Come Fly With Me: Airborne Over San Francisco

City Hall

So Close and Yet So Far: Headlands Center for the Arts, SF-88 Nike Missile Site, and Golden Gate Bridge

Dolores Park

Mark Hopkins Hotel

photos by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

Sure, it’s fun to fly over San Francisco with Google Earth, but there’s no substitute for the real thing.

I recently had the opportunity to buzz the city in a humble Cessna 182 “Skylane.” We departed from Palo Alto under blue skies, then headed north above Highway 101, crossed over SFO right above the runways (the safest way for a low-flying plane to transit an airport is to fly directly over it), then reached San Francisco. At an altitude of about 1500 feet, we made a few loops over The Mission, got eye-to-eye with Sutro Tower, then did a pass over Sausalito and the Marin Headlands before turning east to fly right over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The weather was perfect for photography, so my shutter-finger got a major workout. Hope you enjoy the photos I took during the flight!

Todd Lappin
Todd Lappin