1997-06 · NASA ASRS report 372200
PLT OF A C150 INADVERTENTLY FLEW IN TO A RESTR AREA DUE TO CIRCUMNAVING WX. PLT RECOGNIZED HIS ERROR AND EXITED AT ONCE.
I LEFT SNA; FLEW TO PALM SPRINGS; TURNED N INTO RESTR AIRSPACE. THIS WAS A MISTAKE THAT WAS DUE TO POOR PREFLT PLANNING AND COMPLACENCY. I HAD INTENDED TO TURN N TO LAS VEGAS JUST AFTER PASSING A MOUNTAIN PEAK NW OF PALM SPRINGS. WHEN I TOOK OFF FROM SNA; I WAS GIVEN ONE FREQ AFTER THE OTHER THAT THE OLDER RADIO I HAD COULDN'T RECEIVE. THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I'VE DEPARTED SNA (OR ANY OTHER LOS ANGELES ARPT) SINCE MOVING TO LOS ANGELES IN OCTOBER. BY THE TIME I GOT NEAR PALM SPRINGS THE CEILING WAS TOO LOW FOR ME TO TURN N AS PLANNED. SO I KEPT GOING TO WHERE THE SKY WAS CLR TO THE N. I THEN TURNED N. I WAS BEING CAREFUL NOT TO FLY TOO NEAR PALM SPRINGS (WHICH I COULD JUST LOOK DOWN AND SEE) AND NOT TO FLY INTO A CLOUD OR MOUNTAIN. BTWN THE STRESS FROM LEAVING THE LOS ANGELES BASIN; THE LOWER THAN EXPECTED OVCST AND LOOKING OUTSIDE TO AVOID PALM SPRINGS; CLOUDS AND MOUNTAINS; I JUST WASN'T PAYING ENOUGH ATTN TO MY SECTIONAL. ONCE I HAD MADE THE TURN AND THINGS FINALLY SEEMED UNDER CTL AGAIN; I FOUND MYSELF ON THE SECTIONAL IN THE RESTR AREA. IF I HAD A CHANCE TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN; I WOULD HAVE REVIEWED MORE CAREFULLY THE AIRSPACE AROUND MY PROPOSED FLT PATH AND THOUGHT ABOUT ALTERNATIVES IF THE CEILING WAS TOO LOW. I AM ALSO MAKING SURE I ALWAYS HAVE A RADIO CAPABLE OF RECEIVING ALL REQUIRED FREQS.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.