Big Bear Airport is only 70nm from Long Beach but is a world away.

Located at almost 7000ft elevation in the east of Los Angeles, you can find yourself in an alpine wonderland in about 40 minutes flight time. My favorite time to fly is a blue sky day after it snows. Instead of driving for at least 4 hours through the LA traffic and up the mountains, you can have breakfast at the beach, take a plane and get in a number of runs on your snowboard before enjoying some chili on the piste for lunch.

Summer also provides a great reason to escape the heat or thenLA basic for the cooler outdoor life of the mountains. There is also a brilliant little cafe (The Barnstorm Restaurant) on the airport which serves a great breakfast while you lookout over the ramp and runway to the mountains north of the airport.

Big Bear Airport provides its challenges due to the changing conditions in the mountains and the effects on aircraft performance of density altitude. For that reason, Angel City Flyers uses Big Bear for its high density altitude flight training and a check-out is required before you go there solo.