On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:19:50 +0100, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Don Tuite writes:

No. It's all about flying under the Bravo. The letters refer to the
Echo and Golf airspace.

Suppose I want to depart Half Moon Bay with a passenger and show her
the sights of the city -- fly over the Golden Gate Bridge and
Alcatraz.

For the first part of the flight, I know that if I want to hug the
shoreline (stay in I), I have to fly below 1500 feet. But if I stay
more than 7 nautical miles DME from the SFO VORTAC while flying up the
coast, I'll be in F, so I'll be clear of the Bravo as long as I am
below 2100 feet. Once I'm more than 10 nm DME from the VORTAC (or
halfway between the north end of Lake Merced and the south windmill at
Golden Gate Park, I'm clear of the Bravo if I stay below 3000 ft.

The letters run well past E and G. It looks like they go at least
through K.

So what? They are regions of airspace under the Bravo where I can go
without runing into heavies and without talking to anybody as long as
I stay under the Bravo and above the Deltas for San Carlos, Palo Alto,
Moffett, Hayward, and Livermore.

(And above San Jose's Charlie. Oakland's Charlie extends upward all
the way to the bottom of the SFO Bravo, but it has a 1500-foot floor
over the Potrero and SOMA neighborhoods of SF and across the Bay
Bridge to downtown Oakland.)

Why so many notches in the airspace under the Bravo? Because there
are three major jetports inside the SFO mode-C veil, one
quasi-government field where the POTUS and Veep fly into when they
come to town, five towered GA fields[1], and two non-towered fields.
In addition, there are 2000-foot mountain ridges down either side of
SF Bay, except some of those mountains get to be 3000 to 4000 feet
high at the south end.

And I think K is an aerobatic practice area.

Don
[1] RHV is just outside the veil.