Contacting approach for flight following

RalphInCA

RalphInCA

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RalphInCA
Let's say I want to fly the route on the attached image.

This is from CCB to CRQ, with a slight deviation to fly around a Fire fighting TFR.

I want flight following on this flight.

So... This is what I think I should do:

Take off and fly a little north of CCB to give me some time to listen to ONT ATIS and then contact Approach on 125.5. I would tell them where I am at and my altitude. When they answer I would request FF to CRQ.

They would give me a squawk and hand me off to ONT tower.

Then I contact ONT tower and request transition to the south east.

They would approve and then I fly on.

When I get close to CRQ contact them.

Sound about right?
 

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Just call approach, who you are, where you are, what you want (FF to CRQ) . They will give you a squawk and either tell you where to go or attitude restriction or tell you to resume own Nav. Listen for free changes, no need to call ONT tower if you are talking to approach.
 
You would get handed off to different approach controllers not ONT tower. Other than that, it looks good to me.
 
RalphInCA said:
Sound about right?
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RalphInCA said:
Take off and fly a little north of CCB to give me some time to listen to ONT ATIS and then contact Approach on 125.5. I would tell them where I am at and my altitude. When they answer I would request FF to CRQ.
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Take off and contact approach for FF as soon as you leave the pattern and CTAF frequesncy from departing field. No need for ONT ATIS

RalphInCA said:
They would give me a squawk and hand me off to ONT tower.
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They will give you squwak, but most likely will NOT hand you off to ONT tower. Ten Bucks says they say something like cross ONT mid field at or above 2500' and you will stay with approach, although you may get several hand offs to different approach frequencies. ONT will not deal with ya as you will not be in their traffic pattern or landing there. It is approach's job to deal with participating aircraft in the area of the charlie airports.

RalphInCA said:
Then I contact ONT tower and request transition to the south east.
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Once you are on FF, you have established contact with ATC and that is all that is required to enter the Charlie airspace. They will tell ya if they want you to fly something other than direct, but it is on them to tell ya. You do not need to specifically request a clearance. It will be on approach to hand you off to ONT tower if they do that, not you.

RalphInCA said:
They would approve and then I fly on.
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You would just fly on...they will tell you otherwise.

RalphInCA said:
When I get close to CRQ contact them.
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Only when handed off by approach to CRQ tower.

Once you are on FF, they will hand you off and provide the appropriate frequencies and tell you when to change. Having them handy is good advanced planning. Once you are on FF, the walls of C and D airspace essentially disappear since you have met the minimum requirement of establishing contact with ATC and they will provide vectors and routing through that airspace if they want you to fly anything other than direct through it.
 
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DesertNomad said:
And here I thought some changes would cost you.

"Bugsmasher 123, turn left heading 320… that'll be $1".

"Descend and maintain 2500. This one's free".

:D ;)
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No no no. Going UP would be free. It's the coming down that's costly.

"Cloudgazer 1234, cleared to land. $35. $20 with AARP discount."
 
As slow as we are at ONT, you might have to wake the tower up :)
 
RalphInCA said:
Awesome. Even easier than I thought.
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Yes. A few years ago I was discussing FF with an ATC friend who is the boss of a number of towers and TRACONs.

He told me that when we are on flight following, the controller we're talking to has the responsibility of getting clearances for any airspace we're going through (that he does not already own). This includes any tower space that you may be using; he will contact the tower on the landline or there may be an MOA that allows him to do certain things on his own. For example, the low altitude sector locally owns the lowest 500 feet of the 4,000 foot ring of the bravo. So I frequently get "Bugsmasher N12345 cleared into the Bravo, remain below four thousand five hundred."

That said, however, he suggested that the pilot confirm if there is any question: "BigAirport Approach, Bugsmasher N12345 please confirm we're cleared through the LittleAirport delta." On occasion I have gotten a tone of response to this that told me he had forgotten to call but he would be doing it right away. :)

Controllers here might have some comments on this too.
 
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Ralph = I'm based at POC and head off to CRQ for breakfast often -

You really need to be at 7500 to have options on this route since you need to contact SoCal anyway to enter the Ontario Class C airspace - you only get the tower once you have penetrated the airspace - you can call if you are a helo - but normally out of Cable you do the left downwind circling departure anyway to avoid the sensitive types in Claremont . . ..

You will above pattern altitude when you reach the dam - so keep climbing - you are north of the Class C there anyway- contact SoCal - them you are at 3000' and climbing to 5500 or 7500 [its much cooler and smoother at 7500 especially over Fallbrook and such] turn toward the Class C when you get your code and just climb direct PDZ from there - don't head east - you'll just get in the way of the ONT arrivals - over the tower climbing through the airspace is fine.

Get above the ONT tower airspace -

yeah Jeff, its sad, isn't it - this great well equipped airport and LAWA refuses to allow it to 'take' traffic from LAX. . . .
 
comanchepilot said:
yeah Jeff, its sad, isn't it - this great well equipped airport and LAWA refuses to allow it to 'take' traffic from LAX. . . .
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My first duty station for LAWA was ONT, was a fun airport to work at - when I lived in Corona :nono:

Don't get me started on "why ONT isn't the busiest airport in the nation" :goofy:
 
FWIW, if you'd like to emulate your FF conversations ahead of time to practice, PM me and I can give you my phone number or even better, if I can get it, I can give you a controller's number. It is always good to practice so that once I am on the air (and usually in the air :) ), I get it right. Nothing wrong with that.
 
BigBadLou said:
FWIW, if you'd like to emulate your FF conversations ahead of time to practice, PM me and I can give you my phone number or even better, if I can get it, I can give you a controller's number. It is always good to practice so that once I am on the air (and usually in the air :) ), I get it right. Nothing wrong with that.
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I used PilotEdge in this regard to get IFR Comms down,,,worked really well when I hit ATC for real. Very comfortable and was almost 100% the same.
 
All the times I've flown through Class C I was on FF and never had to talk to the tower. Usually this is KSNA flying up the coast. SoCal Approach takes care of most everything for you. I'm based at CRQ and normally they will ask you to advise when you have the field in sight, then cancel FF and tell you to contact the tower. It's really easy.

Last weekend I flew out of KMYF and on the way back SoCal even gave me clearance through the Miramar Class B without me even asking for it. Normally I fly below their shelf, but when they told me "cleared at 3500" I took it. Never had to talk to anyone else til switching to the MYF tower.
 
I tried real hard to go to CRQ on Labor day. Between TOA's 0800 launch time and CRQ's 700' ceiling - didn't happen :(
 
Shoot me a message when you decide to come down. If I'm around I'll come say hi. Have you been to CRQ yet?
 
Probably head there Sunday morning, then on to F70. That will complete my solo XC hours :yes:

Yep, been to CRQ 3 times so far. Twice with the instructor (one of those with the GF in the back seat), and once solo.
 
Old Fart said:
Probably head there Sunday morning, then on to F70. That will complete my solo XC hours :yes:

Yep, been to CRQ 3 times so far. Twice with the instructor (one of those with the GF in the back seat), and once solo.
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Sounds like a great flight. Have fun, be safe up there.
 
StinkBug said:
Shoot me a message when you decide to come down. If I'm around I'll come say hi. Have you been to CRQ yet?
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Sounds good.

Perhaps if you are around, we can hop back in the airplane and fly up and down the beach. I have always wanted to do that.

Perhaps this needs a different thread, but are there any local customs about flying the beaches? I.e. Altitudes for going north vs south, or hug the beach going north, stay out from the beach going south?
 
I'd be happy to hop in with you for a beach flight. No real "customs" that I know of, but there are some high traffic areas and altitudes, especially on nice summer weekends with banner tows. Also a few landmarks to look for that helps with some of the Class B airspace. I've never actually transitioned south of La Jolla, where the SAN surface area starts, but I wouldn't be against giving it a shot!

Most of the banner tows stay around 500', a lot of people fly at 1000' or 1500'. It's a real good idea to be on 122.75 and making announcements "san diego coastal traffic" You're just about guaranteed to have friends :)
 
Is pinnacle aviation still on the field at CRQ?
 
Yep, as far as I know they are the biggest Flight School there.
 
Most of the time if there is a tower, I can get my FF squawk from them and take off with it already going. Once I explain that Flight Aware will pick me up that way and then mom won't worry as much, they are usually copacetic with it, and on the few occasions where they didn't, Approach assigned me a code in the system that got picked up.
 
StinkBug, what's the "procedure" for transient at CRQ - taxi to Western? Have a good friend that has an office close by - she's offered to buy me brunch Sunday before I head on to F70 - but no identified transient there I can see :dunno:
 
Old Fart said:
StinkBug, what's the "procedure" for transient at CRQ - taxi to Western? Have a good friend that has an office close by - she's offered to buy me brunch Sunday before I head on to F70 - but no identified transient there I can see :dunno:
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Jeff, there's some transient parking at the base of the tower. Also, there's a coded gate to the right of the tower that let's you walk to the restaurant that overlooks the ramp, but has it's entry located about 50 yards up the street and to the right of the tower, near the commercial terminal.
 
Looking good for Sunday. Funny - DUATS has a cloud layer offshore, a PIREP I just got from my instructor says "NOT" :)
 
Henning said:
Most of the time if there is a tower, I can get my FF squawk from them and take off with it already going. Once I explain that Flight Aware will pick me up that way and then mom won't worry as much, they are usually copacetic with it, and on the few occasions where they didn't, Approach assigned me a code in the system that got picked up.
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Depends. There are several local Class D airports that will not give squawk codes to VFR traffic. They tell you to contact Approach or Center and ask for it there. There are several other local Class D airports that do it routinely.

I think it might have to do with who is running Approach. NorCal seems good. Travis, no (which sucks because I'd really like to pick up flight following from CCR BEFORE blasting through the Travis alert area). Oakland Center doesn't work either.
 
When you get to CRQ just ask for transient. It's at the base of the tower, and just about right in front of western flight. There is almost always an airmet for IFR conditions at the coast during some part of the day, but generally speaking it's just the marine layer that hangs around in the morning then burns off. Most of the time it's a non-factor by no later than 10am, and doesn't come back til around sunset. Even then most of the time it's only over the western end of the field, so if you head inland a little you can clearly see the runway and get underneath it before landing.

As for requesting FF on the ground, CRQ will tell you to contact SoCal Approach on 127.3 after departure.
 
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