We heart LA!

The sunny skies of Southern California attract the eyes and hearts of many. The Hollywood hills, the ever so exploited downtown LA, the beaches; it all has a wonderful mystique that, as I'm concerned, has keep me enthralled my entire life. There's nothing like LA, and I can't imagine being anywhere else at the moment. Especially when it comes to my students and the opportunities and challenges they must face and contend with on a daily basis. My students have so much more experience than I ever had upon their completion dates it's almost unfair

 

 

The obvious monster around here is the airspace. Departing out of Torrance your immediately challenged with LAX, Hawthorne, and Long Beaches' airspace. That of which takes all but a short brain fart to be encroaching on someones' practice ILS approach, and let's hope their in the right place. As a student, your immediately forced to contend with controllers, airspace regulatory requirements, and traffic...Lot's of traffic. There's not one student that doesn't learn, sooner than later, that ATC is your best friend and all almost immediately learn how to put them to work for them. After all, that's what they're there for

 

 

Something I've always found to be amusing is that when I have friends come visit LA for the first time, they're always astonished at the multiple different landscape features we poses. I always chuckle to myself thinking..."if you only knew (what it looks like from up there)". In reality, they're actually quite right. We have terrain features, that let's say within 75 NM, can emulate an array of destinations. From high density altitudes, to solid IFR, to mountain wave turbulence, and challenging cross winds, we have it all!... And let's not forget that landing at Catalina

 

 

One thing that always makes me find a bit of hope in the daring is when I get out-of-towners that call me to take them on a lesson or two. They're very aware of the challenges and adversities that face our everyday pilots in LA and want to take some extremely valuable exposure home with them. I'm always obliged to these folks and very much enjoy exposing them to our everyday flight environment

 

 

I make it a point to all my students to appreciate and respect the training that they're receiving, especially with regards to the area, and to make sure everyone walks a little taller, with a bit more pride around the airport knowing that they're receiving the tools and know how to adapt to several adversities and scenarios