It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and nobody was flying. My open-cockpit biplane, a Great Lakes 2T-1A-1, was just the answer for a relaxing start to the day. It’s a great airplane for sightseeing. It flies low and slow, and turns on a dime. I departed Montgomery Airport (KMYF) in San Diego and put down at nearby Gillespie Field (KSEE) for a delicious cheese omelet. When I departed, it was still a ghost town; the Gillespie controller even offered an intersection departure on the perpendicular runway, just for fun. I departed into the clear, gorgeous empty sky. What could possibly go wrong?
An Alpha Male Flirts with Bravo Airspace on a Sightseeing Excursion
Key Takeaways:
- A pilot, confident in his GPS tools and experience, navigated his biplane very close to Class Bravo airspace near San Diego without communicating with Air Traffic Control (ATC).
- Despite technically remaining outside the Bravo airspace (thus being "legal"), his proximity and lack of communication forced ATC to assume a potential conflict and divert an inbound commercial airliner.
- The incident highlighted that while technically legal, operating near controlled airspace without communicating intentions can cause significant stress, delays, and costs for ATC and other aircraft, emphasizing the importance of communication beyond mere legality.
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