I should know this, but .....

N5922S

N5922S

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
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N5922S
Home Airfield
KJSO
Most of my flying for the last few years has been in the boondocks, so I'm a bit rusty on urban aviation. I'll be visiting a friend at Pearland (KLVJ) and then departing to the north (KJSO). Should I call Houston clearance delivery before taking off from Pearland? What about departure?

Thanks,
JS
 
I think what I would do in that situation is setup a pre-filed flight plan and then call Houston Hobby Tower is what I believe is the correct procedure and say "Hobby Tower, Cessna 8237T at Pearland pre-filed to Cherokee County Airport, Juliet, Sierra Oscar at 7,500 with information Papa. They'll give you a read back and let you know which airspace to stay out of and possibly give altitude restrictions and what not and let you know that you have a specific departure time frame to be airborne before the departure is considered cancelled and you have to call again. At least this is what we always did departing out of a class Golf airport heading into a class Charlie airport for landing... Most of the time we wouldn't even do that. We would just call tower after leaving the runway and let tower know we had a pre-filed flight plan on the books to so and so and had requested flight following and if able they would set us up from there. It's hard to tell in that nightmare of a sectional with all that crazy business going on but it looks like Bravo doesn't start over Pearland until 2,000ft, but remember that's AGL. So in your case your safe to take off and call as long as you stay clear of Bravo
 
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Depart KLVJ and contact approach on 123.8. Tell them where you are and where your going and they will give you directions depending how KHOU is landing. kLVJ is under the 2000' class B so you can depart without talking to anyone as long as you stay clear of the Class B
 
If you don't want to talk, just go due east until Clear Lake, then turn left and stay at 1600 until well past Bush.
 
Kevin H. said:
It's hard to tell in that nightmare of a sectional with all that crazy business going on but it looks like Bravo doesn't start over Pearland until 2,000ft, but remember that's AGL. So in your case your safe to take off and call as long as you stay clear of Bravo
Click to expand...
negative, 2,000' is MSL.
 
docmirror said:
If you don't want to talk, just go due east until Clear Lake, then turn left and stay at 1600 until well past Bush.
Click to expand...

Watch the class D at Ellington if you do that (or talk to them), but yes, that's a viable route. I'd still contact Hobby departure for VFR advisories, though. Note the 2000' tower east of Splendora, though!

I don't know how HOU or IAH are about allowing VFR traffic into the Bravo.
 
In my limited experience they don't let clear you in the bravo much. I haven't flown in that part of Houston though -- I'm always west. You can take the i10 corridor along downtown to traverse east to west. Stay at 1500 on the north side of i10 and you can stay under the bravo.

Anyways, call approach, tell them what you want. They will make it happen.
 
Kevin H. said:
I think what I would do in that situation is setup a pre-filed flight plan and then call Houston Hobby Tower is what I believe is the correct procedure and say "Hobby Tower, Cessna 8237T at Pearland pre-filed to Cherokee County Airport, Juliet, Sierra Oscar at 7,500 with information Papa. They'll give you a read back and let you know which airspace to stay out of and possibly give altitude restrictions and what not and let you know that you have a specific departure time frame to be airborne before the departure is considered cancelled and you have to call again. At least this is what we always did departing out of a class Golf airport heading into a class Charlie airport for landing... Most of the time we wouldn't even do that. We would just call tower after leaving the runway and let tower know we had a pre-filed flight plan on the books to so and so and had requested flight following and if able they would set us up from there. It's hard to tell in that nightmare of a sectional with all that crazy business going on but it looks like Bravo doesn't start over Pearland until 2,000ft, but remember that's AGL. So in your case your safe to take off and call as long as you stay clear of Bravo
Click to expand...

Bravo alts are listed AGL? Oh boy, I'm screwed.

So....in Denver, say BJC...the Denver Bravo just east of BJC goes from 13,000 to 17,000 MSL? Maybe those aren't AGL after all.:yesnod:
 
JoshJ said:
Depart KLVJ and contact approach on 123.8. Tell them where you are and where your going and they will give you directions depending how KHOU is landing. kLVJ is under the 2000' class B so you can depart without talking to anyone as long as you stay clear of the Class B
Click to expand...

I would contact Houston Departure South on 134.45 or just go East and up like others mentioned.
 
No reason to avoid talking to ATC. Learn how to do it right and you won't be nervous about doing it in the future.
 
I'm not the OP, but I just don't like talking to them. Mostly what I get is directions and holds. If I'm not in a class B, my radio is on the freq, but I'm not interested in 'services' from them.
 
docmirror said:
I'm not the OP, but I just don't like talking to them. Mostly what I get is directions and holds. If I'm not in a class B, my radio is on the freq, but I'm not interested in 'services' from them.
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Are you talking about ATC in general, or Houston in specific? What's "typical" can vary greatly in different parts of the land.

I fly regularly around Houston, and always get flight following. I've never been (or heard) any VFR pilot be put into a hold. The only times I'm given directions is to keep me clear of traffic, which I appreciate. Since there's a lot of bravo airspace around Houston that I can't fly through without talking to ATC anyway, there's usually not much of a shorter/more direct route I can take than what I end up with, anyway.

YMMV.
 
My motto is use them unless it's better not to.

Most times I call for flight following I just get it and it's no hassle. I get my little traffic advisories and all is well. Sometime my flight path takes me near the edge of bravo and ATC starts to restrict my movement. If being held at an altitude is okay then fine, I deal. But if I want down and they object or it just becomes more hassle than help then I just cancel it.

Better to bias towards using the service than not, I say.
 
Captain said:
Bravo alts are listed AGL? Oh boy, I'm screwed.

So....in Denver, say BJC...the Denver Bravo just east of BJC goes from 13,000 to 17,000 MSL? Maybe those aren't AGL after all.:yesnod:
Click to expand...

This was corrected above, not sure you saw it. Charted airspace is listed in MSL on a VFR sectional.
 
Captain said:
My motto is use them unless it's better not to.

Most times I call for flight following I just get it and it's no hassle. I get my little traffic advisories and all is well. Sometime my flight path takes me near the edge of bravo and ATC starts to restrict my movement. If being held at an altitude is okay then fine, I deal. But if I want down and they object or it just becomes more hassle than help then I just cancel it.

Better to bias towards using the service than not, I say.
Click to expand...

Just remember that on FF you are still responsible for Bravo airspace rules. Don't forget that since most of your flying is done IFR. They'll usually advise freq changes for arrival at a Charlie or Delta. They can however coordinate other things; in my area they can verify MOAs are cold.

FF is workload permitting however. I've only once not gotten FF and it was at night in open area and hazy VFR.
 
VFR?

LVJ is my home airport. I don't think you'll have much luck trying to leave LVJ VFR to the north. If you make it through KHOU's class B then you might have a hard time being cleared through IAH's Class B. At IAH all 3 East/West runways are usually in use and triple parallel approaches are the norm there. They might vector you over midfield but there's no guarantee.

If it were me, and I like to avoid that hassle, I would fly to Hwy 146 just east of Clear Lake then head north. See attachment for an example. Mind KEFD's Class D airspace. Stay to East of Lake Houston under 2000 ft. This is one recommended VFR route and is printed on the back of the Houston TAC.

Keep your head on a swivel around LVJ. KEFD inbound traffic (F-16, T-38) tend to fly in that area down to 1500'.

Let us know how it went!
 

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docmirror said:
I'm not the OP, but I just don't like talking to them. Mostly what I get is directions and holds. If I'm not in a class B, my radio is on the freq, but I'm not interested in 'services' from them.
Click to expand...

Not sure where you fly, but in my neck of the woods, you'd be spending alot of time on the ground looking up....FWIW.
 
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