Flight Planning: KFUL - KTOA

[thingsis]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out how I would go about that short hop from Fullerton to Zamperini. It is only 18 or 19 miles, but not that simple - at least for me...

Now I realize I can avoid the class Bravo altogether by staying below 5000ft. Yet there are quite a few Class D transitions and they all "touch" each other. I am not sure how to go about handovers and all of that. It surely must be possible...
Also, I see the option of transitioning the Class C Santa Ana (avoiding Disneyland of course), but that would be quite a long way around. But even then, if I get assigned RWY 24 for takeoff, there pretty much seems no way to avoid the Los Alamitos Class D - and there is really no time to establish two-way radio contact it seems.
Anyway, how would you go about this? What am I missing?

Once I have this one figured out I have a second one that I am struggling with. Let's see...

Thanks so much for any input!
Henrik

[Keith Smith]

Go more or less direct, early freq change from FUL, contact Long Beach for transition, then they'll hand you off to TOA tower. Easy enough.

[bobshopsupreme]

I had a quick look. Working my way through the CAT ratings so by no means an expert.

You can stay below the Bravo as you say.

For the Deltas, if you depart Fullerton west you can turn slightly to the right to avoid Los Alamitos. I think you then have 2 choices: you can fly above Long Beach above 2600ft (the ceiling for the Delta indicated in the blue dashed square), or you can call them up and request transition westbound, destination Zamperini. If you are tight for time to call Long Beach you can either get out into the gap between Fullerton and Long Beach Deltas to the north, or request early frequency change to Long Beach tower.

The other point is that if you're in Class E or G airspace you can do whatever you like. So if you need to circle to get radios in order etc. then you can. The GPS/Skyvector magenta line doesn't have to be followed so feel free to buy yourself some time.

[bobshopsupreme]

Dammit. Beaten by a shorter better answer.

[Keith Smith]

Hardly, your answer was just fine and presented a couple of options...nothin' wrong with that!

I'll try to be a bit more thorough. All of these assume you'll jog slightly north to avoid the edge of the Los Alamitos Delta:

Over: As Bob said above, you could out climb the LGB Delta, however, it's 5nm from FUL to the edge of the LGB Delta, so that's 2500ft you have to climb in 5nm, or 500ft/nm. That's a pretty hefty climb gradient unless you do some s-turns to the north on the climb out.

Around: https://skyvector.com/?ll=33.8640431902 ... DVW%20KTOA shows a path around the LGB delta with a quick jog to the north. I'd fly it at around 2300ft, that's about as high as you can comfortably go without the 2500ft LAX Bravo shelf becoming an issue.

Through: Per my original suggestion.

All are viable, just think through the pros and cons of each one and see where you end up. While the Over and Around options are perfectly legal, Socal is a maze of traffic. I'm not sure I'd want to try to skirt over or around the LGB Delta with such tight margins in real life...not for fear of any violation but simply from a traffic avoidance standpoint. I'd rather have LGB tower helping me maintain awareness about who is in the airspace. Keep in mind, Class Delta airspace provides NO formal separation between VFR traffic....but they will certainly try to help.

[thingsis]

Thanks for both of your answers. I had already thought about the "around" option. Since I fly /A I don't really feel like trying to hit exactly between the airspaces. But the other options are definetly worth thinking about. Through is something I will try. As a beginner it really makes you work the radios - good practice

By the way this also answers my other route that I had some trouble with - same principles seem to apply: KSNA - KLAX

These flight are what will get your plane from one CAT rating to the next by the way...

Thanks again for the help!