AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019 - 98

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

The precarious
U-turn
It's a jungle out there
B Y S T E V E N M A R K S AC H S

98 | AOPA PILOT February 2019

3,500 feet msl) or south terminus (at 4,500
feet msl), and then flew along the Santa
Monica VOR 132-degree radial. Pilots
were to make blind broadcasts on a specified frequency at certain VFR checkpoints
such as "over the [El Segundo oil] refinery."
Most of us made lots of such blind broadcasts, including extras such as "over the
north runways" of LAX. I'm a big believer
in blind broadcasts in congested airspace
when there's no ATC oversight.
One fine summer day, I decided to fly to
Long Beach Airport (LGB), situated southeast of my home airport in Van Nuys. While
I could have chosen to follow a circuitous
route around the east border of the LAX
Terminal Control Area (TCA, the forerunner of today's Class B airspace), it would
save time and money to use the corridor. It
was always a visual pleasure to fly over the

SARAH HANSON

AIRSPACE IN THE VICINITY of Los Angeles
International Airport (LAX) is among the
busiest in the world, and special procedures
have been employed for decades to control
traffic and maximize safety in the area. One
of these procedures/devices was the LAX
VFR corridor.
In the 1990s, as a then-VFR-only pilot
flying out of Van Nuys, California (VNY),
I would use the LAX VFR corridor often.
Established in 1988, the corridor represented an easy way for general aviation
traffic to transition northwesterly or southeasterly over LAX without having to talk
with ATC.
The corridor's operation was deceptively simple and was very similar to the
operation of today's special flight rules area
over Los Angeles International. One entered
the corridor at either its north terminus (at

Los Angeles area: I knew the airspace and
ground landmarks intimately, and they held
many positive memories for me. Besides
that, it was more picturesque to fly with the
Pacific Ocean just off one wing tip and "my
town" off the other.
Flight Service predicted easy VFR
weather for the entire route, both coming and going: no precipitation, no close
temperature-dew point spreads, and light
winds. I preflighted the Piper PA-28-161
Cherokee, started up, and taxied the long
distance from the FBO, down the parallel
taxiway along Van Nuys' Runway 16R, to
runup. The runup was uneventful, and I
was ready for fun.
The Santa Monica mountains form the
southern edge of the San Fernando Valley in
the vicinity of the Van Nuys airport. South
and southeast of those mountains lies the
extensive Los Angeles plain. Sitting on the
ramp at Van Nuys, the slant-range view out
the windscreen permits only a limited view
of the weather over Los Angeles.
After being granted a straight-out
departure off Runway 16R, I was cleared
for takeoff and climbed at VX to 3,500 feet,
dipping the nose from time to time provide
a better view toward potential oncoming
traffic. After satisfying myself that the controllers weren't talking to anyone inbound
from the south, I asked for and was granted a
frequency change to the corridor interplane
frequency. I dialed in the new frequency.
Just before I hit 3,500 feet, I intercepted the Santa Monica VOR (SMO)
132-degree radial's reciprocal, inbound
to the SMO VOR, ready to continue over
the corridor toward LGB. Everything was
going well so far.
At my target altitude, I leveled the airplane, trimmed for level flight, confirmed
being on my radial, and began the first of my
several blind broadcasts: "L.A. VFR corridor
traffic, Cherokee One-Two-Three-FourBravo, over Santa Monica, Southeast-bound,
3500 level."
Visibility was excellent around me, so
I extended my scan to the airspace south
of LAX, where I would be in a couple of
minutes or so. What I saw was a little surprising: It looked like a fine mist. I could see
through that mist easily. In fact, I could see
the Torrance airport (TOA), before which I

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019

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