Moving to Lancaster, CA, can anyone give me a PIREP on the area?

Lndwarrior said:
No. I moved up to Pine Mountain Lake , E45. The airport is a nine minute walk from my house.
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That's a cool little airport community up there. We used to fly there frequently for lunch years ago when there was a nice restaurant on the field, but then it closed for some reason. They seemed to be doing well as we often had to wait for a table.
 
Thanks for all of the advice. I have arranged a temporary place in Lancaster, but I will take a look around Rosamond and Agua Dulce.

I noticed the Rosamond Skypark, but it's a private strip. Do they have any hangar/tie-down rentals for individuals who don't live there?

The airspace and all of the mountain wave references make me want to schedule some CFI time. Can anyone recommend a good one in the area?

Also, does anyone know anything about clubs and rentals in the area?
 
MarkH said:
Thanks for all of the advice. I have arranged a temporary place in Lancaster, but I will take a look around Rosamond and Agua Dulce.

I noticed the Rosamond Skypark, but it's a private strip. Do they have any hangar/tie-down rentals for individuals who don't live there?

The airspace and all of the mountain wave references make me want to schedule some CFI time. Can anyone recommend a good one in the area?

Also, does anyone know anything about clubs and rentals in the area?
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Where? If you don’t want to give the address just give me the nearest cross streets. I’ll give you a PIREP.

https://www.skypark.org/
https://www.barnesaviation.com/
 
I highly recommend flying to Kern Valley, a quick hop from Lancaster. A beautiful approach over Lake Isabella and the Kern River, and a good little restaurant there as well. Most of the ramp is on an incline, so bring your wheel chocks.

Bishop/Mammoth trips are great, but it can be bumpy even with a light winds forecast, and "I really wish I were on the ground" turbulent when it kicks up. Fly early in the morning for best results.
 
Try Leona Valley..west of Palmdale..also nice beach ..Pismo Beach. Oceana Airport within walking distance.
 
Lancaster/Palmdale is basically a hole. They sold quite a few cheap houses out there pre-2008, but it crashed even harder than Vegas did. There's some natural beauty in the area, but you generally need to go Northwest or Southeast. WJF is a very decent airport and well integrated into the local area system for IFR and VFR flying (you can get a squawk on the ground, no issue). You need to be crosswind proficient at most SoCal airports during Santa Ana season, especially at the more inland ones.

If you have the ability to be flexible on the very few days you might not be able to get in (I'm assuming you're IFR. If not, get it before you move to Southern California), I'd live somewhere else and use your plane to commute. Maybe buy a beater car and park it at WJF. With an airplane, I'd live in Bakersfield before I'd live in Lancaster, let alone the countless other options.

pmanton said:
If you have any guns, check CA law carefully. They have some very strict laws on what's not allowed.
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If that's a major concern, one should reevaluate their life choices.

Plenty of legal gun owners in CA. If the OP moves to communities within Kern or San Bernardino counties near Lancaster, they can even easily get a CCW. Then again, if they feel the NEED for that, they should again consider their life choices.

SC777 said:
Did you research Lancaster Before deciding to move there? It can get pretty sketchy. If you don’t mind driving, the Santa Clarita Area has a better quality of life and not too far away. Not flying related, but wanted to mention it.
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No question.
 
schmookeeg said:
Breaking Bad could have been filmed in Lancaster.

I dislike Atlanta intensely, but probably would not have made that trade without significant wampum and a firm exit date.
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I was trying to figure out how to "say something nice or say nothing at all". This about covers it. Must be a great opportunity at the new job. You might want to look at options to commute via your Yankee if you can work remotely on days when flying would be a bad idea.
 
Also, now that you are moving to civilization, you should upgrade to a 4 seater and have Gary Vogt at AuCountry in Auburn care for it.
 
Rgbeard said:
I've found this sentiment to be somewhat not-so-useful in life. Sometimes you simply need to say something bad to properly communicate.
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Agreed. I’d be appreciative if someone gave me the lowdown on an area I was moving too. Lancaster wouldn’t be my 1st.....or 50th choice.
 
Yes. You can discover this phenomenon at work when you bluntly inform dudes that their taste in aircraft sucks and that their whip is a roach. :p The rivers of appreciation that flow back to the "giver" are heart-warming to watch.
 
Reading between the lines, it's windy, hot, depressed, good flying sites close by, windy, hot...
You could not pay me a million dollars to move to Palmdale/Lancaster area.
 
When I was flying between California and the real world, I passed through Nevada and Arizona and stopped at all those desert airports.

Fox field was always my refueling stop because it was just the right distance from the Grand Canyon and there were lots of cool ancient jet fighters to look at there.

The desert is made up of five or six valleys and there are lots of fun little airports to visit. The Mojave airport is the location of the Rutan Aircraft Factory and all the other cool plastic airplanes based there.

El Mirage, Apple Valley, Rosamond and Hesperia were cool places to visit back then. I guess El Mirage is private now...

The San Fernando and LA valley areas aren't far, but much more congested.
 
Ravioli said:
Saying you're moving from Atlanta to Los Angeles is kind of non-informative. Where in Atlanta were you? Plenty of people here know Los Angeles, and nobody with a clue includes Lancaster in their LA opinions. I'm sure Hotlanta has the same historical perspectives of various parts of the Peach State.
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Good point. Every city has it’s ‘neighborhoods.’ Lancaster/Palmdale has it’s.
 
Pilawt said:
The San Andreas, granddaddy of California earthquake faults, passes through just south of Palmdale.

Just sayin'.

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Beach front property. Buying there could be an investment.:) When I was house hunting there back in the days when it was ‘the fastest growing community in the USA’ there was a subdivision that had a street with houses on lots that had ‘huge’ front yards. It was because there was a fault line runnning down the middle of the street. An ‘alternate airway’ so to speak of the San Andreas.
 
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Lndwarrior said:
No. I moved up to Pine Mountain Lake , E45. The airport is a nine minute walk from my house.
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Pine Mountain Lake! I've been toying with buying a property there. There was a couple acres just off the runway that was dirt cheap that I was sorely tempted to buy a few months ago. Kinda glad I didn't, given the drumming COVID has done to my finances. But still really tempting.

Got a PIREP on being there?
 
arnoha said:
Pine Mountain Lake! I've been toying with buying a property there. There was a couple acres just off the runway that was dirt cheap that I was sorely tempted to buy a few months ago. Kinda glad I didn't, given the drumming COVID has done to my finances. But still really tempting.

Got a PIREP on being there?
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There are some great driving roads around Pine Mountain Club. I've been through there several times.
 
arnoha said:
Pine Mountain Lake! I've been toying with buying a property there. There was a couple acres just off the runway that was dirt cheap that I was sorely tempted to buy a few months ago. Kinda glad I didn't, given the drumming COVID has done to my finances. But still really tempting.

Got a PIREP on being there?
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PML is our dream place to live. Quiet, gated community. Beautiful lake (with no noisy jet skis or loud music), championship 18 hole golf course, great airport, hiking trails, fishing in the Tuolumne Wild and Scenic River, four wheel drive trails and 26 miles to Yosemite National Park. My wife and I enjoy every one of these benefits, so it's pretty much nirvana for us.

A short flight to Half Dome and an hour and a half flight to the coast and the Bay Area.
 
Pine Mountain Club is outside of Frazier Park CA, 65 miles west of Lancaster via Highway 138. Pine Mountain Lake is in the Sierras, about 300 miles NW of Lancaster. Two different places.
 
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Lndwarrior said:
PML is our dream place to live. Quiet, gated community. Beautiful lake (with no noisy jet skis or loud music), championship 18 hole golf course, great airport, hiking trails, fishing in the Tuolumne Wild and Scenic River, four wheel drive trails and 26 miles to Yosemite National Park. My wife and I enjoy every one of these benefits, so it's pretty much nirvana for us.

A short flight to Half Dome and an hour and a half flight to the coast and the Bay Area.
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If I treated it like a vacation home, would I be welcome among the full-time residents like yourself? That's what it would be for me; can't walk away from the job just yet.

How are the HOA fees? I can't seem to find any numbers on what they really are. HOA's kinda scare the crap out of me.
 
arnoha said:
If I treated it like a vacation home, would I be welcome among the full-time residents like yourself? That's what it would be for me; can't walk away from the job just yet.

How are the HOA fees? I can't seem to find any numbers on what they really are. HOA's kinda scare the crap out of me.
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About a third of the 2000 homes here are vacation rentals. In addition to our home we have had vacating rental here for 7 years. It is booked (well every other year) from May thru September basically every single night. It's paying off the mortgage and netting us a grand a month. There are two million tourists that visit Yosemite and just about half of them come thru Groveland. The majority of our guests are from overseas. We've never had a a single problem with any of our guests.

The HOA fees are $207 a month. Very cheap considering the lake and all the other amenities we have.
 
Lndwarrior said:
About a third of the 2000 homes here are vacation rentals. In addition to our home we have had vacating rental here for 7 years. It is booked (well every other year) from May thru September basically every single night. It's paying off the mortgage and netting us a grand a month. There are two million tourists that visit Yosemite and just about half of them come thru Groveland. The majority of our guests are from overseas. We've never had a a single problem with any of our guests.

The HOA fees are $207 a month. Very cheap considering the lake and all the other amenities we have.
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That's it? That's not bad at all. Is that scaled for anything or is it a fixed cost per property?
 
Lndwarrior said:
Fixed cost per property.
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I'm actually now looking hard at making this our 179 day a year place. :)

Is there any ground transportation options at Pine Lake (ie, get a rental delivered)? I'd love to rent a place there for a week in the summer and check it out, make a vacation out of it while deciding if we want it part of our long term strategy. We're in Seattle, so a 4 hour flight.
 
MIFlyer said:
I'm actually now looking hard at making this our 179 day a year place. :)

Is there any ground transportation options at Pine Lake (ie, get a rental delivered)? I'd love to rent a place there for a week in the summer and check it out, make a vacation out of it while deciding if we want it part of our long term strategy. We're in Seattle, so a 4 hour flight.
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Ground transportation is a problem. The best option would be to fly and park at Columbia and rent a car there. Then a 50 minute drive to PML. And its a pretty drive.
 
Most of the above is true and accurate. Lancaster has a CA state prison and so there are a lot of ex-cons and families of cons living there.

Get used to flying in turbulence. It will be thermal turb during the warm months and wind in the other months. Many days, the best flying is in the morning or evening. Many beautiful days, though. You will learn to raise your wind tolerances. It is desert living. Get used to rock landscaping, not grass. Sell the lawn mower, keep the gun or get a security system.

I would not recommend filing IFR everywhere. Fly VFR (unless IMC) but just use flight following - even through the Bravos. You and ATC have much more flexibility to see cool things and go where you want. It will be useful to have your IR, particularly if you like flying to the coast. Most of CA's IMC is pretty benign, but marine layer or fog can prevent many flights without an IR. Stay away from the mountains when there's any wind or weather. Learn about mountain wave and density altitude. DA hurts many pilots in CA.

Tons of cool places to fly to. Will be better again when the restaurants open up. Even though it is taught in flight school, ALWAYS get as much info as you can on CA airports BEFORE you try flying to them. Some are very unique and a little research goes a long way. It is obvious when pilots fly into airports that they did not research ahead of time - patterns, unique situations, communications, etc.

Get used to very high taxes on everything and a lot of political non-sense. Lancaster is one of the more affordable places to live. Welcome to California! With all the above, it is still an incredible place to live and we probably have more flying days than anywhere else.
 
ActiveAir said:
Most of the above is true and accurate. Lancaster has a CA state prison and so there are a lot of ex-cons and families of cons living there.

Get used to flying in turbulence. It will be thermal turb during the warm months and wind in the other months. Many days, the best flying is in the morning or evening. Many beautiful days, though. You will learn to raise your wind tolerances. It is desert living. Get used to rock landscaping, not grass. Sell the lawn mower, keep the gun or get a security system.
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That's encouraging, I hate cutting grass.

ActiveAir said:
I would not recommend filing IFR everywhere. Fly VFR (unless IMC) but just use flight following - even through the Bravos. You and ATC have much more flexibility to see cool things and go where you want. It will be useful to have your IR, particularly if you like flying to the coast. Most of CA's IMC is pretty benign, but marine layer or fog can prevent many flights without an IR. Stay away from the mountains when there's any wind or weather. Learn about mountain wave and density altitude. DA hurts many pilots in CA.
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I would like to finish my IFR rating by the end of the year, but moving means I have to find a new club and CFIs. I have been reading about mountain wave and DA, but I would like to schedule some dual with a knowledgeable local when I get there. I am planning my route to move my plane out there on the basis of stick to the flat lands as much as possible.

ActiveAir said:
Tons of cool places to fly to. Will be better again when the restaurants open up. Even though it is taught in flight school, ALWAYS get as much info as you can on CA airports BEFORE you try flying to them. Some are very unique and a little research goes a long way. It is obvious when pilots fly into airports that they did not research ahead of time - patterns, unique situations, communications, etc.
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Where is your go to for airport information? AOPA's airport directory enough, or is there something better?
 
MarkH said:
Where is your go to for airport information? AOPA's airport directory enough, or is there something better?
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Google searches for the history of the airports is much better, especially if they have a website (many do). Also, talk to pilot friends and CFIs. Most folks who live in Southern California make a point of trying to visit as many of the airports as possible, and always talk about the various goings on. Like the mountain on final and in the pattern at Gillespie. Waypoint Cafe at KCMA and Flo's at KCNO. Knowing where you can get FF on the ground and where you need to get it in the air. Cheap gas and a challenging pattern at KSZP. Stuff like that.
 
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