On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:55:12 GMT, "Yossarian"
wrote:

My first trip I was that low too, but now my FBO insists on a continuous
climb to the middle of the channel for better glide distance if your engine
quits. 4500' in a 172 is only like 7 miles glide.

1. Say the channel's 26 miles wide. Take away seven miles on either
side, and you're left with 12 miles over open H2O. That's six minutes
at 120 kts. Six minutes with no rpm changes in which to have a
catastrophic engine failure. Contrast with flying over the San
Gabriels.

2. Not counting flight-test crashes like the Cook Challenger and the
Wing Derringer, amphibs, and prangs landing at Catalina itself, how
many GA planes in the last 50 years have fallen out of the sky over
the channel? Not many, I'd say. (NTSB.gov is 404 at the moment.)

3. What's the risk of a mid-air while climbing in circles over Palos
Verdes?

When I was based at TOA (pre-Bravo), I used to cross at six to seven
thousand, but I often thought I'd have been marginally safer avoiding
the short-term engine heating and cooling by staying lower.

Don