Where to fly yosemite
Yosemite! - Cessna 172 Flight with GoPro
hello this is VJ again and today I want
to take you on a trip from Hayward to
Yosemite I've never flown to Yosemite so
this is a really exciting trip for me
and I think you'll agree that it turned
out really well
so let's get started
as we approach yosemite the first
interesting thing we come to is off to
the left here that little body of water
and on that gray area just above that is
Pine Mountain link and that's the last
airport coming in from the Bay Area
before we reach your sanity you can see
on this map Pine Mountain Lake is in the
blue circle and you know some of the
villages and purple circle so this is
kind of the last safe landing spot we've
got before we get to Yosemite and then
you can see we've got another 30 40
miles to go before we get to to the
assembly area now as we leave Pine
Mountain Lake the issue here that I'm
seeing on the horizon is the clouds I
need to be at least 500 feet below the
clouds I'm roughly at about 10,000 feet
here
those clouds looked like they were gonna
be at the same level I was flying so at
this point I wasn't sure and I needed to
keep an eye close eye on that so that I
give the right distance below the clouds
there but also enough distance above the
ground to be safe so that's getting
squeezed on both sides
so here we are approaching the Yosemite
value you can see the river there off to
the side in the valley and again here's
the clouds and at this point I can tell
they are a bit higher than where I am
I've got the altitude there in the
bottom right so seeing about ten
thousand I think my altimeter was
reading about maíam thousand five
hundred but the clouds at this point are
looking like they are going to be well
above me and nine thousand five hundred
is enough to get me a thousand foot
clearance over any of the highest points
at that part of the park that I'm flying
so that that's fine and at this point
the anticipation is growing I can start
to see the valley there straight in the
distance just kind of off to the left of
the nose starting to recognize some
features and it's starting to really get
excited
well this section of the video where we
fly over Yosemite I'm going to just let
it play I'm not going to cut it so that
you can really get a sense of that
anticipation and excitement as you start
to see more and more of the park and it
becomes recognizable so this is going to
be about four or five minutes of footage
straight from the pond
one of the cool things about flying in
here is just the ability to see the
valley from a distance and then it
slowly gets bigger and more detail the
closer I get whereas when you come in a
car you often you'll come through the
tunnel or come around the bend and then
boom there it is and you just get it
kind of all at once again from the fair
here I can start to see it for maybe 10
20 minutes away and then the closer and
closer I get the more and more detail I
can see so that anticipation just really
builds and that's it that was a unique
experience for me experiencing while
you're 70 this way
right about here those of you who have
been to Yosemite you can start to make
out some of the features there and in
the valley
we've got el capitan they're that big
granite rock they're just under the left
main wheel just to the left and sorry to
the right and down of that is a bridal
veil falls and then up above El Capitan
a little bit to the right there's Half
Dome and and then we'll see the Assembly
Falls come around after that but this is
just really a unique view I've been to
Yosemite many times called I've seen
pictures certainly from the tunnel view
those again who've been there that's a
very similar view but not like this
where you can see all of the surrounding
mountains and and the forests all around
the 70 so this is just really really
incredible
this is a still shot here that my
father-in-law took awesome shot here
again and bridal veil falls there on the
right I'll count the town on the left
and Half Dome in the upper middle and
this is a closer shot here of Bridal
Veil Falls
well those who have seen the movie three
solo and if you aren't familiar with
Yosemite that big rock there just to the
lower left of the left main wheel is El
Capitan so go check out free solo Alex
Honnold
climbed that without any ropes it's
the altitude shown here by the GoPro
also brought to mind a couple things one
good thing is that I seem to hold this
altitude within looks like plus or minus
fifty feet the whole time through this
flight which is good the possible bad
news is that somewhat I remember my
altimeter in the plane red nine thousand
five hundred and that is what I was
aiming for because that's one of the
allowed VFR routes if you're flying used
to one an odd thousand plus five hundred
but clearly it's saying on a ten
thousand now that it's it's to be
expected that there's going to be some
difference between the actual altitude
and the measured altitude in the plane
but seeing about five hundred feet
difference there so that's just
something really interesting and I need
to look at that some more next time and
see if I maybe I need to get a better
more recently updated altimeter setting
from the last airport
for me this is one of the most
spectacular scenes in the whole video
being able to see kind of the cemani
Falls and Half Dome all here in one shot
is just really beautiful and it's hard
to take this in from many other spots
other than from the plane
there's Yosemite Falls and Half Dome
I actually hiked to the top of Half Dome
there when I was too easy for my brother
so he had to climb up the face so that
ends our flight over Yosemite we're just
passing over Yosemite Falls as I head
back to the Bay Area I have one more
stop we'll see and then I'll show you
the landing back at a work so I hope you
enjoyed this flight over Yosemite as
much as I did these videos were really
incredible and so thankful that it
worked out
my sister-in-law and brother live in
Lathrop California in the housing
development right here below to claim
unfortunately there's no airport for me
to land on but they were still able to
say hi to us in their own really cruel
whoa can I fly and the rule is that over
a densely populated area such as San
Francisco rather big cities and go as
well as a thousand feet but indent less
densely populated areas which dish is
considered one of those you can go to
500 feet it's not really that safe so I
kept it to a nine hundred to about a
thousand feet here but that's still
close enough to get a good view or
Nathan seems to it
we are coming back into a work that's
the Southland mall and the 880 freeway
so those of you who are familiar with
the Bay Area and as they say in aviation
takeoffs are optional but landings are
mandatory so it's always good to end a
flight and a video with a landing there
was a couple things we'll we'll look at
here in just a minute and I'll talk you
through how this landing one for any non
pilots out there there are two runways
Fiat Hayward there's the larger one that
you can see off to the left which is two
eight left and I'm planning on two eight
right it's a little narrower and a
little shorter but still plenty of room
certainly for a small plane like what
I've got yeah
this particular plane had a small issue
with the rudder trim it was actually
trimmed a little bit too far left so it
looks like my paint plane is kind of
pointed to the left and that's actually
the way it was flying so I had to use a
lot of right rudder to counteract that
and keeping a centerline pretty well
here slowed it just a bit and came down
and then again if I left let off the
right rudder it goes back to the left so
that was a minor thing that I was kind
of fighting with the whole flight but
overall not a bad landing and certainly
a safe one here as we get back into the
airport I'll just end with some more
footage from Yosemite this is really a
spectacular trip so first of all I'm so
happy that it actually worked out the
clouds were concerned and the technical
term in aviation for those who aren't
pilots is get their itis there's just
really a pressure to do something that
you wanted to do a flew an hour out
there and it would have been a power
back so turning around there was a
pressure to do this but you know at any
given time the pilot has to be ready to
divert on maked another decision even if
that's difficult so in this case I'm
thankful that it worked out and I was
able to safely fly around Yosemite and
see this incredible scenery and so I
hope you do get to see this for yourself
but quite honestly this video here is
even better than what I softened inside
the point yeah really I can see a lot
more from this view right here then I
put them inside of the plane with all
the obstacles in the way so I hope you
enjoyed this and I hope to bring you
more very soon thanks for watching
