SFRA or MINI ROUTE

by Al German.

The question frequently asked is when should I use the SFRA and or the MINI ROUTE? What are my options? Depends on location of departure and destination airports, type of aircraft (climb performance) and weather. If it’s VFR, your aircraft has the required equipment, and you are rated in the aircraft you can proceed by either route.

Departing from FUL, LGB or SNA, headed for northern CA airport, most GA aircraft can climb to 4,500 ft in time to use the SFRA. That would be the typical route. If your departure airport is TOA, HHR or CPM, closer to LAX, and your normal climb rate will not make it to 4,500 ft in time, then the MINI ROUTE may be the obvious choice. Transiting southbound through the Class-B, similar options determine the choice of route.

If your destination were SMO, the 2,500 ft MINI ROUTE might be better choice, because the SFRA at 4500 ft would require a steep descent. However, SMO has published a slick brochure with departure and approach procedures when transiting the SFRA.

The SFRA (previously called the “corridor”) is the original hole in the LAX “TCA” (Class-B). As a result more pilots are familiar with the procedure, location and rules. Clearance is not required.

SFRA weather must be VFR per 91.155. No mention of SMO or HHR weather required. Therefore, if you can maintain VFR cloud clearance while inside the Class-B, SFRA route can be used when SMO and HHR are IFR. However, once clear of Class-B (just 2 miles wide), the weather requirements return to the standard cloud clearance. If required, slower aircraft can be passed on the right (within the boundaries). The west and east boundaries of the SFRA are defined by the shoreline and the freeway. Pilot to pilot frequency is available.

The MINI Route is a relatively new route. Clearance with LAX tower is required. At 2,500 ft you get a better view of large aircraft approaching to land. The MINI ROUTE weather requirements are specifically defined; Both SMO and HHR must be VFR and. LAX must be reporting 3,000 ft and 3 miles. When departing the MINI ROUTE north or southbound at 2,500 ft, you enter SMO Class-D airspace at 2,700 ft or HHR Class-D at 2,500 and require communication with the ATC.

Both routes require navigation via the SMO VOR radial. Be aware, they are not the same radial. No boundaries are mentioned in the MINI ROUTE.

If you haven’t used either procedure recently, read the information that’s charted. It’s hard to believe, but CFI’s have been known to fly the MINI ROUTE without a clearance It’s all in the chart requirements! The choice is yours!

Ralph’s Insights

AOPA Flight Training magazine, April 2001 – Insights.

PRETZEL PILOTS
by Ralph Butcher.

Ground track, what’s that?

A student pilot enters a traffic pattern’s downwind leg too close to the runway. By the time he is ready to turn base, his distance from the runway’s extended centerline has increased to more than a mile. The subsequent base and final legs are an amazing se-ries of twists and turns. This guy’s a pretzel pilot because he cannot plan and maintain the proper ground track.

I query the student’s instructor even though I know what I’ll probably hear: “He never does that with me.… I teach ground reference maneuvers in the pattern.… I solo my students in minimum time.… He knows how to fly a constant heading.”

When an instructor tells me that his student never does what I see, I want to hand the instructor a gold-plated barnyard shovel. The instructor has probably never sat back and allowed his student to make mistakes. He probably talks nonstop, cautioning the student about what will happen if certain actions are not taken.

That’s the bane of modern flight training where students and instructors use head-sets, boom mikes, and intercom systems. The instructor who talks all the time is an obstacle to learning. To teach ground reference skills in the traffic pattern is an absurdity. There’s too many other things that must be accomplished and too many distractions. Proper ground reference skills cannot be mastered in a traffic pattern, particularly at a busy airport.

Prior to concentrated traffic pattern work and the first solo flight, all students should master tracking over a road, tracking parallel to a road, rectangular patterns, and S-turns across a road. These maneuvers cannot be taught effectively unless wind is pre-sent. Consequently, instructors must watch for proper conditions and schedule their students accordingly.

No instructor wants to prolong a student’s time to solo, but training priorities should never be compromised in order to minimize the time to first solo. I sincerely believe that instructors who do otherwise are just trying to make themselves look good in the eyes of their peers.

Minimum solo time like minimum certification time means nothing to me. I want to see a properly trained pilot who has truly mastered each required skill.

The ability to fly a constant heading does not mean that the student can fly a specific ground track, because heading control does not require wind and ground-track awareness. Show me a pilot who is not constantly aware of his position and the general wind direction and velocity, and I’ll show you an improperly trained pilot. I can say the same for the pilot who turns to a planned heading and assumes he’ll stay on course.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a traffic pattern leg or a cross-country leg. Specific procedures must be followed. When entering a traffic pattern, pick a line on the ground that you want to track. Obviously, specific lines are seldom present, but specific references are—structures, intersections, or other prominent features. Consider wind and turn to a heading that will allow you to track that line. The student who thinks in this manner can easily fly rectangular traffic patterns.

On cross-country flights, momentarily turn to the no-wind heading when you start a new leg. Look straight ahead, pick a distinctive reference point that is on or near the horizon, and pick one or two references points that lie between that point and your present position. Now turn to your planned heading based on forecast winds and monitor the reference points you selected. Adjust your heading as necessary in order to track the desired course and locate the landmarks you circled on your navigation chart during flight planning.

In both cases—the traffic pattern and the cross-country leg—you now spend the majority of your time looking outside the cockpit at ground references in order to evaluate wind drift and ground track.

Do me one big favor and add air traffic to your scan. Thank you. You are now leaving the realm of a primordial airplane driver and advancing toward the exalted position of airplane pilot.

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