When someone puts an invite in a whats app message to come on a sunset flight around Monterey Bay, you jump on it! At least that’s what I thought when I saw it and immediately replied.

Chris is a pilot turned FAO and we attend Naval Postgraduate School together.

He happens to be on the approved pilot list at the Monterey Airport and can pretty much charter one of the planes they keep there whenever he and his wife wants! So cool.

Which is why on Thursday we were driving over to the airport to go for a flight.

HEYO, the plane we would be taking. Max Capacity is four. Chris came well prepared with life vests, 4 headsets, and other emergency gear, which gave me the sense that he really knew what he was doing and he was damn good at it.

I sat in the back seat with Laura, Chris’s wife.

Chris did all of the pre-flight checks while we hung out in the back ready for take off.

Which happened as soon as all fo the checks were complete, and the runway was clear.

Let’s go!

See ya later airport.

Laura and I in the back seat of the plane.

If you think Monterey is a beautiful place to tour on land, you should see if from the sky.

The wharf down below with all the sailboats in the harbor.

Point Lobos

We went out into the bay and flew down the left side and then made the turn to fly down the 1 towards Big Sur.

The color of the sun appeared to be burning the mountains. It was beautiful. Chris picked the perfect day to go out for a ride since the weather has been so dreary in Monterey lately.

There are quite a few rich people that live in these hills, especially in Pebble Beach and we discussed the probability that this was a James Bond Villian house. Look at the winding road you have to drive to get up there.
Flying a few minutes down the 1, we saw the famous Big Sur bridge, and it was a sight to see from the air.

Every time I drive to Big Sur I see this little knoll from the road, and it was really neat to see this from a different angle.

Just after the Big Sur bridge, we turned around to fly back up the coast just in time for sunset. Chris and Laura really planned this perfectly. Laura had the time for sunset and knew exactly when we should turn around. To the point that from the moment the plane started till when we landed it was exactly one hour. These guys were professionals.

Up in the front doing some fiddling on the controls. Ready to turn around.

Shot out the back. If you’ve never flown in a little plane, it’s kind of surreal turning around and seeing out the back window, which also functions as an extra emergency exit if you need it by the way. You can kick it out.

Trying to get a few sunset shots at different angles. This was right as we began to turn.

Turning around.

Half in and half out of the shot.

The sun is starting to set. Hoping for the infamous green flash. 😉
I’m probably posting a few too many of these, but it was hard to pick.

Chris, flying us right by sunset.

Seriously, I’ve seen many a great sunset at sea, and considering that is the highlight of the day when you’ve been over 60 days at sea you really look forward to it. I mean ask a submariner, they don’t even have that going for them.

Flying right into the light of the dying sun.
Heading back toward Monterey Bay.

It’s almost hard to look into this picture.

The sun sinking over the horizon. Chris dipped the plane down to make the sun disappear and then came back up so we could see just a tiny bit again.

Headed back to the airport. Sean, taking a photo of Monterey.

Coming back over land and looking at all of the shopping centers down below.

The highway you can take South to LA or North to San Fran.
Lining up on the runway and coming down onto the tarmac. We shut off the engines on the hour exactly and checked the plane in online. #baller After the plane was secured, we drove over to the airport restaurant for dinner because they have great food over there!

The next morning when I woke up and looked out the window, even the sunrise was stunning so I leave you with that, a beautiful sunrise after an amazing sunset flight.

This article appeared first on The Cassey Excursion.