San Diego north through LA?

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JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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We are flying (VFR) from the San Diego area to Monterey tomorrow. What is the best/ recommended way to transit the Los Angeles area?
 
Simplest without talking to ATC is through the special flight rules corridor. Instructions and routing are on the LA TAC. If you wanna get a bravo clearance there are also several published routes. None are particularly difficult.

Which airport are you departing from? San Diego area is easy if you're fairly low.
 
Is it ok to overfly LA's bravo (over 10k ft) or unsafe/frowned upon?


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It's just like flying over any other bravo. As long as you're above it you're legal, and in my experience there isn't much traffic up there compared to down low. I'm always on flight following regardless though.

If I'm headed somewhere where the SFRA doesn't suit my route and 10k+ does I'll just answer "going over the top" when ATC asks me how I plan to navigate the bravo. Usually they just respond "Roger"
 
I just go direct at 10,500' or 11,500 (directional) and squawk 1200.

You can also go over Catalina VOR and miss the whole mess at any alt you want.
 
ybitz said:
Is it ok to overfly LA's bravo (over 10k ft) or unsafe/frowned upon?
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ATC asked me if I'm familiar with LAX airspace. I simply said "affirmative, requesting Coliseum route". They acknowledged, cleared me into bravo and aside from an occasional traffic point-out I never heard from them again until I exited.

Another pilot I knew decided to go over at 11.5k with flight following and got vectored all over the place (according to him) to dodge the descending heavies.

I think maybe the controllers down there prefer the predictability of the published transition routes.
 
Traffic varies, as do controllers. I've never been vectored around more than "turn right 15* for traffic" then "own nav" 2 minutes later. Usually that's when I'm crossing the SNA departures though. Can't remember ever getting vectored around LA. Who knows, maybe your buddies path just happened to be at the outer edge of the bravo where the heavies were up high still during a busy arrival time.

You could always forego flight following and just squawk 1200 and do what you want. I'd rather get the traffic calls myself though.
 
I once filed a VFR flight plan from Oceanside, to Santa Monica and for my route put "follow the coast 500 AGL and 1/2 mile west of the coast where possible" for my route. I got flight following and when I got to the "Queen Mary" they vectored me right over LAX at something like 2500' and then vectored me to Santa Monica and when I got to Santa Monica they put me into the Class D (he coordinated) and turned me over to the tower. I landed Santa Monica and took off and flew north to Santa Barbara without flight following, although there is no reason not to get it, again pretty much just off the coast. YMMV. Flying just off the coast gives you the beach to land on if you lose your engine, better than the congested streets of LA it seemed to me. Great views too!
 
Sounds like they gave you the mini route. You must have gotten a very friendly controller that day. Usually they ask "how do you plan to navigate" and the only correct answers are one of the 5 or so VFR routes, or over the top. Anything else and you get denied and sometimes scolded.
 
StinkBug said:
Sounds like they gave you the mini route. You must have gotten a very friendly controller that day. Usually they ask "how do you plan to navigate" and the only correct answers are one of the 5 or so VFR routes, or over the top. Anything else and you get denied and sometimes scolded.
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Yup - exactly. I call, and they respond; 'say intentions' or some other horse shift. Then I get to play guess the routing and of course, it's never what they want. So I quit playing stump the chump and I just overfly with my radio on LA appr and txp set to 1200. Let them move big tin if they don't want to be nice about it.;)
 
The choice depends on your intentions around LA and your planned altitude at that time. If you're sightseeing along the coast, then the SFRA or Mini route would keep you lower. If you're simply transiting, then Coliseum or Hollywood Park, or over the top. If low, then SFRA requires no ATC clearance.

See LA TAC


.
 
daemon said:
The choice depends on your intentions around LA and your planned altitude at that time. If you're sightseeing along the coast, then the SFRA or Mini route would keep you lower. If you're simply transiting, then Coliseum or Hollywood Park, or over the top. If low, then SFRA requires no ATC clearance.

See LA TAC


.
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We are on an unstructured tour of the west. Currently we are in San Diego where the weather is extremely MVFR. We want to go somewhere west of the Rockies where the flight rules are at least MVFR. ALso, there is an acquarium in Monterey that Leslie would like to see so we are looking to go north, but LAX is in the way. We will probably just go over it, or around it to the West.

In a few days or so we will try to figure out how to cross back over the Rockies based on wherever we happen to be at the time.

Being retired sure is fun!!!
 
JOhnH said:
We are on an unstructured tour of the west. Currently we are in San Diego where the weather is extremely MVFR. We want to go somewhere west of the Rockies where the flight rules are at least MVFR. ALso, there is an acquarium in Monterey that Leslie would like to see so we are looking to go north, but LAX is in the way. We will probably just go over it, or around it to the West.

In a few days or so we will try to figure out how to cross back over the Rockies based on wherever we happen to be at the time.

Being retired sure is fun!!!
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If you happen to make it to Petaluma, I'll buy you lunch!
 
Sounds like a fun trip. Also sounds like the SFRA corridor would be perfect for you. 4500' northbound right over the top of LAX. Mini Route is nearly the same route but lower and you'll need a clearance.
 
Ya, I'm jealous being stuck in my office. All this may be academic since you may not have the ceiling tomorrow to use any of the VFR corridors through the LA B. Going around it to the W or the E may be the only option.
 
daemon said:
Ya, I'm jealous being stuck in my office. All this may be academic since you may not have the ceiling tomorrow to use any of the VFR corridors through the LA B. Going around it to the W or the E may be the only option.
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We may not even have those options. We are sitting at the FBO hoping the soup clears soon. We haven't turned in the rental car yet so worst case we will drive around an hour or two and see some of Southern CA that way. Then resume the flying tour later.
 
StinkBug said:
Which airport are you at?
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Montgomery. (KMYF)
We didn't make it out today so we drove up to La Jolla. Had a great meal at Whisknlable. We will try to make it out again tomorrow. If that doesn't work we may drive up to Oceanside.
 
Did you do the zoo? It's one of the high points of Sandy Eggo. Also the air and space museum, and Balboa park. SD is a nice place to spend time.
 
Well, there was a brief window of MVFR yesterday and we made it out of San Diego. Transiting LAX turned out to be a piece of cake, but then we ran into the cloud enshrouded mountains. But the Bonanza and my wife (the pilot) did fine getting over them at around 15,000 ft. We finally got to use our bottled oxygen.
We landed at KOAR. if you ever want to head to Monterey, don't land at KOAR. We left there for Salinas (SNS). I don't recommend landing there either, but when the attendant finally returned to his abandoned post, he was helpful and got us a rental car. We drove to Monterey only to wake up to a massive power outage that has still not been fixes. An hour drive north to Santa Cruz got us breakfast and coffee. Hopefully tomorrow we can make the Acquarium. But it looks like it will be Tuesday before we can head back east over the Rockies.
We are still having a blast. This is much more fun than working!!!!
 
curious why you didn't just land in Monterey if that's where you wanted to go?
 
StinkBug said:
curious why you didn't just land in Monterey if that's where you wanted to go?
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Excellent question. We certainly asked ourselves tha too. Afterwards. But this trip is turning out to be a lot of spur of the moment decisions. We do check weather and notams and call for briefings. But we haven't spent much time checking out FBOs, especially when we may decide to change destinations mid flight. Generally, we have found that class Charlie FBOs are more expensive and less friendly to GA than smaller airports. So we goofed due to lack of planning. :redface:
 
Sam D said:
If you happen to make it to Petaluma, I'll buy you lunch!
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Thanks for the offer but it doesn't look like we are going to be able to take you up on it. The way the weather looks we are going to have to start heading back east soon. Next year we plan to take a month and try to make Alaska. Maybe then.
 
JOhnH said:
...But it looks like it will be Tuesday before we can head back east over the Rockies.
We are still having a blast. This is much more fun than working!!!!
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How are you heading back home over the Rockies?

When I moved from Kansas City to Reno in September, I went up and around the north end, basically following I-80 (V6). Stopped at Cheyenne and Ogden to get out, stretch, etc... Both are controlled fields with nice FBO's and fairly cheap full. SLC has a big rock to get over, but the Bo won't have any issues there. I came across at 12K the entire way. Plenty of flat land to find a spot to put down if required. Lot's of interesting scenery out there too.

Cheers,
Brian
 
JOhnH said:
Thanks for the offer but it doesn't look like we are going to be able to take you up on it. The way the weather looks we are going to have to start heading back east soon. Next year we plan to take a month and try to make Alaska. Maybe then.
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Did Alaska from Ma. Last summer did three weeks with stop at OSH. Flying the Alcan highway was a piece of cake,great flight and the weather is usually better inland ,than along the coast in Ak. Doing the west coast next summer,let us know where you cross the Rockies on the way back.
 
JOhnH said:
Thanks for the offer but it doesn't look like we are going to be able to take you up on it. The way the weather looks we are going to have to start heading back east soon. Next year we plan to take a month and try to make Alaska. Maybe then.
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No worries. The offer doesn't expire -- maybe see you next year.
 
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