In article ,
Hamish Reid wrote:

I'll be flying one of our 172's down to Santa Monica (KSMO) sometime in
the next few weeks, probably this coming Friday (returning the following
day). [...]

Thanks everyone for the tips and suggestions so far -- it sounds like
Supermarine will work just fine for the FBO (even with those fuel
prices...), I'll keep my noise down, and I'll keep a look out for the
non-taxiway taxiways. As for tipping -- well, I still don't know, but
it sounds like there's not much consensus there anyway. I
originally come from a part of the world where tipping is only done
when service was exceptional, and the tip might be only 10% at that, so
tipping's always been a mystery for me here.

And I probably should have been clearer about the IFR thing -- I'm
actually fairly famililar with SoCal's airspace VFR (although I've
never landed at SMO before), but part of the reason for doing this
flight is to do it IFR, at least between Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo
and Santa Monica (both ways). I only recently got my IFR ticket, and I
just thought it'd be interesting to try something new -- even if it
means I'll be vectored from here to eternity (I'm based at Oakland -- I
know what it means to be vectored :-) ...).

Thanks again,

Hamish