast, and isn't very well equipped for cross-country flying in the avionics department. This makes it perfect for flying solo either local to Palo Alto or else on short cross-country trips

I took off from Palo Alto shortly before 6:00pm and did the usual Right Dumbarton departure over to Sunol Pass and then out toward the Livermore Valley. My plan was to climb to 3500' and cruise there all the way to Merced. But it was very hazy, probably due to some of the recent forest fire activity. It seemed I was near the top of the haze layer and so I decided to go up to 5500' to try and get above it. That didn't help and so I went even higher, all the way to 7500', but still the visibility was pretty bad.

At this point I was tracking eastbound on the Manteca VOR 229 radial. My plan was to intercept the El Nido 280 radial and turn right to track that all the way in. Since I was so high and terrain wasn't an issue, I ended up starting my right turn early and cutting this corner. My route took me along the eastern edge of the mountains and down along I-5. It's very interesting seeing dead-flat ground on one side and rugged hills on the other and the interstate running right near the border of where the two types of land meet.

I mentioned that this plane isn't very well equipped. By this I mean that it only has one nav radio and it doesn't have an attitude indicator or a directional gyro. It also has no DME. So in order to fly one radial and then intercept another, you have to keep flip-flopping between the two frequencies and also setting the OBS to the corresponding radial each time. There's more room for pilot error as you are changing things more often.

Continuing along I passed by the very distinct intersecting runways of the closed Crows Landing Naval Air Station and began a steady descent. Surprisingly the visibility in the central valley seemed better than in the bay area. It didn't take much longer to reach my destination and I made a left 45 entry for runway 30 and landed long to avoid having to taxi forever. There was one other transient-looking plane tied down and 4 or 5 planes belonging to the local flight school but otherwise the airport was pretty deserted.

Susanne and I ate very delicious Indian food at Tase of Little India. I think the naan may have been even better than the fresh-out-of-the-oven stuff I get at the farmers market near work.

Soon it was time to head home via the southern route and this time it was night and with the moon having still not risen. The runway at Merced is 5900' long and I was parked near the midpoint. I didn't feel like taxiing all the way to the end so I did a midfield takeoff and of course got off the ground well before the end. I made a quick left turn to a heading of about 260 and climbed to 4500'.

My intended course was not directly aligned with any VOR radial and there weren't very good visual references on the way. I could see lights on the ground and use those to help me keep a steady heading but I couldn't tell what they were or use them to locate myself on the chart. Eventually I saw Gustine airport ahead and just a mile or so off to my right which was a welcome sight. Not only did I know exactly where I was then but it turns out I was almost exactly where I had planned to be.

At this point the few lights of the central valley gave way to a giant swath of solid blackness ahead. This is a hillier area just to the northeast of the towns of Gilroy and Morgan Hill and it's also the site of Henry Coe State Park. I decided to climb up to 6500' for an extra cushion while traversing the hills. They aren't real mountains and the highest point along my path was less than 2500' but at night I wanted more room between me and the ground should any emergencies happen. Luckily nothing of the sort occurred.

I reached flat land and lights about 20 miles south of San Jose airport and contacted Norcal Approach there. They got me on radar and gave me flight following services back to Palo Alto. I had expected to go around the west side of SJC but they took me around the east side. At one point when I was flying parallel to the final approach course a Boeing 757 passed me on the left and then landed. Luckily it was down below me at that point and so wake turbulence wasn't an issue.

I did a straight in approach to Palo Alto, landed, and taxied to parking. One nice thing about flying this plane is its parking spot. Out of 248 aircraft based at the airport (according to airnav.com) only 3 have parking spots closer to the turn-offs from the runway.

Total time on the flight out: 1.2 hours. On the flight back: 1.1 hours. Even though I would had more of a headwind on the return trip I think it took less time due to less ground operations. This was another new airport for me to land at which puts me at 48 total. Also I flew my 250th hour on the way home.