"Don't fly yourself into a corner" is really good advice. When I am flying, I use the mantra, "Be the monkey". I had to explain this to one of my instructors. You are a monkey, swinging from branch to branch. You don't let go of one branch until you have the other one safely in your grasp. I employ this philosophy all the time when flying. It prevents me from "flying myself into a corner".

:41 - If engine quits at that moment, pray you are wearing your parachute and brought your ridge wallet.

I was the Line Guy that Marshaled you out at VNY. Nice meeting you! Your videos are inspiring. Thank you

Hey Josh! Small world! The plane you got a clip of holding short in VNY was N252SP the very plane I got my PPL in at VNY. Also, this exact route was the one I used for my check ride and long solo x-country. I planned it and flew it the exact way you mentioned in your de brief. The DPE even asked me why I chose the routing and because this exact thing…engine failure. Great video and I’m so happy you were able to experience the amazing VNY!

Every flight should have a debrief. We should always be learning. I like it.

I love your humility, Josh! Showing us your mistakes helps everyone watching to be more aware of possible issues we could face and how to handle them! Your content and skills always shine in these videos. Keep up the great work and I also look forward to the next adventure with you guys!

All I wanna say is that I’ve been watching your channel for a LONG time since before you and your dad bought 80991. A combination of you, the Blue Angels, and my favorite airshow pilot Rob Holland inspired me to finally take my first flight lesson yesterday. And it was pretty gusty but I was comfortable the entire time. Winds were 232 at 10 gust 20. I was in the right seat and 12 years of flight simulator time for me really showed my instructor how confident I was. Even impressed him of how well I controlled the Skyhawk we were flying. I’ve been in watching your videos and taking notes. I hope to see you in the skies one day Josh.

13:35 after landing at an airport in Logan West Virginia in the middle of hundreds of miles of nothing but mountains, I mentioned to a pilot at the airport that there aren't many options if you were to lose an engine. He said, "yup, lose an engine around here, and you're eating trees."

So happy to see your upload schedule is increasing. Yours is truly one of the channels I eagerly await content. Love the instruction, love the safety discussions, and LOVE the adventures. Wishing you the best. From KRBD.

I sometimes flew over the similar route so I took the coastal route closer to Santa Barbara and turned inland toward Santa Maria to avoid the mountainous terrain. It only took a few minutes longer but it was a much safer choice

I remember it well when you said in a video maybe a year or so ago, that as a young inexperienced pilot you were always in the "killing zone". I remember those days too albeit that was in the mid 60s. I never thought about engine failure; at anytime. Crazy stuff. I rode right seat in a mooney to Cape Girardeau, MO back in 69 to ferry another Mooney back to Houston. I worked as an aircraft salesman for Cruise Aviation at Hobby at that time. The Mooney I flew back was not in the best condition and had no radios. The other Mooney took care of communications and I followed the other plane back to Houston and the last couple of hours was at night. In the "killing zone" from the time I left Missouri until I landed. And that's just one story. I have many that could have put me out of my misery. Can you imagine doing something as stupid as that in this day and time?

Josh, I’m glad you’re talking about what to do if your only engine fails. I had to deal with that in my single-engine aircraft 2-1/2 years ago. I was able to land in a field, was not injured, but my aircraft was a write-off. I was able to walk away from the scene only because I had plenty of altitude and visibility to select a suitable Le landing spot. Too many GA pilots do not survive this type of emergency. Since then, I have drastically altered my personal minimums in my flying. I would never fly over terrain such as you had below you on this video flight. Other considerations for me now are to fly in daylight hours only, to never fly over low IFR cloud conditions, and a few others. Keep these videos coming. You’re doing great work.

Some really good airmanship thoughts there. I especially like the don't just plan the air route, plan what you are flying over, and what to do in an emergency.

My goodness, that glass panel! I got my privates in the mid 1980's in 152's & 172's. That kind of panel was reserved for F16's! lol. Took me many years and ratings before I flew glass like that! I still marvel at the panels on small Cessna's etc these days. BTW, talking about being a little uncomfortable in a SE coming in at night, with no where to go in case of engine failure...Atlanta Hartsfield! First time we flew an air ambulance in a T-tail Turbo Lance it seemed like we were over a mass population of subdivisions for half the flight! We both constantly kept an eye out as you should, for a place to sit down if need be. There simply wasn't any.

Love that you take the time to share how you’ll do it differently next time

Great work, and I love the constant self-debrief. I send links to students then discuss various points... Your aeronautical experience becomes ours. I fly down in SD... Enjoy Socal!

Nice to see after following you for years that you're not letting complacency set in. You're still willing to go back and look at what you could have done better.

I could see by 19:50 that your approach was extremely precise and you were going to grease that landing. Nice job! And thanks for posting this and similar videos. They are VERY educational and help keep us safer in the air.

Joshua you and your videos, are an inspiration for all GA pilots, both virtual and real life. I've been watching your videos since you were renting planes to fly. Keep the good work buddy!!!

Love the thoughtful approach to all you do. Best to you and Chelsea fly safe.

Very familiar with this area; my first solo XC was to SMX. Yeah, from VNY I would have flown up the Santa Clarita Valley to Ventura and then over to San Marcus VOR before doing direct to SMX. In regions that aren't flat, terrain is a real consideration in XC flight planning. I wouldn't fly over the highest part of those mountains unless I was up more like 10500. Just for options.

I was at MSN and the line guy wanted me to move right away after startup, he had another plane that he wanted to move to put in my spot. He was insistent I move, the next day I contracted the FBO for find out what was the deal was. It was explained the whole ramp was a non-movement area and I could taxi away from the terminal and finish my checks and then call ground. The take away is your can move away from your parking spot as long as you don't leave the non-movement area.

this is one of the channels I watch and do not skip any parts of video love the way you tell us with little lessons learned and now teaches as by telling a great story Love you guys josh keep up the great work.

9:50 as a ten year resident of LA that’s the most spot on description of SoCal I’ve ever heard

I'm so happy I found your channel. I'm an aspiring student pilot and am absorbing so much information right now. I'm even most the way through an audio podcast of ground school. I've learned a lot, been confused a lot and have been inspired a lot. I love how you operate to the fullest extent of safety first. You explain so well and give great info! Thank you!!

Another wonderful video! Love watching your adventures and the way you've grown from your early KZfaq days!

Your discussion about preflight planning and engine failures made me reflect on my aircraft too. Though I do have an only a single engine which has historically had many issues, I am fortunate enough to be sitting on an ejection seat every time I go fly. Having that peace of mind is definitely nice, but it does make me take for granted my "escape plan" in the case of a catastrophic situation.

I grew up in Lompoc and now live in San Antonio. Thanks for the content, it definitely helps to see other perspectives of engine outs as I make my way through flight school.

New to your channel and I’m already hooked, as a student pilot I’m constantly thinking about “what if the engine quits” I live in the valley you just flew over. I enjoy watching how you communicate with ATC and plan your flight, very methodical and clear. I’m inspired.

Love the Central Coast. I retired from the USAF at Vandenberg AFB, now Space Force Base, then lived in Grover Beach for 17 years. I flew out of SBP.. Thanks for another great video.

Now you're flying over my old stomping grounds. I learned how to fly beginning way back in 79, flying out of Brackett Airport across the street from the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds and finished up at Cable Airport. I believe that Cable is the largest family-owned airport in the country, well worth the visit. I'm enjoying your videos more and more Josh, and I predict a very bright future for you and Chelsey, may God bless you both.

I’ve flown and crossed those mountains at night, definitely sends a chill down your spine.. never fly along them as I usually stay along the coast

Thank you for sharing and all the wonderful safety tips which is also a refresher. Much appreciated. Stay safe and take care.

I find that when flight planning, adding doglegs to improve chances of making it to an airport or landable terrain if case of engine failure usually adds very little time to the trip, but does a lot for my peace of mind.

This was a great watch. I love the humility and admitting to things that could be done better, and reflecting on how your airmanship has developed since you first began flying. Quality content, overall!!

Flying around my area. These skies and mountains are where we fly continuously and we love it. Great vid as always Josh. Sure would like to catch up some time when you two are out this way.

Great video. Love flying over California, and try to avoid the terrain, unfortunately, not always possible. As you said, altitude is your friend, glide distance very important parameter! My second flight instructor taught me that for my privates, plus he drilled in me emergency landings every flight lesson in all possible terrain scenarios. It has to be automatic! Love watching your videos, and enjoy cali :)

Love the videos man cannot wait for the next one!!! Much appreciated!!!!

Always picking up good advice from Josh. It’s so easy to get preoccupied in the cockpit and lose sight of “what if”.

Beautiful! I can express how amazing these videos are! Its impressive to see such amazing content along with some of the safest flying I have seen. Thank you your content helps me a tone in the journey to become the best pilot I can be.

Great Video- from one cfi to another- your instructional style is so needed in today’s training environment. I love to give my students a chance to take their time to (appropriately) get ahead of the airplane.

Save some butter for the rest of us, dang! Great advice on the route planning. I may never pilot any aircraft, but I do enjoy riding along with you and learning what it takes to be a pilot of a small plane. Thank you for sharing your time with us.

Great video! I've done this trip a few times. I like doing the coastal route rather than straight over the mountains for the same reasons you mentioned.

Love your videos and your attitude towards safe flying. I live in SoCal and I like to put 2,000 ft between me and the ridges. We do have downdrafts pretty much every day.

I did most of my training in Arizona so I got used to never plotting straight lines for flight plans. It’s always best to follow roads, be near them or have them as perpendicular cross points.

Love technical videos like this Josh. More please!

Great flight over beautiful country. Thanks for taking us along. I always enjoy your clear description of what is happening.

The more conservative way to SMX from points south is to follow the Santa Clarita river west from SZP to DEANO, then to RZS over the hill past Santa Ynez and up to SMX. You are only over mountains at RZS briefly that way. The Topatopas are super rugged, as you noticed.

Optional places to land is a lesson ingrained with Gliders, Sailplane flights. This awareness is constant and it carried over to my powered flights as well.

Josh, what a great post. Love your radio phraseology, discipline, flows and unwavering use of check lists. Hope to meet you one day … maybe at OSH this year.

I can not wait to see more of this trip. Love you videos and always looking forward to the next one.

Hey Josh, I’ve been watching your series for years and have to thank you for posting your experiences. Hopefully it doesn’t feel like a thankless endeavor to you, so I thought I’d let you know that I appreciate every one of them! Im always stoked when I see you’ve posted a new video. I’m a ppl based in San Diego.

Always a joy to watch your videos. So professional, and it’s clear you and Chelsea have a great time. And as always, lots of excellent advice!

Thanks Josh glad to see content picking back up!!!

19:51 I don't have carb heat in my current plane, but I never heard to put the carb heat in on final to prepare for a go around when learning in the 152. One less thing to push in a higher workload moment!

9:52 love that

Welcome to flying in SoCal. Engine failures in SoCal don’t leave a lot of options. I agree that if you had gone closer to the coast, not only can you ditch in the water, but there are other airports along your route.

Great video Josh. Good points along the way with navigation.

Best course , VNY, CMA,RZS KSMX..lots of options and scenic.

I love that panel. Nice 172!

I remember my instructor saying a lot of the same words you were saying about pick your place to land, just in case. Continue those thoughts and mantras.

I flew out of KWHP and thinking of being in the air again this year. Love seeing local content!

so glad to see you again.... great video, as always

Great video. Lots of memories. Worked 30 years of my career in the oil industry in the Santa Maria area. Logged a couple hundred hours as a passenger on an S76 traveling to and from the 4 offshore platforms off Pt pedernales Pt Arguello from SMX and Lompoc. And I just attended the last air show at SMX while visiting recently. My son in law works airport maintenance and got me a VIP ticket. You are a very professional pilot. One of a few that I would trust to fly with under part 91 general aviation.

Oh my gosh, this IS AMAZING!!! you really break things down and make it easier for the public to understand!! Please please please keep making these videos

Hi Josh, great content. It’s been 15 years since I’ve flown GA - amazing how much it has changed in the way of avionics. I love the back to grassroots approach you have to flying. Keep it up!!

this is inspiring, im in flight academy right now to chase the dream of airline pilot and your attitude is exactly what im aspiring to be. great video and will watch more!

We begin naive, then evolve, always learning. You debreifed yourself. Recognize mistakes and hopefully learn from them. Good work.

Great content Josh. I’ve been watching your channel for a couple years now, and every single one of your videos helped me through my PPL which I just got this past September, and now through my Commercial. I find I learn so much from your videos that sometimes you can only learn from word of mouth. I appreciate your videos and hope to meet you in the future if you’re ever in Southwestern Ontario (Canada) again! (I’m actually based 30nm northwest of CNY3)

Awesome production value! The video clarity is amazing. A step above for sure.

Glad you mentioned emergency landing spots. This is my home turf. I would not fly direct as you did. Flying this route within gliding distance from one airport to another KSZP, KSBA, KIZA instead would only add a few minutes to the flight - well worth it. Fly Safe

Love your videos and your professional approach to flying.

“Efficiency comes with proficiency” that’s good.

I use the same line of thought about flying paramotors. I always am looking for a place to land. I always keep a landing site in sight. Great content as usual Josh!

Great video man! Thank you

Awesome video! I will be flying to San Diego and Los Angeles this summer from Kansas City Mo in my 172, can’t wait.

Nice video! I especially liked how you recognized the nasty terrain during your flight.

Love the implemented visual effects and deep dives into your ADM! ❤

The narration of thought processes and reflections in this series is absolutely amazing and invaluable. Thankyou for sharing your time, effort, and knowledge. You are making better pilots.

As always, great content sir. Keep it up.

Well done. Listen to this pilot, he could save your life. Excellent video.

“Living at the center of their own universe.” Perfectly stated.

Good morning from Minnesota!! Great episode!

Great perspective! Excellent and informative video🫡

Another great video! Thanks for your fantastic content! I own a Cardinal, and have been flying for 10 years, but I learn something new every time I watch.

Beautifully done! Editing is always top notch 🤩 that landing was pretty good too!! 😉Thanks for sharing! See you soon ✈️

Thanks for the vid. Recently I have been flying between the LA basin and northern CA and flying over those mountains. I will take 10 min extra if needed to fly close to a free/highway , esp over that terrain. I experienced an engine failure a few years ago (PA32) and was lucky to glide it into a small airport. I had the routing planned along roads and airports, not a straight line. No single engine at night or low IFR over the mountains for me. (30 yr piloting for an airline) happy landings

During COVID I went up on a refresher flight from KMCA and over Ventura County, the strangest thing was basically all international flights were not flying and I was one of the only people in the sky over all of Los Angeles. So bizarre to think about. Also the hairs on my neck went up the moment you said you'd clear the terrain at 1000' AGL. You're totally right in looking at going more coastal. I think that's something that has been intuitive for me having also done many hours in FSX and Prepa3d where I developed USA wide terrain databases with real aerial imagery for familiarization with local terrain. I wrote a lot of the Game Design Documents for Dovetail Games Flight Simulator World which ended up over at Asobo for MSFS and am thankful it now has global aerial and satellite imagery.

Great video! My home airport is San Luis Obispo (KSBP) and I did my first cross country to KVNY and have done that flight many times since. My CFI called the mountain range you flew over the "people eaters" and said the only time you want to fly over them is in a twin or an aircraft with a parachute, just like you mentioned. The safest route is via the San Marcus VOR (RZS), unless there are high winds across the mountain, then Gaviota VOR (GVO) will give you more terrain clearance and less severe downdrafts.

Cool video, very nice landing. Thanks for sharing. Cant wait to get back into flying

When you mentioned planning and if the engine quits, had me think of the Kobe Bryant flight. Even though weather was different, you always have to be on your toes. Nice landing!

Thank you for sharing your hard earned knowledge and I love how you intertwine your philosophical prose.

Good stuff! Good comments on planning for what if, & those down drafts can really impact performance! Too many pilots have been caught with no power and no safe landing option. Single engine at night really cranks up the risk too. My Dad was a commercial charter pilot operating in the Canadian Arctic, he owned what he flew a '55 Cessna 180 a Helio Courier, later a Aztec. One time he was inquiring about a short contract in the Arctic islands they told him "not this time we want a twin, this involves ocean flying. They chartered a Aztec from someone else. So a little later they called him back and said " you still interested in that flying contract? " The Aztec had a dual engine failure enroute ( the Aztec had 2 outboard fuel tanks & 2 inboard, the outboard drain into the inboard through a valve operated by a bowden cable ) this cable got stuck thus the fuel in the tanks couldn't be used. The Aztec slide to a stop on a ice flow in the Beaufort Sea nobody hurt. Dad did the 5 week contract with his '55 Cessna 180 it was very reliable, best money he ever made that summer (1971). Bottom line you never know what unexpected thing can happen so plan with this in mind.

Thank you for the video.

Great video!!!!! Thank you

My first 2 interests as a young boy was line flying airplanes and gas engines. I rebuilt the family garden tractor when I was 12. I went on to build snowmobile and motorcycle race engines, and a couple dozen 454's for Modified Sportsman race cars. It all gave me a good understanding of engines. My 03 GM pickup w/a 4.7 LS I drove 490k miles. Last time I saw it, it had 600k miles on it and was running strong. No big secret. Fluids. It has to lubricate and cool the combustion. Cycles and use dictate changes. The more cycles (cold>RT>cold), increase change frequency. Long runs @.75% add time. Calculate your change time, then * 0.80, and that's when to change it. It's a lot less expensive changing oil/filter than it is changing engines! Oil starts to degrade in the first hour of operation. A piece of bright white paper, and a few drops from the dip-stick will help your decision. Factory spec's are guidelines. The first hour is too soon, beyond that it's subjective. Just a few thoughts... Peace --gary

fantastic video, your quality of content is top notch.

I'm starting to teach my son to fly. Every time we go up, I pull the engine on him somewhere in the flight. By the time he gets to his PPL checkride it darn well better be engrained into his head to always be thinking about options! Also, great point about the intersection departure and about accepting what ATC gives you. I always remind my students, the controller is not in your airplane, does not know your performance calculations and procedures. If you can't do or don't feel comfortable doing what they are asking of you - speak up! It never hurts to ask for alternate instructions. You are the PIC.

Great flight. Thanks

Good insight on terrain considerations. Something we think about often in NE Oregon.