San Francisco Bay area Tour

S

SierraPilot123

Well-Known Member
Hey Guys I want to take a Bay Tour over Alcatraz and the Golden Gate today. Does anyone know any preferred routes or have any tips for a private pilot.

I was thinking of leaving LVK, doing a touch and go at OAK, then following the highway north of the Bay Bridge and continue over the Bay below 3000' (below Bravo). Then fly over the Golden Gate bridge and continue north to Point Reys.

Thanks for any tips.


mapsanfran.jpg
 
I did the Bay Tour in a C-172 last summer. It was a beautiful day! I flew from SAC down to MRY, then up the coastline, over the Golden Gate bridge, past Alkatraz and downtown San Francisco up the bay. It was fun!

Click on the link below for some pictures! There is also a map of the route I took on Page 2. Have fun!

http://community.webshots.com/album/351356041ptKvjB
 
If you are taking off from Oakland, they will restrict you below a certain altitude. They will have you follow the interstate north, then turn left north of the bay bridge. Then it's pretty much up to you. Just watch out for the Class B.
 
Look on the back of the terminal chart and you will see the VFR flyways. That is the preferred route for a bay tour but you can go anywhere you want as long as you stay below class B. Call up Norcal and request a bay tour and they'll give you flight following and will understand that you will simply be flying around sight seeing. Let them know about where you'll be going and have at it. You can usually even get a class B clearance transitioning into or out of the area, especially if you are heading souh toward HAF (class B gets pretty low in that area)
 
Hey guys,

I am a few hundred miles north out of my league here, but I think I can remember more than once GA pilots requesting something called "The Bay Tour" and getting vectors or routing from ATC... it is/was a way to tool around in a way that would give you th eviews you wanna see and STILL not get in the way of traffic. Anyone ever heard of this?
 
I do the bay tour thing quite a bit. Class B is nothing to be afraid of. Norcal controls all the space you'll be near, other than the small tower areas, so just let 'em know what you want.

Last one I did was Sunday. Out of PAO, they gave a straight out, direct over SQL, and expect transponder code and bravo clearance over SQL type of thing while we were on the ground at PAO. Just as they said, got a code while over SQL, then a bravo, then a switch to SFO tower for a transition through their airspace that goes to the surface. Typical on that side of the bay is to give an altitude restriction of some sort, in this case, it was at or below 2000. And almost every time that comes with a stay west of the bayshore freeway (that is hwy 101, which pretty much follows real close to the coast that makes up the west side of the SF Bay, but their main point is to keep you from flying into SFO traffic since SFO lies right along that freeway). So, followed that up, to around treasure island area. Then over to the north side of the bay, couple circles to see some islands, prisons, bridges, etc, and back down the coast towards HAF.

If you sound confident on the radio, Norcal is pretty good about letting you work in what you want. Not much to look at on the east side of the bay that takes you into bravo, but the city of SF is largely in the surface area. Often times if you are heading to/from PAO or SQL they'll give you a "pass directly over SFO at or below 1000' (which is quite cool) then maintain west of the bayshore freeway.

Someday, I'll throw up some MP3 clips of all calls I've recorded up, but until that point I've got a little something that may be helpful for you.

http://www.igot.net/fly/cfi/files/sfbayterminal.pdf

large file (7MB or so I think), but it prints out nice for a large part of the chart without having to refold stuff over and over. Set up for the west side of the bay more, but I throw them on a color printer, then laminate.
 
I do the bay tour thing quite a bit. Class B is nothing to be afraid of. Norcal controls all the space you'll be near, other than the small tower areas, so just let 'em know what you want.
Click to expand...

Can't speak for the bay area, but the DEN class B is cake, they've always been awesome to me. nothing to fear there!
 
mtsu_av8er said:
Josh, I've been trying to figure out for years why people are afraid of Class B airspace!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too. Only place the controllers must provide IFR and VFR traffic separation. Wish everything was B, would make flying a lot safer. Oh, gotta go, family guy is on.
 
We did a bay tour from SFO to MRY last week. It was pretty cool. The normal procedure is the SFO8 departure. But on the bay tour they keep you down at 3000' and you just have to stay over the water and along the coast and fly right over the Golden Gate.
 
I've done it in the Tomahawk, the Arrow, and the Brasilia. GA out of PAO flies directly over the SFO tower and then gets set free. The Brasilia was exactly as Omar stated.
 
Whenever I did the bay tour, you just call up approach and ask for the "bay tour" and they'll tell you an altitude to fly up along the freeway, and then release you into the area around alcatraz. Then you call them back up and tell them you're done and they'll give you instructions on how to exit.

But, of course, my last bay tour was 1995 so things may have changed.
 
mrivc211 said:
We did a bay tour from SFO to MRY last week. It was pretty cool. The normal procedure is the SFO8 departure. But on the bay tour they keep you down at 3000' and you just have to stay over the water and along the coast and fly right over the Golden Gate.
Click to expand...

I've always gotten the Eugen 5, details suck don't they? :D

We got a reverse bay tour the other day on the way to Medford. Turned us west just after takeoff, told us to go out to the coast and follow it north, turn over the Golden Gate, and then climb. Pretty cool to see it from the other side, and have all the interesting stuff on my side for a change. :)
 
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