Class B Tunnel Vision

It’s a beautiful afternoon in Southern California with solid CAVU as far as the eye can see. A good friend of yours, a private pilot visiting from Omaha, can’t wait to go up with you in your Mooney M20 Ovation to experience its legendary speed.Taking off from Brown Field (KSDM) just southeast of downtown San Diego, you head west for the Pacific Ocean. Once there, you demonstrate the impressive speed of your flipped-tail missile.

Then, slowing to a “mere” 150 knots and leveling out at 3,500 MSL, you head to the south end of San Diego Bay and tell your friend he’s about to see how beautiful downtown is up close. He starts to look a little concerned.  

Turning to heading 340 over the bay, you point out the naval base coming up on the right and the naval air station on the left, then explain you’ll overfly downtown and the end of the runway at San Diego International.

With the naval air station quickly approaching, your pilot friend asks when you’ll request clearance from ATC, the military controllers, or somebody. Knowing exactly why your friend is concerned and deciding to be a little cheeky, you casually say, “I won’t be requesting any clearances.” Your grin widens as your buddy stares at you, gobsmacked and concerned for your sanity.

The secret you’re keeping from your midwestern pilot pal is that you have entered a VFR corridor through Class Bravo airspace, requiring no ATC clearance or even communication.

Without asking permission from SoCal approach, San Diego ATC, or the United States Navy, you brazenly punched your aircraft through a solid blue line on the sectional, then proceeded to pass directly over the edges of two military bases, a densely populated downtown area, and the runway at San Diego International.

Your friend is amazed and relieved you weren’t intercepted or shot down. You weren’t even given a phone number. Fortunately, you were within a well-defined corridor designed exactly for that purpose.

Why it’s there
To state the obvious, KSAN airspace is extremely busy, as is any Bravo. Not only are big commercial jets flying in from all over the world, but so are a lot of regionals, business jets full of executives, and more than a few single-engine pistons such as yourself. 

ATC is task-saturated keeping track of commercial traffic. If they also had to talk to the many GA pilots in the airspace, they’d need more controllers and frequencies. So, instead of expanding and complicating ATC operations, the FAA bored a tunnel through the Bravo and published specific instructions about it in the San Diego TAC.

How it works 
Referring to the San Diego TAC, we find a magenta dashed line running along the length of San Diego Bay. Its path defines a route that passes over the eastern edge of Naval Air Station North Island, the west edge of downtown San Diego, and the southeastern end of the runway at San Diego International.

The VFR Corridor inset in the TAC provides the specific instructions you must follow, and a zoomed-in map with the same instructions appears in the margins of the TAC.

• For VFR flight only.
• Remain above 3300’ and below 4700'.
• Pilots are encouraged to remain right of the magenta dashed line as they fly parallel to it when over the approach end of KSAN Rwy 27.
• No ATC communications or clearances are required.
• 126.050 is provided for exchange of information between pilots while using the corridor.
• Pilots are cautioned against premature descent south of North Island NAS due to heavy traffic at and below 3000'.
• Parachute jump activity is allowed in this area.
• Check NOTAMs.

Yes, truly, you may fly directly through Class Bravo in either direction without talking to a soul. Well, technically, the corridor isn’t Bravo, but a chunk of Bravo is missing that you may occupy. It’s still a little eerie for first-timers but in a good way.

There are several VFR corridors around the country, but no two are exactly alike. At least, they operate like VFR corridors, though they may be like the Los Angeles corridor, which is actually an SFRA. Each should be treated as a unique airspace. 

For example, some Los Angeles corridors later became transitions requiring ATC clearance. Setting that aside for a moment, they also differ in that there’s sometimes a strict altitude assignment based on the direction of flight for the purpose of separation. For some, a straight flight path is tightly defined by a VOR radial.

In contrast, the San Diego VFR corridor is fairly permissive, more or less allowing pilots to eyeball their way from one end to the other within comfortable altitude limits. 

Don’t get too sloppy, though. Due to the finite lateral and vertical limits of a VFR corridor, the varying volume of VFR traffic using it, and the high volume of fast commercial and military aircraft outside it, you must exercise extreme caution and vigilance.

Further, it’s a good idea to continue monitoring ATC along with the “corridor CTAF” in case they want to reach you. Just because you haven’t spoken with them doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention to you and your surroundings on radar.  

In fact, ATC might try to contact you on the CTAF frequency itself. Notification that you or a nearby aircraft are hazardously deviating out of or into the corridor is something you certainly want to know. 

Speaking of deviations
Even if you’ve flown a particular corridor a thousand times, you need to read the corridor requirements each time a new TAC is issued by the FAA. Changes can and do happen.

If you violate a published corridor procedure, resulting in ATC diverting a bunch of traffic, don’t expect the controllers to be nice about it. Air traffic controllers are usually pretty forgiving about minor infractions and misunderstandings, but if you create a lot of work for them or cause a lot of commercial airline pilots to yell at them for making them fly a lap before landing, you’ll be writing down a phone number.

Upon exiting the corridor as you cross the 084° radial of MZB, you should be ready to resume operations for the airspace you’re entering. In this scenario, our Mooney will emerge from the north end of the corridor at 3,500 MSL with Bravo above and Delta below.  

Let’s assume the pilot intended to land at Montgomery Gibbs Exec (KMYF). It would be best to inform SoCal approach of that intention before even entering the VFR corridor, or at least giving it a try (they do get busy sometimes).

Otherwise, our pilot should contact MYF tower on 119.20 while still in the corridor. Just because you don’t have to contact ATC to fly through the corridor doesn’t mean you can’t talk to a relevant controller that you would otherwise. You should let the Class D airport know a few miles out that you’re en route northbound in the San Diego VFR corridor, inbound landing.

So, if you find yourself next to Class B airspace desiring to be on the other side without a 20+ minute sidestep maneuver, check for a VFR corridor. While you’re at it, look to see if there’s a VFR Flyway or VFR Transition Route as well. They’re not tunnels through the Bravo, but they’ll still help you save some time getting past the non-stop traffic jam that is Class Bravo airspace.

Know Before You Go