Thoughts on Military Airfields and restricted airspace

[Talan2000]

Hi guys

I've been enjoying flying FSE the last few days but as fate would have it te planes I want to fly (Bonanza a36 and king air c90) are available at KNZY North Island. And the assignments have been to places like KEDW

It feels lame to me to disregard restricted airspace and a bit lame to fly out of a military field as if it is an uncontrolled field since the real joy of PE+FSE is the realism.

I've flown into KNZY via the VFR corridor after having flight following - but with just a "teensy" class b violation of passing through the oh so thin shelf above KNZY (28-33) before landing. ATC didn't scold me but I felt a bit lame.

Alternately departing KNZY to the south I flew around to the east and entered the corridor nw bound before contacting SoCal for flight following north of MZB. It just seems a bit hokey.

I have refrained from filing IFR from
Military fields but I guess I could and probably should just file and request clearance like any other uncontrolled civilian field..

So my question to you guys - what approach do you take with respect
To maximizing realism but flying out of military bases on FSE?

Thanks

Todd

[Keith Smith]

If you want maximum realism, I would avoid the military fields. There are tons of jobs involving civilian or joint-use fields such that it shouldn't be too hard to avoid them.

However, if you specifically want to use the military fields, then If you want to go VFR, make the announcements on the CTAF then call ATC for flight following in the air.

If you want to go IFR, then call the overlying TRACON from the ground (like you would at a civilian non-towered fields on PE), or center if you're outside of any TRACON, get the clearance, depart on the CTAF, then swap to the dep freq.

[Talan2000]

I think what I'll do then is ferry the c90 over to KSAN. Hopefully nobody snags it as its pretty cheap to rent vs the others. Same with the A36 which really is a favorite. One oddity I found last time I flew I had to pay for repairs on the a36 and must have depleted the owners cash - so he couldn't pay for a refill of gas! Had to suck it up and conduct the flight with only about 10 gal remaining in the two tanks upon landing ...now it's stuck at north island until he gets some cash I guess... Interesting stuff !

Todd

[Keith Smith]

Ferrying it offline to SAN and then starting the flight from SAN is a great idea, I hadn't thought of that.

I've hit the same problem as you with the owner of the MU-2. His plane needed repairs so I took it to a place with an affordable repair station and conducted the repairs. After that, he didn't have enough money left for the fuel I was looking for on the next flight.

You can send money to FSE users, so that's what I did.