Over the last weeks a number of very talented San Diego pilots made the 100km 'must do' flight from Mt Laguna to the Palm Springs area.I tried to be one of them, but messed it up by getting on the wrong side of the convegence, despite climbing to 9500ft in the smoothest thermal I had ever flown in that area.
One of the flights by Chris Cote broke the site record, and it triggered some discussion about whether airspace was potentially violated by some of the pilots that flew that day. I'm not going to analyze that here, rather I used the chatter as an opportunity to review the sectional chart for Palm Springs for the time that I do achieve this flight and want to land safely without violating airspace!
I found this lovely blog post from a Cessna pilot which is a great aid to reading Sectional Charts.
Section Chart for the Palm Springs Area
Palm Springs Class D Airspace
The tricky thing in for paragliding pilots in Palm Springs is that the Class D goes from the surface right into the mountains below Mt San Jacinto, where it intersects with the mountains at around 3000ft.
If you are on a final glide descending from the mountains from Anza, you are going to be in the airspace any time you are over houses in Palm Springs.
To avoid landing in airspace you have to stay high along the slopes of San Jacinto (probably 5000-6000ft) as they are very steep. You would have to fly all around the corner of the mountains into the extremely windy Banning pass area to be clear of the airspace, then along with the wind is one of the biggest wind farms in the world, with all the associated turbulence they might cause. Certainly a double risk factor for landing in that area.
Alternatively, you might land just in the Indian Canyon area southwest of Palm Springs, before the airspace begins. Unfortnately, you are going to just a few km short of a 100km flight from Laguna if you do this!
I've heard about pilots flying right over the airspace to get to the Morongo Valley. As the airspace goes to 3000 meters, you really need to be at 11-12,000ft on San Jancinto to attempt this. You could make the crossing lower over Palm Desert before the airspace, although obviously as that is on the upwind approach to a fairly large airport with commercial jets, private jets (lots of weathy people live here) and small private planes, that would also require extreme caution.
If you are taking the route more towards Palm Desert, the Rancho Mirage wash would be the last obvious landing area before you are in the airspace. It's highly visible and makes a perfect retreive location with services and a major road junction.
One of the flights by Chris Cote broke the site record, and it triggered some discussion about whether airspace was potentially violated by some of the pilots that flew that day. I'm not going to analyze that here, rather I used the chatter as an opportunity to review the sectional chart for Palm Springs for the time that I do achieve this flight and want to land safely without violating airspace!
I found this lovely blog post from a Cessna pilot which is a great aid to reading Sectional Charts.
Section Chart for the Palm Springs Area
Palm Springs Class D Airspace
The tricky thing in for paragliding pilots in Palm Springs is that the Class D goes from the surface right into the mountains below Mt San Jacinto, where it intersects with the mountains at around 3000ft.
If you are on a final glide descending from the mountains from Anza, you are going to be in the airspace any time you are over houses in Palm Springs.
To avoid landing in airspace you have to stay high along the slopes of San Jacinto (probably 5000-6000ft) as they are very steep. You would have to fly all around the corner of the mountains into the extremely windy Banning pass area to be clear of the airspace, then along with the wind is one of the biggest wind farms in the world, with all the associated turbulence they might cause. Certainly a double risk factor for landing in that area.
Alternatively, you might land just in the Indian Canyon area southwest of Palm Springs, before the airspace begins. Unfortnately, you are going to just a few km short of a 100km flight from Laguna if you do this!
I've heard about pilots flying right over the airspace to get to the Morongo Valley. As the airspace goes to 3000 meters, you really need to be at 11-12,000ft on San Jancinto to attempt this. You could make the crossing lower over Palm Desert before the airspace, although obviously as that is on the upwind approach to a fairly large airport with commercial jets, private jets (lots of weathy people live here) and small private planes, that would also require extreme caution.
If you are taking the route more towards Palm Desert, the Rancho Mirage wash would be the last obvious landing area before you are in the airspace. It's highly visible and makes a perfect retreive location with services and a major road junction.
