Question for San Antonio pilots

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DaviatorSF

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DaviatorSF
I am in San Antonio this week with my plane. I know the city pretty well but haven’t flown here in decades. I flew into Stinson.

A good friend's young son is convinced that he wants to be a pilot and is absolutely obsessed with planes. Of course, we all want to encourage a kid with that kind of interest. So his mom wants me to take him up, and of course I want to oblige.

My question is whether San Antonio Approach Control is likely to let me do the short flight I have planned. I was thinking to take off from Stinson, fly northwest (just north of Kelly's Class D) up to about Camp Bullis, then turn right and do a couple of turns over the future pilot's neighborhood, which is about 3 miles north of the SAT VOR (still inside the Class C.). After that I’d like to return to Stinson by flying directly over KSAT and then downtown (essentially follow 281) and land at KSSF. I’d probably do the whole flight at 3,000’ or so' which would be high enough to be legal (1000+ feet over everything) and low enough to still pick out landmarks etc.

Does this sound workable from the perspective of ATC? Crossing over KSAT north to south seems like it wouldn’t cause any conflicts with traffic there. I don’t know if there are any local gotchas I don’t know about with my plan.

The SAT area can be pretty busy and I don’t like to take off without a plan. I can modify the plan in real time if needed but I’d rather know ahead of time that my plan isn’t likely to get blown out of the water by the first controller I talk to. So any locals, I appreciate your thoughts. A very eager and excited nine-year-old will appreciate them too!
 
The normal STAR from the north is MARCS ONE that transitions over the SAT VOR at 4000. SAT is also the focal point for the ALAMO FOUR SID at 3000 or 3500.

It’s not unachievable, but you’ll really want to call departure on their landline and see what they recommend.

They used to do an uncharted Tower arrival you could hit from SSF at 2500. Departure vectors you 2500 up the riverwalk and past HemisFair towe to right traffic for a low approach at SAT. From there you could maybe get vectors to SAT then 5C1 which might give you a flyby of the neighborhood.
 
San Antonio Approach is very accommodating. As long as it's not during their heavy arrival times, they'll work with you to do whatever you want to do.
 
The first part of your route will take you right across the SAT 13 approach corridor (and Kelly 16 approach). Timing will be important. Your chances will be best first thing in the morning before the arrivals start to ramp up. Alternatively, take a longer route S around Kelly and around come around clockwise. Either way, when you call Stinson ground tell them what you want to do and they will coordinate w SAT approach.
 
Van Johnston said:
The first part of your route will take you right across the SAT 13 approach corridor (and Kelly 16 approach). Timing will be important. Your chances will be best first thing in the morning before the arrivals start to ramp up. Alternatively, take a longer route S around Kelly and around come around clockwise. Either way, when you call Stinson ground tell them what you want to do and they will coordinate w SAT approach.
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Heading north out if SSF, I usually get vectors across SAT once above 2500, even for 5C1 and/or ERV, but I usually do that in the evenings.

Agree, timing is important and doing the 1604 loop clockwise would get the OP there just as easily, albeit flight time is longer given the standard “remain clear of the SKF Delta”.
 
Thanks for the advice. I told Stinson ground what I wanted to do, they passed me on to Approach after departure, and I essentially got exactly what I wanted, with only some minor vectoring when crossing the arrivals path to SAT. As usual, ATC was professional and helpful.

My nine-year-old future pilot passenger was thrilled out of his mind. I’d forgotten how crazy the winds could get here (when we landed back at Stinson, they were 170 @ 15G35 with peak gust of 50. I was prepared for an adventurous landing and a go around if things didn’t feel good, but it turns out I haven’t forgotten how to land with a gusty crosswind.

Thanks for the local knowledge and advice.
 
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