Tuesday 13 August 2013

My stomping grounds part 3

The point I’m trying to make with these posts is that no one likes you doing stalls, forced approaches and the like in controlled airspace. You have to go a ways before you get to somewhere where all you are scaring are cows. In my neck of the woods prime cattle confusing territory is centred around a small, barely visible from the air, town called Claremont. I have no idea if the residents of this town are aware of this. Surely they must notice the very low flying aircraft buzzing the livestock?

Right, picture time. The chart below starts just as City’s zone is ending. Even I can manage to follow the shoreline along until I see a very obviously large water treatment plant (just in case I drew it on my chart). Once you get here ATC clear you enroute (sometimes they forget and you remind them that you are exiting the zone) and you look for your next landmark, Bluffers Park.

This is a large Marina that juts out, visible even in the winter. It’s a good navigation point, especially on the way back where it marks the point where you should make your initial call to politely ask ATC to let you back in. Class C airspace needs permission to enter.
Beyond that there are two large, white towers that mark the edge of one ring of the wedding cake (marked with a red cross here). Beyond this point I can climb from 2500ft to 3500ft. From here I also have a choice. Claremont is boxed in red, you can see that it nestles in between Buttonville’s zone (purple) and Oshawa’s (pink).

I can either steer a course of roughly 030 degrees from Bluffers and cut across to get to Claremont (solid yellow line), or I can carry on along the shoreline until I see Pickering. Pickering is a large nuclear power station, with a conveniently placed wind turbine and a road leading directly to it, the infamous Brock Road. From there you can follow Brock road up to Claremont.
I usually follow the latter and slightly longer route (dashed yellow), it is easier and you don’t risk inadvertently nipping into Buttonville’s space.

Enough for now, more next time.

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