Camarillo, CA
Famous SoCal fly-in spot. Buttermilk pancakes are the signature. The CAF SoCal Wing museum is on the field with WWII warbirds. Coastal approach with Channel Islands visible.
Built 1942 as Oxnard Army Airfield, training P-38 Lightning pilots for the Pacific theater. Closed 1976 and transferred to Ventura County 1977. Today home to the Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing — a flying museum with a B-25 Mitchell, P-51 Mustang, F8F Bearcat, SBD Dauntless, and a hangar full of more WWII iron. Wings Over Camarillo airshow runs every August. The Aviation Museum of Santa Paula is 20 minutes east.
Eight rocky islands off the Southern California coast — five are the National Park (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Santa Barbara). Often called "the Galapagos of North America" for the endemic species evolved in isolation. The 250-foot Arch Rock at Anacapa is the iconic photo. Fly the channel from KCMA (Camarillo) for spectacular views — sea cliffs, sea caves, and elephant seals on the beaches. The waters around the islands are designated marine sanctuary. Approach the islands carefully — they're windy and the swells are real.
They call it the American Riviera, and from the air you see why: a red-tile city pressed between the Santa Ynez Mountains and a south-facing stretch of the Pacific. Mission Santa Barbara — the "Queen of the Missions," founded 1786, the 10th of California's 21 — sits on a rise above downtown with its distinctive twin bell towers, still run by the Franciscans, a National Historic Landmark. The look of the whole city traces to a single day: the 1925 earthquake leveled downtown, and Santa Barbara rebuilt entirely in Spanish Colonial Revival — white stucco, red tile, wrought iron. The crown of that rebuild is the 1929 County Courthouse, a Spanish-Moorish masterpiece whose clock tower gives the best view in town. The 1782 Presidio (Spain's last Alta California fort) and Stearns Wharf, the oldest working wharf in California, round out the waterfront.
Where Kelly Johnson's Lockheed Advanced Development Programs — the Skunk Works — designed the U-2 (1955), SR-71 Blackbird (1964), and F-117 Nighthawk (1981). The original Plant B-1 sat at Burbank Airport's northwest corner. The Skunk Works moved to Palmdale (Plant 42) in 1989 and the Burbank land was redeveloped — today an Empire Center shopping mall covers most of the historic plant. Pirep marks the site for what happened here, not what stands now: the airplanes that won the Cold War were drafted on these blocks.
Tucked under the Verdugo Hills at the east end of the San Fernando Valley, Burbank calls itself the Media Capital of the World — and earns it. Warner Bros. built its 62-acre lot here in 1926 (still 36 sound stages, including one with a two-million-gallon water tank); Walt Disney moved his studio to Buena Vista Street in 1939 on the success of Snow White; NBC's "beautiful downtown Burbank" became a national punchline on Laugh-In. The three sit clustered in the Media District along the LA River. There's an aviation thread too: the airport you fly into was the home of Lockheed's Skunk Works — the U-2 that found the missiles in Cuba was built feet from the runway, before the operation moved up to Palmdale. Comedy, cartoons, blockbusters, and spy planes, all in one valley town.