PilotEdge Forums

First of all, I just want to thank you guys for providing this service. I finally got comfortable with X-Plane so that I could fly PE in earnest (performance on my rig in P3D in the LA basin is just not smooth enough to enjoy PE, at least w/o turning down most of the immersive eye candy), and in just a few days I can see how this is such a great learning tool!

So, today I was planning a flight from Corona to Bakersfield. I planned to fly north up Cajon Pass to get over the mountains and then turn west via Palmdale. Looking at the airspace, with the Chino and Riverside Delta's right there with Ontario class C over the top, I thought the best way to go would be to request a northbound transition from Ontario Tower through the charlie soon after takeoff, staying under the class C "shelf" at 2700' until I had the clearance. My questions:

- Could I have simply requested flight following on the ground at Corona from Ontario clearance, and let ATC handle my flight around the Chino and Riverside deltas and across Ontario? As it is, I took off from Corona westbound and did a left downwind departure from the pattern, calling Ontario Tower once I was up to get the clearance through his airspace. It turned out that there was just not a lot of time to work out the transition with ATC before I was almost to the Riverside airspace - stuff just happens really fast.

- If I did that (ask for flight following from the ground at Corona), what information should I give clearance so they know what I am trying to do? Do I tell them I am heading northbound to Victorville, for example, to ensure they knew I was planning on heading up the pass after transitioning? Do I also tell them I was planning a downwind departure, or would I be instructed to contact ATC and then be given specific vectors for the transition? Usually its just a direction and an altitude that you give when asking for advisories, and I didn't want to jam up the radio with a long request.

I ended up making a bit of a mess as my altimeter setting was off and thus I busted the Charlie "shelf" by being at 2800" before I had clearance permission. I felt like I was tip-toeing between Chino and Riverside while trying to set up the squawk and let Ontario Tower find me, and avoid a few lingering low clouds that had not yet burned off. I just wasn't sure how the flight following option would work with all of that different airspace so close.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Kevin

Yep, flight following would have solved your issue. Once on flight following they are responsible to coordinate with airspace (except class B). Or they have to tell you to contact a tower or other controller to coordinate.

Give it a shot it works really well and other than the handoffs you will never know that the coordination occurred.

This route is highly undesirable for a number of reasons. Cutting through four separately-owned airspace areas has a much higher risk-to-reward ratio when one considers that the miles saved versus extra miles flown remaining in Class E and G airspace amounts to less than 10 NM.

The idea that you must enter Charlie airspace needs to be kicked to the curb entirely.

What's wrong with flying eastbound along the Riverside Freeway, south and east of the the parallel railroad tracks until the Colton Cement Plant? In the worst case scenario you might need to call Riverside Tower on your way through 2,700' MSL, but even a C152 can make that climb before reaching the Riverside Delta boundary. Unlike your other route, you'd impact no Riverside Airport operations because you 'd fly above their arrival and departure corridors.

Later on, once everything has settled in the en-route climb phase, perhaps I'd consider calling SOCAL Approach, at which point direct Victorville may be approved even before I get to Mt. Rubidoux. Better yet, I'll climb above 5,000' MSL and do that myself. But I'm not going to attempt to fly a course as narrow as 1.2 NM -- the width between the Ontario Charlie surface area boundary and the Riverside Delta boundary -- and risk incurring several different pilot deviations just so I can save 10 NM.

Thank you for the feedback! Yes, you are absolutely correct that climbing eastbound first to get above and out of the way of the airspace would be a preferred and much simpler option. I would need the altitude anyway to get above the mountains heading northbound.

I am going to try the flight again, this time following your suggestions. Also, I may repeat the flight but turning northwest-bound after climbing above 5000, and become more comfortable using flight following along the Pasadena-Burbank route staying north of the Bravo airspace.