Flash forward to 1999. I'm instructing at Centennial Airport in Englewood, Colorado, not far from Denver. While turning from the downwind leg to base, the tower calls us: "Cessna 52241, can you make your final straight to the numbers from where you're at? I've got a Gulfstream over Cherry Creek Reservoir."
"Sure," we reply. My "student," a CFI in the midst of a flight review, points the airplane at the numbers and makes a 45-degree angle to the approach end of Runway 17L. What if our airplane had instead held a student up on a first solo flight? It's clear that there are special operations with which you need to feel at ease if you're a student learning to fly at an airport like Centennial.
Not all towered airports are especially busy, but training at a large towered airport with commercial operations is a different experience from training at a small airport with few operations per hour. When you combine tower ops with a large or complex airport layout and surrounding airspace, you may be concerned about how this will affect your training.
The situation at Long Beach International Airport (LGB) defines the term congested: Commercial operations combined with intensive training (including helicopter training) bring annual FAA air traffic control tower operations high enough to make LGB the fifteenth-busiest (calendar year 1999) airport in the United States. A busy control tower, ground control, and clearance delivery may seem like a lot to juggle for a student just learning radio procedures.
LGB sits under the Los Angeles Class B airspace, making cross-country flight planning and execution akin to picking through the briar patch. Combine all that with the need to have options if the planned route is cut off as a result of the area's finicky coastal weather, and students may find themselves in a tricky situation.
Finally, the airport layout looks like a runway incursion waiting to happen, with five runways that intersect in a tight checkerboard. Experienced pilots may be intimidated about flying into LGB the first time, so it's no surprise if those new to flying have a few butterflies.
However, CFIs I spoke with enjoy flying out of LGB, and they find that training there allows students to feel comfortable almost anywhere they go.
Specific challenges include learning radio proced- ures. You learn by doing, right? So it doesn't help you much to have your CFI make all the radio chatter. But you need something to go on. Reading about radio procedures in a book won't help you - you need real-life practice, and you'll get plenty of it if you're flying from a congested airport. Don't be surprised if your instructor jumps in when necessary. Beginning with a call to clearance delivery, then ground control for a taxi clearance, then the tower when you're ready to take off, the preflight procedures are the place to start work on those radio skills.
The Long Beach practice area is over the ocean to avoid the crowded city and equally crowded airspace above it. Long Beach's Class D goes to 2,600 feet, and the Class B starts at 5,000 feet over the field. Over the ocean, you can go even higher during practice. Most maneuvers are begun around 3,500 feet to stay within gliding distance of the beach and to get above the haze for better in-flight visibility - important when you share the practice area with numerous other training aircraft.
Many congested airports lie near densely populated areas - Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles, lies right in the midst of one of the largest population centers in the United States. Therefore, from the beginning, you must pay close attention to where you would land in the event of an engine failure. An engine failure immediately after takeoff at Long Beach is particularly thorny - the primary training runway, 25L/7R, offers few options for a post-takeoff emergency. Instructors at the airport say your best bet is to land with the flow of traffic on busy Cherry Street, which seems like a daunting proposition under the best of circumstances. To stack the deck in their favor, students at LGB take advantage of the long runway and the low airport elevation to gain as much altitude as possible immediately after takeoff. That means a Vx climb for every takeoff.
Freeways and other roads serve as some of the few open areas in the Los Angeles area - and make them among the best alternatives no matter where you are over the city. However, the Los Angeles Basin is home to enough airports - the ideal open real estate - that if you fly above 5,000 feet, you're usually within gliding distance of at least one runway. It's a good idea to always know where the nearest runway is just in case you need it.
Other considerations include planning for cross-country flights. Many students get a Class B signoff, according to Seosamh Somen, a flight instructor for Rainbow Air Academy at LGB. This provides you with more options for your solo cross-countries. If you want to fly north to Camarillo, popular because of its 51-nautical-mile distance from LGB (though that may change with a serious earthquake, local CFIs joke), a straight line takes you almost directly over Los Angeles International Airport. However, a jog to the west puts you in a special flight rules area (known to many pilots as a VFR corridor) above 3,500 feet. While this beats trying to get permission to cut through other parts of the Class B airspace, students still need the signoff to use the special flight rules area.
Colorado's Centennial Airport (APA) is another bizjet hub that also hosts a lot of flight training. A primary reliever airport for Denver International, Centennial sits in the midst of southern Den- ver's business enclave, known affectionately as the Tech Center. This means that if you train at APA, you will share the ramp with jets owned by CEOs from around the country, as well as the Citation used by a former, very popular Broncos football player. "Intimidation can play a factor," says Sue Osborne, a CFI and former owner of Aspen Flying Club at Centennial. "You're just a little speck."
From the first time you listen to the automated terminal information service (ATIS) at a busy airport, you'll be alerted to how procedures can vary from one airport to another. Radio procedures in particular take a twist at Centennial: Instead of calling the tower at the hold-short line, you need to call ground and remind them of your direction of flight. They'll then give you the go-ahead to pull up to the hold-short line or tell you to wait for the King Air passing by you on the taxiway. This procedure allows ground to bear the burden of sequencing flights for departure, leaving the tower free to handle takeoff clearances and communication with aircraft that already are airborne.
One experienced CFI who has taught at Centennial, Shannon Coursey, relied on role-playing radio procedures with her students before they got into the airplane. "I pretended I was ATC, and I tried to give my students as many scenarios as possible. [I had] them draw on the chalkboard their location with relation to the runways and what the controller wants them to do," says Coursey.
You can practice your technique by scripting the calls on the ground and rehearsing them, either with other students, your CFI, or by using special communication training software, such as Comm1's Radio Simulator series. You may also want to invest in a handheld radio so you get the feel for what Coursey calls the "aviation dialect."
Friendly controllers make a difference too when it comes to easing students' apprehensions about operating in busy airspace. "Even our tracon is friendly," Osborne says of Denver's approach control. Once you get accustomed to controller-speak, you'll find that the effort of flying at a busy airport pays off. "You're not intimidated by any other airport - when I first got my license I went into Salt Lake International without hesitation," adds Osborne.
You may spend more time - and more money - up front, because you typically spend more ground time getting taxi clearances and waiting to take off at busier airports. You may also take longer to solo because you really need to have that radio work down and be prepared for the changing instructions given by controllers. Some flight instructors take their students to other local airports for first solos so that their students gain confidence before soloing in the "big pattern." You might suggest this to your instructor if you become frustrated.
For example, Centennial-based student pilots often solo first at Front Range Airport - 20 miles to the northeast, a nontowered field with two runways. Then, with some solo landing experience behind them, they can brave the skies at Centennial.
Of course, making the transition from a towered airport to a nontowered field has its own concerns. Because you're used to having the tower call out traffic for you, you may find yourself a little unnerved the first time you're in the pattern with only your own eyes and ears to locate other aircraft. Without a controller to give you instructions, can you plan your approach to the traffic pattern? Without prompting about other traffic in the pattern, will you be able to spot everyone with whom you share the airspace? Your CFI should take you through these procedures so you know the dance when you show up alone.
What does it take to fly from a congested airport? Just a little planning, some procedures practice, and patience. Time spent waiting to get a taxi clearance is money spent waiting. You can soften the blow by planning your flights for times outside of the traditional corporate rush hours, like early morning or early evening. You can also work on procedures in the cockpit without the prop spinning.
The tradeoff? Few airports will intimidate you. After flying in and out of Long Beach or Centennial, you could fly into nearly any airport in the United States without experiencing mic fright. Even places like San Antonio, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Cleveland will feel comfortable. O'Hare? Well, that's another story.
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