The way I look at it, small planes were here before jets and all this surface area just gets in the way, however I recognise that there has to be some to protect large airports. If LHR didn't have such a huge surface area then it would be moot as we would just fly around it.
rustle, New York doesn't really compare with London. EWR, JFK and LGA are much closer together than LHR, LTN, STN and LGW. And anyway, as you asked there is a VFR corridor up the Hudson river, and if you don't like that you can fly over the top.
There are Class E VFR corridors through the Class B at San Diego. No radio contact is required with SOCAL or SAN tower to fly these, and they obviously don't cause a problem with the jets. Mode C required of course so jets on a go around know where they are and controllers can do what they are trained to do.
AlanM, this is good stuff, nice to see controllers explaining things to us small fry. That climb gradient is pathetic, I could probably beat that in a fully loaded C150. I will have to read up on things before my next question...
(edited to replace transition with corridor, as you don't actually transit Class B in New York, you fly under it)
Last edited by slim_slag; 10th November 2005 at 09:18.