Rio Linda L36 (not Rio Vista) - PIREP

[Lndwarrior]

This airport is under the Sac. International class C extension. And with McClellan (uncontrolled), Mather (towered), and Sac. Exec(towered) all within a couple of miles this is one busy airspace. Plus there is a lot of heavy iron flying out of all of these airports.

I need to fly VFR into here next week and I'm trying to get any advice from those who fly here.

Technically, I could fly to the northeast corner of this wasp nest and enter as with any uncontrolled field. Yet feels like I'd be threading a needle.

If I call NorCal Approach, will they vector me into here? Seems like that would be the logical answer but maybe there is a local solution to this. The airport directory gives no guidance.

FYI - I'll be coming from the south.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

Calling @Sac Arrow

 

[ateamer]

With the floor at 1600 and the terrain being almost at sea level, stay at 1000 and it’ll be a piece of cake. It actually might be easier to not go on flight following.

 

[Sierra_Hotel]

Seems like flight following with NORCAL is the easy button.

 

[dcr-wss]

I operate out of SAC and this airspace is tedious but norcal knows it is and will get you where you need to be. Let them know your plan when you check in. You may be able to transit the SAC delta. I've never actually landed at Rio Linda, but MCC lots of times and not a big deal at all.

P.s. there has been rumblings of MCC getting a tower/delta again. I don't know the current timeline but watch the notams.

 

[Lndwarrior]

I operate out of SAC and this airspace is tedious but norcal knows it is and will get you where you need to be. Let them know your plan when you check in. You may be able to transit the SAC delta. I've never actually landed at Rio Linda, but MCC lots of times and not a big deal at all.

P.s. there has been rumblings of MCC getting a tower/delta again. I don't know the current timeline but watch the notams.

Perfect. Thank you.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Oh by the way, if you see a damaged Arrow II sitting on the tarmac missing its prop, it was mine.

 

[Sac Arrow]

This airport is under the Sac. International class C extension. And with McClellan (uncontrolled), Mather (towered), and Sac. Exec(towered) all within a couple of miles this is one busy airspace. Plus there is a lot of heavy iron flying out of all of these airports.

I need to fly VFR into here next week and I'm trying to get any advice from those who fly here.

Technically, I could fly to the northeast corner of this wasp nest and enter as with any uncontrolled field. Yet feels like I'd be threading a needle.

If I call NorCal Approach, will they vector me into here? Seems like that would be the logical answer but maybe there is a local solution to this. The airport directory gives no guidance.

FYI - I'll be coming from the south.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

View attachment 132907

It looks worse than it is. I did my last BFR out of Rio Linda, and we took off to the South, did some maneuvers and returned without talking to Norcal. If you stay West of SAC's delta, then you're perfectly lined up for a right pattern 17, which will nine times out of ten be the preferred runway. Unless your GPS happens to crap out, I don't see an advantage to calling NORCAL for flight following or SAC tower for a delta transit.

 

[clear_prop]

I flew into Rio Linda back when MCC was still an AFB and pre-GPS. It is REALLY hard to spot from the south. Look for the waterski lakes.

Norcal was like "airport is 11 o'clock and 3 miles, do you have it in sight yet?" "11 o'clock and 1.5 miles, do you see it?" Finally about a mile I finally saw it.

MCC often has a temporary tower during fire season, and many heavies even outside fire season. I was flying into MCC a couple years ago and followed 2 C-17s in, and then 8 more C-17s landed after me.