DH: Exactly. My point was that Palmdale is a very safe spot to circle over because there are good landing sites available had the situation changed and they needed to land with a full load of fuel.

A few years ago either a Quantas or New Zealand flight out of LAX did need to land full of fuel. They took off with two tanks full and one pretty much empty, but once in the air discovered they couldn't switch to the either of the two full tanks - so while they were full of fuel, they were essentially operating on empty. They landed successfully back at LAX (surrounded by many fire trucks), but there was obvious risk of blowing tires, fire, etc.