i2, thanks for the info on San Diego. One of the instructors here said you couldn't do it, so I was wondering.
Flying Lawyer, thanks for asking people to help me out!
OK, today's report....
Fri 26th April
Tim, the instructor, said we could try and fly to LAX (Los Angeles International) if I wanted to, but they might not let us in if we didn't have a good reason. I said I wanted to give it a try. So we left, headed out to the coast, and I made this hopefully professional sounding radio call to LAX. They cleared us to their midfield helipad between the two runways! But they did it by a route Tim had never taken, out to the coast, down to 150 feet, then in to the helipad. That was OK, except you can't see the airport from 150 feet, so we had to climb a bit to see when we were between the runways. Then over the central section with airliners on both sides, and round the tower to land into wind on this rooftop helipad, wow!!!! We made it, but the tower asked us to phone them. Oh ****, what had we done, or not done?
We found a phone and I called them. Apparently, we'd been a little bit too close to a taxiway. I said we hadn't, but he had us on radar, so I gave up arguing, apologised and thanked him and said we'd do better next time. Actually, considering it's one of the busiest airports in the world, he was pretty nice about it. Anyway, I've landed a heli at LAX, !
Came back via the shoreline transition at 150 ft; this is becoming normal. Then the coastline right to the Queen Mary at around 200 feet, having fun zooming in and out of little bays and avoiding the birds and kites. I could do this for ever. Maybe I'll go the whole way to San Diego at 200 ft.
Keeping my fingers crossed for Big Bear tomorrow.