Jim wrote:

11.5 going down, 10.5 coming home puts you over the top of the LAX Bravo,
no
vectoring or VFR corridor required.

Me? I'd get out into the Central Valley as soon as I could (probably over
Livermore) and take a straight shot at Gorman. Then a straight shot for
LGB
and begin your descent. Then coastline until you clear the restricted
area
by Camp Pendleton and hang a left direct MYF.

Be CAUTIOUS of MCAS Miramar. The airport layout is similar to MYF -- a
set
of parallel E-W runways with a single crosswind runway. San Diego
approach
has some of the nicest controllers I've ever had to deal with.

If you like Mexican food, Casa Machado on the field at MYF is very good.
If
your bird drinks 80 octane, you can still get it at Gillespie field about
ten minutes to the east.

Excellent reply. We did the flight today in an Arrow (Monday). Took off
from RHV (IFR to VFR on top) pretty much direct Gorman VOR (GMN). Started
at 5500 ended at 9500 over GMN. Then to VNY and the Hollywood Park
Transition. There was stratus in the LA area and we picked up our pre-filed
IFR near Oceanside VOR (same as the Camp Pendleton + left run you
mentioned), ended seeing the airport(s), took the visual, and landed at the
correct airport. All in all it was amazing that, considering the
mountains/airspace etc, it was essentially a perfectly straight flight, very
little 'dog-legging'. We had lunch at Casa Machado - good food! After the
business part of the trip was complete, we pretty much did the reverse route
coming back.

Surprisingly, our GS was about 120 going there and 145 coming home - I had
the leg coming home. A lot of flying, but an excellent flight. The
Arrow purred the whole way, but as we got closer and closer to Harris Ranch,
the Arrow kept wanting to bank to the right - strange... As my friend put
it, we tried to put it down in Harris Ranch, but overshot that runway by
100.1 nm.

Thanks again for all the posts and information.

Hilton