Welp, had my first bad flight.

[Marcus Becker]

Keep pestering Marcus - make him earn his keep!!! Make him work!!

But... but... but... No! Maybe we should all convene in DLH as student pilots and fly the pattern for a couple hours and see how grey your hair turns. Actually, I would like that. Maybe someday.

[gsuoumu]

This is a great lesson. I just did a flight today from N07-ASH where I literally couldn't get a word in with the approach controller on 127.60 (the local freq for NY Approach) to request flight following. I calmly listened in, avoided the Bravo and nearby Delta airspace, flew along for 30nm and then figured I would just try the next sector that I'd normally be speaking to at that point.

There were so many lessons learned. But the main ones were that I didn't plan effectively and if I had I would've probably realized the Flyways were a better option. A favorite Broadcasting professor of mine, who has since passed away, used to always remind us of the "6 Ps of Production" - "Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Production". I've kinda treated that phrase as it holds true with everything as life is a production. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Production.

Slacked up on planning for one moment and made a fool of myself. Live and learn.

[jiva602]

Realizing that flight following is a workload-permitting service is a great take away for this situation, along with the realization that you need a plan B for how to handle the airspace if you can't get radar services from Socal (fly above the Deltas, or call tower for a transition).

I was reminded of this lesson two days ago as I was having some transponder issues this weekend during a busy time for controllers. Pilots were stepping on each other like crazy and I didn't hear anything from Socal and was fast approaching new airspace so I decided to call tower directly even though I was "getting advisories". The controller actually thanked me since my transponder wasn't working properly and everything worked out fine and the flight was smooth and safe. If I hadn't remembered Keith's advice (from a previous post/workshop), I might have just circled and waited endlessly to get a word in or inadvertently busted the airspace. I have yet to start my RW flight training but this type of event is giving me some confidence (and calm) that will hopefully someday be useful during RW experiences.

Live, learn... enjoy

[Ryan B]

Keep pestering Marcus - make him earn his keep!!! Make him work!!

But... but... but... No! Maybe we should all convene in DLH as student pilots and fly the pattern for a couple hours and see how grey your hair turns. Actually, I would like that. Maybe someday.

Some is already gray... and I don't have much left anyway!

Pattern work isn't my favorite thing to do.... we actually don't do a ton of pattern traffic. We do more practice approaches/crossing runways/large variety of aircraft being sequenced by radar. 1 or 2 in the pattern is common. But once you throw in that other stuff it get's fun.

[Oceanic]

Realizing that flight following is a workload-permitting service is a great take away for this situation, along with the realization that you need a plan B for how to handle the airspace if you can't get radar services from Socal (fly above the Deltas, or call tower for a transition).

Keith, what is the most appropriate way to actually coordinate transit your self with the tower in this situation? Request frequency change from Approach, then switch to tower for coordinatation, and once clear of Delta, swtich back to Approach? Or maybe coordinate with the tower on COM2, while sticking with approach on COM1?

Appreciate your answers.

[Keith Smith]

Oceanic,

It's a tough call, but I would not establish radar service, then ask to swap to a tower, that's just poor planning. I would try not to put myself in that situation to begin with, but if I did, I'd just avoid the Delta, or just verify that they've coordinated the transition. It's a tough call because in many cases, the top 500ft of a published Delta gets delegated to the overlying approach controller so they don't even have to coordinate the transition. When it doubt, ask. If you've had flight following for a significant amount of time, then there is no reasonable doubt. Short of that, though, a query would be appropriate.

I would also not make it your life goal to be flying low enough in cruise that the Delta airspace is a constant factor. Generally speaking, your cruise altitude on a cross country flight is going to be above the Delta ceilings, so this shouldn't be a constant factor on every flight. If anything, it might occur on the arrival leg of a typical VFR flight into congested airspace, or perhaps on the departure.