Alex
A bit more triva when we watched it take off after it cleared the water it had a stream of water trailing for about a 1/4 mile that then turned into what appeared to be a mist. In looking at the shape of the bay right after take off the pilot had to start a slight left turn to stay over water, and from what I remember he did an orbit around NAS North Island and back to the bay all other testing was done over water west of North Island, and south of point loma.
Boy has this thread jogged some old memories
Cheers Bob T hope you don't mind