Helicopter operations

[helicopterjoe]

Thanks for the info Peter!

[helicopterjoe]

I've got another question for Peter, or Greg or whom ever might be reading this from PE. Are the controllers familiar with the Los Angeles VFR Helicopter routes? I asked for a Bull creek departure out of Van Nuys tonight and it seemed to cause a little bit of confusion. Nothing crazy, it just took a little longer to get my T/O clearance.

[Peter Grey]

Are the controllers familiar with the Los Angeles VFR Helicopter routes? I asked for a Bull creek departure out of Van Nuys tonight and it seemed to cause a little bit of confusion. Nothing crazy, it just took a little longer to get my T/O clearance.

Yes and no. During your flight today the controller working tower was a new trainee controller and was working his first live session on the network (I was monitoring and instructing him in the background).That was the main reason for the hesitation today.

We have some familiarity with the helicopter routes, honestly in the 10 years I've been working virtual ATC in the ZLA area you're the first to ask for a specific helicopter route outside of KLAX. So as a result there was a quick look up of that specific route you used.

Unlike real world controllers we don't memorize our airspace as there is simply way too much to memorize (remember we are covering airspace with 2 people that 200 work in the real world), as a result we use quick lookup's for most things.

Our lookup's don't currently include most helicopter routes (except the ones around KLAX). Feel free to fly them, but you can expect a few (hopefully small) delays as the controllers get up to speed.

As helicopters are suddenly more popular on the network we will get some guidance out to our staff on helicopter routes.

[helicopterjoe]

That makes perfect sense. I figured out you had a small amount of people working large areas, but i didn't think you guys were covering so much with so little. That's an impressive amount of traffic to manage with just one person. This does however, bring up another question. I wished to land direct to a certain spot at an airport, how would you like that request to be worded? For example, Flying into Van Nuys I would request a Stagg approach to the Airtel. With the controller not knowing precisely where that is on a virtual representation of the Airport, would I just request a landing to the south eastern ramp? Or should I just keep my landings to established helipads represented in FSX?

[Peter Grey]

The best bet would be to request a landing on the SE ramp, Airtel isn't on any of the look-ups we use to determine airfield locations. The Stagg arrival is on the chart so we should be able to look that up, but don't be surprised if it takes us a minute.

[helicopterjoe]

Good to know, thanks!

[helicopterjoe]

I've got another question regarding Helicopter operations.

There's add on scenery that provides most if not all of the helicopter landing areas in los Angeles. Most of these landing areas are outside of an but there are some that aren't. Specifically, some within the Class D at Santa Anna. For example, the Baldwin base heliport (31CA), the Park Place Helipad (88CL) and the Autrium heliport (0CL5). All three of these are very real places, but not not depicted on any chart I can find.

So far, the only off airport place I've landed is the Jamboree center helistop (3AC2) which is depicted on the Los Angeles Helicopter route chart. I'm aware that the controllers don't have the airspace memorized, so they probably have no idea where these areas are. What would be the best way to go about utilizing these landing areas without causing confusion and jamming up the radio?

[Peter Grey]

We actually will have the helipads on our radar screen. Just give us the airport code and we will be able to locate it. We won't know them by name however.

[helicopterjoe]

so refer to it by it's airport identifier, instead of the name, is that correct?

[helicopterjoe]

I misread your post, I got it now, thank you Peter!