Another Sunday morning in the Champ

[beaky]

Expecting trouble from the Santa Ana winds that were brewing today, I decided to play it safe and just scoot up the coast a ways. Wind was calm when I left Brown, and the sky was very clear.

Flew the VFR corridor over the city; here's KSAN from 3500 on the way north.


     


It got really bumpy by the time I got to Oceanside, so I decided to hightail it home.
That's the Torrey Pines golf course, with the cliffs nearby where people go hang-gliding.

     



Re-entering the corridor... that's the Ocean Beach/Mission Beach/ Seaworld area.

     


Abeam NAS North Island, where I watched the auto races yesterday.

     


About to make my turn east, just north of the Imperial Beach NOLF... the wind was starting to gust out of the southeast, and was northeast gusting to 16 by the time I got into the pattern. Bumpy as hell, too, but I made an acceptable 3-pointer  there, ending a 2-hour flight.

The airport is in the upper center of the picture... note the dust clouds to the SE... as I was entering the pattern, a dust devil was just passing by the far end of the runway.  :o

[a1]

Visability over in SOCAL is really good today.

[Brett_Henderson]

That's a fancy bit of GPS-less, airspace negotiation  8-)

I don't like to admit it, but when I'm near complex airspace, I'm addicted to GPS  

Great photos, too  

[beaky]

That's a fancy bit of GPS-less, airspace negotiation  8-)

I don't like to admit it, but when I'm near complex airspace, I'm addicted to GPS  
Great photos, too  

They key for me in this case was to fly it first with Bob calling the turns, early in our lessons- I was able to start visualizing it. And after a spiraling climb over the NOLF (which is inactive on weekends), I just have to stay at 3500 the whole way.
I know that I wasn't at a recommended VFR altitude for those headings (flying N/NW), but the narrowness of the corridor and the "right-lane" rule make it much less likely that a midair will occur, compared to, say, a Victor airway.
And I didn't want to waste fuel climbing to 4500...

Sure enough, today I heard a Cessna call entering the corridor from the north at 3500 as I was entering from the south. This should have been no big deal, but I was having trouble getting the guy to update his position. He just kept calling "in the corridor, southbound at 3500".
 When he called "over the bridge" I was just arriving there myself; didn't see him. Ulp. But as I scanned left, there he was, way out near the beach... not the bridge... so it was fine.
Just gotta use that CTAF and keep a sharp lookout.

And definitely update your altimeter setting often...

[Mobius]

Great shots Sean.  Do you have to be in contact with ATC through the VFR corridors, or can you just fly through them unannounced?  I think I would be addicted to GPS through that kind of airspace too.  Heck, I'd probably use GPS, Loran, RNAV, VORs, ADF...

[Brett_Henderson]

The only VFR corridor I've flown, around airspace anywhwere near that complicated, was Lakeshore Drive, Chicago.  I didn't want to just pop into O'hare's bravo control and hope for the best (sometimes they'll deny you).. so I initiated VFR flight following with Gary, Indiana and had him turn me over to O'hare approach... Funny thing though.. even though I still had a transponder code, all he did was give me a frequency to monitor.. kinda like a CTAF for the corridor. A GPS wouldn't have helped much anyway, as it was simply a matter of staying below 2500msl and over Lake Michigan..

I took it upon myself to squawk VFR when I cleared the corridor.. contacted Waukeegan for a simple VFR airspace transistion and that was my last ATC contact  for the day...

[Aerophile]

Nice photos!  Looks like you had fun.  

[beaky]

Great shots Sean.  Do you have to be in contact with ATC through the VFR corridors, or can you just fly through them unannounced?  I think I would be addicted to GPS through that kind of airspace too.  Heck, I'd probably use GPS, Loran, RNAV, VORs, ADF...

No 2-way required. No transponder required. But believe me, if I had a transponder I would ask for FF there to help spot traffic. That "phantom Cessna" had the hair on the back of my neck  standing up for a minute there.  :-/  
Having 1000 vertical feet spacing doesn't make it much safer- planes could still overtake each other. Especially if they're not reporting position...
Good visibility helps, though.  ;D

But it's really easy to transit the few miles of the corridor by pilotage without busting the Class B. If you look at the TCA, you can see there are plenty of good landmarks. The corridor is pretty tall, too.

The real challenge  isn't the airspace, it's the potential for conflicting traffic.I mean, if I wanted to, I could fly the Champ through there without even using the CTAF.  No strobes, BTW...

Better to forget the GPS and keep your eyes outside!

[Aerophile]

No transponder required.

I guess the champ doesn't have an alternator or generator??

[beaky]

No transponder required.

I guess the champ doesn't have an alternator or generator??

It has a wind generator, but that just keeps the battery topped off for the comm radio (which is required for Class D ops).  There are also lights installed, but I don't know if they work and don't have any desire to fly something like that at night, anyway (no gyros).

[Aerophile]

That makes sense.  I was wondering how you got around not having a transponder in a mode c veil.  Gyros are for suckas.  :D  (my instrument students sometimes refer to me as the partial-panel nazi.  They really hate it when I give them partial-panel during an NDB hold or during an NDB approach)

[Brett_Henderson]

[quote]Gyros are for suckas.

[Willit Run]

Great shots, Sean!!

The skies around San Diego never seem to be as bad as they are around LA.  That dust blowing in looked like it could have been a problem!!

I'm sure it had to be real rough up there when the winds kick in.  A small plane like that must get bounced around pretty bad!!

[Aerophile]

Gyros are for suckas.    (my instrument students sometimes refer to me as the partial-panel nazi.  They really hate it when I give them partial-panel during an NDB hold or during an NDB approach)

And that's one of best examples of how MSFS can help in training. You can drill UNOS until it's second nature  :)   And get a real feel for how accurate timed, standard-rate turns can be...

This is true, but no matter how many times I tell them to go home and work it out on FS they still don't do it. I guess because FS becomes work and it's no longer fun.  

[Fly2e]

Great shoots Sean!
Thanks for sharing them!!

Dave