Come Fly With Me: Airborne Over San Francisco

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!