Flight from Santa Monica to John Wayne via LAX Mini Route

This is a video of my short sunset flight from Santa Monica (SMO) back to John Wayne (SNA). I flew via the “Mini Route,” one of the VFR transition routes through the bravo class airspace over Los Angeles Airport (LAX). The routes are published in the Terminal Area Chart, or TAC, for Los Angeles.

I chose the Mini Route because it goes directly over the LAX runway complex at an altitude of only 2500 feet.

I trained near LAX, but my flight school only let us fly under or around the LAX bravo, so this was my first bravo transition. I was a little nervous, but it was an amazing experience.

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FYI, I made a minor communications error at Santa Monica by unilaterally switching from ground to tower when I was ready to taxi from the southeast runup to the nearby hold short lines for runway 21. Apparently, I should have held onto the ground frequency and informed the ground controller that I was ready to continue, not tower.

What I think I learned is that when the ground controller specifically asks you to taxi to the runup, you should stay with the ground controller. On the other hand, if the ground controller instructs you to taxi to runway ##, but you “voluntarily” pull into a runup next to the runway’s threshold, then you can unilaterally taxi to the hold short line and call tower when you’re ready to depart.

Видео Flight from Santa Monica to John Wayne via LAX Mini Route канала Joe Andras