From: mtc@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Mark Cousins)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Flying in Los Angeles
Date: 8 Sep 92 22:20:30 GMT
Organization: HP General Systems Division

Regular viewers may recall that I live near San Jose/San Francisco but
recently have been commuting weekly to Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles.
I'm now intimately familiar with American's schedule and equipment for that
run :(

Last week I decided to take advantage of HP's travel policy by flying myself
down (and back).  The policy allows me to be reimbursed the roundtrip coach
fare, which won't cover my expenses, but does of course reduce them.

I had been to LA via personal aircraft a couple of times before but not ever
with a destination right in the basin.  My work assignment is in Santa Ana so
I wanted fo fly into John Wayne airport.  Last Tuesday dawned overcast both
here and there so I filed IFR and after some ground delay was airborne at
9:50.  I had filed essentially V107-GMN-SLI and got "cleared as filed" which
surprised me since I figured that the computer would pick something.
Departure was uneventful -- the standard .1 (if that much) of IMC punching
through the overcast layer, and then good flying conditions at 11,000 all the
way.

I got switched to ZLA and they amended my clearance to be AVE-GMN-LHS-V459-SLI
which was a little less direct but still OK.  After Avenal they told me to
skip the Gorman step and proceed direct Lake Hughes.  At LHS I turned
southeast and could see that the whole LA area was overcast.  Before reaching
Seal Beach I got turned south which is heading the wrong way -- I had expected
a left turn to the downwind.  It wasn't a mistake -- that's how it is around
there.  After flying away from the airport for 5 minutes I got several more
vectors turning me back to SLI (left to 030, direct SLI, depart SLI heading
060).  I won't try to recreate the rest of the vectors but eventually I got
turned on to the localizer, just outside the OM, and as soon as I rolled out
on the intercept heading the needle came alive -- a quick turn on.  Just then
I went into the clouds.  And of course I was told to keep my speed up.  So at
glideslope intercept I dropped one notch of flaps and held the speed at 125
kts.  I picked up the airport about a mile out and offered to sidestep to the
short runway but they kept me on the long one although I had this feeling I
was about to be swallowed by a following 757.  I bled off all the speed, went
to full flaps, and landed, clearing the runway in time.  I do enjoy this
instrument flying business.

That night I met netter Barney Lum at VNY for dinner.  This was my first
experience with the SFRA but it was benign.  Tougher was finding VNY in 4
miles of murk at night when I've never been there before.  I poked my way
around the airport and parked the plane; we had a fun dinner.  (Thanks for the
call, BTW!)

Wednesday night another fellow (non-pilot) flew with me from SNA to SMO for
dinner.  (Having the airplane with you is just too much of a temptation.)
Again I transited the SFRA but now was at 4,500 over the canal with SMO right
over there (4 miles away).  A top-of-the-green descent with flaps 10 got us
down quickly and kept the engine at least somewhat warm.  The tower graciously
gave us right traffic for 21 instead of the published left which helped a lot.
Once on the ground I was confused by the lack of blue lights for taxiways.
The tower finally said "turn off the runway -- it's all hard-surface."  Then
entire place is paved!  Not knowing where I wanted to go I turned right then
told ground I wanted to go to the restaurant that isn't the DC-3 (thanks for
the tip Barney).  They gave me a progressive and once again I had a nice
dinner.  Santa Monica is a neat place.  I had to be gone by 11:00 because
takeoffs are prohibited after then.

After that, the plane stayed tied down at SNA until it was time for me to
leave Saturday.  The weather was good the whole route so I dutifully filed a
VFR flight plan and proceeded up toward Santa Barbara, then over the hill into
the Santa Ynez valley, direct to San Luis Obispo, then along the coastline to
Half Moon Bay.  It was gorgeous.  I amended my filed route, altitude,
destination, and ETA a few times but other than that the flight plan was
correct :)  .  (I wanted to make sure that SAR could find me ;-) )

I do love flying . . .

Glossary:

AVE	Avenal VORTAC
BTW	by the way
GMN	Gorman VORTAC
HP	Hewlett-Packard Co.
IFR	Instrument Flight Rules
IMC	Instrument Meteorological Conditions
LA	Los Angeles
LHS	Lake Hughes VORTAC
OM	Outer Marker
SAR	Search-and-Rescue
SFRA	Los Angeles Special Flight Rules Area
SLI	Seal Beach VORTAC
SMO	Santa Monica Airport (also Santa Monica VOR/DME)
SNA	John Wayne / Orange Co. Airport
VFR	Visual Flight Rules (a noun, not a declaration)
VNY	Van Nuys Airport (also Van Nuys VOR/DME)
ZLA	Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center

Mark
-- 
Mark Cousins                Hewlett-Packard Co.        mtc@hpsemc.cup.hp.com
HP-UX VAB programs    19055 Pruneridge Ave., MS 46T5
(408) 447-4659             Cupertino, CA  95014          FAX: (408) 447-4364