Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Los Angeles - Van Nuys / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N2735W) / VFR

This very short flight shuttled one of my Barons from LAX to Van Nuys airport. It's only about 10-20 minutes. The wait on the ground to get clearance, taxi permission, and take-off was longer than the actual time in the air. An airliner not far ahead of me loitered on the runway for a long period before starting his roll after getting take-off clearance, which slowed things down, but there was a significant amount of traffic in general. I had full tanks and was in no rush, so I didn't care.

I was told to fly heading 250 and then 270 after departure. I was directed to 25L, which is on the south side (where I was parked). The trick is to get to Van Nuys, which is north of LAX. ATC had me fly way out on the assigned heading, and then, when I was well clear of the airport, they let me turn north. From then on it was just straight to VNY, where I was given a right downwind to the famous 16R.

I overshot a little bit on base. Sideways visibility in the sim is somewhat limited compared to real life, although I can “turn my head” in several ways to look to the left and right. I try to look at the runway and spot some landmarks that align with the extended centerline, and then turn so that I'm over those, but I still ended up pointing to 16L instead of 16R. It was easy to correct, though, and there was no other traffic. The landing was very smooth.