Tips on going to KAPA

WannFly

WannFly

Final Approach
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Priyo
during my upcoming fall trip, i am planning to land in KAPA. its one of my bucket list items, not landing at KAPA, but meeting @denverpilot . yes, some people have sleeping with Jolie as their bucket list item, mine is meeting Deverpilot... the reason is simple, i do not believe he is an actual person, i think he/it is a BOT. so i want to clarify that by going to KAPA.

now that the reason is out of the way, any tips for how to plan it?

I will either be coming from KRAP or from KCPR, either ways, i will be going through the heart of Bravo. i have never entered Bravo, but fairly familiar with ATC vectoring me around in KFAR. I will be on FF

my biggest worry is if i get denied into Bravo, flying under Bravo is fairly close to the ground and i dont really like that. is there a time of day when they are more accommodating entering Bravo around Denver?

on a separate note, which FBO is most GA friendly at KAPA? i might stay a day or two there

thoughts ?
 
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My thoughts are that you are like Dorthy going to see the Wizard of Oz, only to be disappointed at the meager man behind the curtain. But maybe you’ll get lucky and run into some flying monkeys along the way.
 
SkyDog58 said:
My thoughts are that you are like Dorthy going to see the Wizard of Oz, only to be disappointed at the meager man behind the curtain. But maybe you’ll get lucky and run into some flying monkeys along the way.
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running into flying monkeys is fine, what i want to avoid is flying into flying monkeys :p
 
I don't think that flying under the Denver Class B is any different than any other B. Depending on how far out you are the B ceilings are 2,000-3,000 AGL.
Look for the Cherry Creek Dam and reservoir about 2 miles north of the airport.
There's lots of corporate traffic on the field, you may get one of the shorter and narrower runways than the 10,000' one. Look out for density altitude on climb out, no real terrain, but the climb will be anemic.
Signature and TAC Air are the 2 FBO's that I know of, TAC Air on the very north end treated us nice last spring, can't tell you anything about prices though.
You can walk from TAC Air to the restaurant and a pilot shop.
 
Speaking of Nate, where has he been? I don’t recall seeing him on here for awhile now.
 
Just get flight following and do what they tell you...I fly in the Houston and Dallas (Very Busy) Bravos all the time VFR. They usually hold you down about 2-3k AGL then let you start climbing once you are past their active approach paths. If you are nervous about flying under ATC, you may want to get someone a little more experienced in it to go ride around with you a little before your trip. It can be a little nerve racking at first because of how much talking they are doing on the channel, but it isn't too bad. Do you have an iPad or moving map GPS? Those are great for helping you see the outer boundaries of the air space.
 
Check the sectional for the VFR corridor on the west side of DEN. Southbound crosses over KBJC while northbound follows I-25.

BTW, DenverPilot is a real guy but I haven’t talked to him recently to see what’s up with his absence.

Greg
 
Search the archives here; there's a couple of good answers to your question, including contributions fron Denver Pilot.

I went a few years ago and did the planning you're doing now. Was arriving from SE so easier for me.

I used TACAir. Be sure to ask about fees. They added a couple extra fees for security and haz waste or something like that. Not excessive dollar wise, but a surprise.

The main thing about APA is non-standard departure procedure. Find the archive post or, I recall, the APA website has the info. Also helped to listen to their LiveATC feed and call their ATIS.

I think DP is either voluntarily or involuntarily not participating here at the moment.
 
WannFly said:
during my upcoming fall trip, i am planning to land in KAPA. its one of my bucket list items, not landing at KAPA, but meeting @denverpilot . yes, some people have sleeping with Jolie as their bucket list item, mine is meeting Deverpilot... the reason is simple, i do not believe he is an actual person, i think he/it is a BOT. so i want to clarify that by going to KAPA.

now that the reason is out of the way, any tips for how to plan it?

I will either be coming from KRAP or from KCPR, either ways, i will be going through the heart of Bravo. i have never entered Bravo, but fairly familiar with ATC vectoring me around in KFAR. I will be on FF

my biggest worry is if i get denied into Bravo, flying under Bravo is fairly close to the ground and i dont really like that. is there a time of day when they are more accommodating entering Bravo around Denver?

on a separate note, which FBO is most GA friendly at KAPA? i might stay a day or two there

thoughts ?
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Under the Class B is a non-event. Take a look at the sectional. If you're IFR, irrelevant. If on FF! they may clear you into ClassB depending on landings at DEN. However, you will not be cleared in to Bravo anywhere in the DEN inner ring, but possibly thru one of the outer rings. KRAP you don't need to be in B at all. KCPR, I'd suggest heading east thru the middle or outer ring to avoid the mess of lots of schools on the NW side of B and further out. It's really only an extra 10-15 min and less stressful.

TAC air is GA friendly.

APA departure....listen to ATIS, call ground with info and plans, and do NOT change to tower until ground tells you to change.

Let us know when we'll schedule lunch or dinner. Haven't been to Perfect Landing lately, so that might be a good choice.

Yes, Nate is real. Not hanging around here lately, busy at work and other things.
 
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murphey said:
Under the Class B is a non-event. Take a look at the sectional. If you're IFR, irrelevant. If on FF! they may clear you into ClassB depending on landings at DEN. However, you will not be cleared in to Bravo anywhere DEN, but possibly thru one of the outer rings. KRAP you don't need to be in B at all. KCPR, I'd suggest heading east thru the middle or outer ring to avoid the mess of lots of schools on the NW side of B and further out. It's really only an extra 10-15 min and less stressful.

TAC air is GA friendly.

APA departure....listen to ATIS, call ground with info and plans, and do NOT change to tower until ground tells you to change.

Let us know when we'll schedule lunch or dinner. Haven't been to Perfect Landing lately, so that might be a good choice.

Yes, Nate is real. Not hanging around here lately, busy at work and other things.
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Thanks, i am VFR only :(. my plan is to leave KFAR on Oct 6 and head out. depending on WX i will either go to KRAP then KAPA and then leave for KCPR and KCOD and come back via KBIL and KBIS. if that doesn't work out, will reverse the plan, if nothing works our that way, will head east. i have that whole week off, so landing somewhere and waiting out the WX is the plan. i will start a thread one day before i head out and plan from there. but yah, looking forward to meeting some POA folks on this trip.
 
J. Taylor Stanley said:
Just get flight following and do what they tell you...I fly in the Houston and Dallas (Very Busy) Bravos all the time VFR. They usually hold you down about 2-3k AGL then let you start climbing once you are past their active approach paths. If you are nervous about flying under ATC, you may want to get someone a little more experienced in it to go ride around with you a little before your trip. It can be a little nerve racking at first because of how much talking they are doing on the channel, but it isn't too bad. Do you have an iPad or moving map GPS? Those are great for helping you see the outer boundaries of the air space.
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both iPad and panel mount GPS. ATC isnt the issue, but i do plan on getting a CFI and heading towards MSP Bravo and land in all smaller Delta's around KMSP before i make this trip
 
Easy peasy around DEN bravo. Wadsworth is the limit of bravo on the west side and the lowest shelf is like 8000 feet just to the east of wads. You can fly through BJC delta usually pretty easily, over is no problem (8000’), skirting the west side is easy as well. The practice area frequency north of BJC is 123.17. I’d fly just to the west of mile high taking in the views of downtown and call up APA tower. Of course, if on FF they’ll tell you when to flip to tower.
 
I was on the SE side of Denver on my way to Boulder, with flight following; I was planning to stay out of B under the shelf, but they gave me a clearance through the B without my asking that time, so -- probably just depends on how busy it is and where the traffic is.
 
Came from the SE this morning on my way to metro and I was not only given the instruction to remain clear of DEN bravo, but also centennial delta. I stopped asking for clearance into bravo since it seems to be more of a novelty than anything else. Certainly, avoiding bravo is nothing more than a small diversion. Here's a pic of me staying out of bravo on the east side of downtown.

20180914_082653.jpg
 
So? does this mean lunch at BJC on Saturday?
 
gkainz said:
Check the sectional for the VFR corridor on the west side of DEN. Southbound crosses over KBJC while northbound follows I-25.

BTW, DenverPilot is a real guy but I haven’t talked to him recently to see what’s up with his absence.

Greg
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That’s not on the Sectional. It’s on the VFR Flyway Planning Chart which is on the TAC, Terminal Area Chart. The Southbound isn’t even within the lateral limits of Class B. If you have ForeFlight @WannFly, it’s downloadable in ‘Documents.’ Other EFB’s, I don’t know.
 
yep, you're right. Back side of the TAC. See what happens when we're away from paper for so long? I forgot what's where?
 
If it is a hot day, just pay attention to the density altitude. They have a nice little screen that tells you the DA. This afternoon was 9100 feet. Can make for a little ground rush due to higher true air speeds, and some longer take off rolls. October should be cooler though. Don't try to force the plane off the runway if the DA is high, and pay attention to any leaning procedures if applicable for your aircraft.

1 (1).jpg
 
WannFly said:
my biggest worry is if i get denied into Bravo, flying under Bravo is fairly close to the ground and i dont really like that.
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It is claustrophobic and worrysome at first, but in no place around Denver you have less than 500 ft mail slot through which to wiggle in, usually 2000 ft or more. If you want get get concerned visit Phoenix. Now that's a real Bravo. Mountains, mountains everywhere, corridors, deltas, and customary routes that are not entirely obvious. ATC facilities bouncing you back and forth between them, too. Denver has some uppity approach controllers, but as long as you're VFR, you don't even have to talk to them. I didn't even do the FF when I visited a week ago.

As for the rumors about the slightly controlled chaos at KAPA, I dunno. I always landed at FTG. It's easy and relaxing.
 
WannFly said:
during my upcoming fall trip, i am planning to land in KAPA. its one of my bucket list items, not landing at KAPA, but meeting @denverpilot . yes, some people have sleeping with Jolie as their bucket list item, mine is meeting Deverpilot... the reason is simple, i do not believe he is an actual person, i think he/it is a BOT. so i want to clarify that by going to KAPA.

thoughts ?
Click to expand...

Meeting DenverPIlot was exciting, felt kind of tingly (down in the undercarriage, if you know what I mean) but I wouldn't fly to KAPA to do it.
 
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