How hard is it to see the airspace while you're in it?

[Ncm722]

Trained out of Livermore. I could recite the SFO Class B floors and still not see the shelf once I was under it. Curious how this lands for people who teach it, not just people who memorized it.

 

[NovemberEcho]

I find all classes of airspace generally look the same. Usually blueish, except at night

 

[Inverted]

Trained out of Livermore. I could recite the SFO Class B floors and still not see the shelf once I was under it. Curious how this lands for people who teach it, not just people who memorized it.

I taught out of LVK for years and years, and I am a DPE out of CCR. Just saying hey!

To answer your question, I never taught students to memorize shelves. Now days with GPS in basically everything. I would focus on making sure students know where they are and where they aren't when it comes to airspace.

 

[GolfChuck]

I learned in the NY area the old fashioned way with pilotage, charts, and occasionally DME. I never worried about violating airspace, but I was always thoroughly self-briefed before every flight. There are several very prominent landmarks, especially on the east side where I was based, that helped.

 

[word302]

Teaching in SoCal before everything had GPS in it we had great landmarks that you could reference on the chart that would give your students a buffer for staying out of trouble. It was kind of nice knowing you could send your students pretty much anywhere and not worry about them freaking out about airspace. Of course it helped that most of my students weren't on a career track so they weren't as worried about getting done in the shortest amount of time ($). We spent a lot of time getting comfortable with the airspace they would be operating in.