Hey everyone! Finally got around to doing this flight and had a blast, so this is no longer a "hypothetical" flight over Detroit. Figured I'd update with my experience. I actually did this twice in one day with two sets of passengers I've been meaning to take up, and it was a really easy and very pretty and interesting flight for both me and the passengers.
Departed out of ARB late afternoon on what might have been the bumpiest day I've ever flown in. Took off to the Northeast and got an early frequency change to Detroit on 118.95, where I asked for flight following for a "river flight," which they definitely understood. Flew a semicircle (ish) around the Class B at 2300 ft to a few miles south of the Ambassador Bridge, at which point I turned north to go up the river. Before that, though, I wanted to get out of the bumps on the way back so I asked if we could go over top of Metro on the way back, which I was told I could expect. So once we passed Detroit, at the southern tip of Belle Isle, we did an almost u-turn and climbed to 4500 ft. We got vectored over Canada en route, which was pretty cool. AT&T sent me a text saying "Welcome abroad!" that I saw when I landed. Flew over top of Metro at 4500, got a cool view of landing and departing traffic, headed back to Ann Arbor. All the controllers were very accommodating, and everything went smoothly. Except the flying...man it was bumpy.
On the second time around, we left just before sunset, did the same flight initially, though much less bumpy. When we called up Detroit with our plans to overfly Metro on the way back again, she said, "You may not have to climb, they're just ending a push right now, lemmie check with Tower." So my ears perk up and I'm thinking, "Touch and go???" so I ask, and she comes back with "You wanna do this at METRO??" In my best sheepish voice I said, "Yeah, you said they were ending a push, figured it was worth a shot. No big deal if we can't." But they were able to do it, so we followed the river south a little farther, then turned in towards Metro. Tower told us to turn a two mile downwind and follow the Embraer 145 on final. Once we turned and had the Embraer in sight, he told us "Skyhawk 77S, cleared to land 3R, number two behind the Embraer, CAUTION. WAKE. TURBULENCE." So we did a touch and go (cautioning wake turbulence), putting on a show for the pilots and passengers on the left side of the Embraer. The flight back from DTW was pretty uneventful.
Moral of the story is that controllers can be very accommodating if you ask nicely and if you're crisp and professional on the radios. As it turns out, the day before, I had taken a tour of the Detroit TRACON and the tower, so I was able to talk to controllers firsthand, who said that you should always ask for a Class B clearance, because they're always willing to give them out as long as you're not in the arrival or departure corridor. Also, they keep a corridor over Metro free at all times for east/west transiting aircraft, at 4500 and 5500 I think.
So this:
You can't PLAN on getting a Class B clearance in the DTW Bravo, but getting one isn't by any stretch a rare event. I wouldn't hesitate to ask them -- Detroit is NOT Chicago, they usually try to be accommodating.
is about right. You can't plan on it, but if you ask (nicely) and at the right time, you'll likely get it.
Do NOT cross into Canada unless you have filed a flight plan and are talking to ATC and have a transponder code (even though you are not in class B ). I cross Canada going to Ohio all the time. That is what you will do if you want to visit any of the islands in a Lake Erie. If you don't follow the rules, there will be a Blackhawk helicopter in your future when you come back to the US side.
Also, this is not entirely accurate (note my emphasis). When I talked to the controllers at the TRACON, they said that as long as you're squawking and talking, there's no biggie if you go over Canada. They don't even see the VFR flight plans that you file, and anyway, they're the agency that controls all arrivals and departures into Windsor, so even though you're over Canada, the airspace is basically under US jurisdiction.
:wink2:
