Violated airspace

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Just want to post this so people can learn from my mistake which was 100% my fault and something I'm not proud of. There's an airport that is just outside of the class C airspace of the field I fly out of. I use this uncontrolled field outside the class C often for quick touch-and-goes whenever I feel the need for some quick practice as it's a short 10 minute hop and is generally not heavily trafficked and offers good practice. Usually I depart under ATC flight following, perform some maneuvers just outside of the class C, and then fly over to this uncontrolled field for the T&Gs before returning.

The normal method that ATC had lulled me into was they would have me keep the squawk code and monitor approach on comm 2 whilst I transmitted on CTAF. Then, when I was to return I would simply switch back to comm 2 and announce my intentions. Been doing this for a few years now. The general rational for this is if you fly a high and wide pattern or are doing practice instrument approaches you'll be inside the upper class C shelf. However, you're generally away from and below the incoming traffic to the class C so 90% of the time there is never a conflict and ATC is usually accommodating.

The error I made this time begun when they did not have me hold the squawk and had me switch off to CTAF. You can see where this is going...

On climb-out after a single touch-and-go to finish up a little hour joy flight I returned to the approach frequency. Elapsed time away from approach couldn't have been more than about 7 minutes. My first transmission was not replied to by ATC who then radioed two other aircraft, I was approaching pattern altitude at this point and not wanting to stay any closer to the ground than necessary continued my climb expecting a call from ATC shortly. I waited patiently while the controller finished and glanced over my instruments. Immediately I saw the problem, I was 400 feet into the shelf of the class C, it took only about 20 seconds after leaving the pattern to get into hot water. Rapid descent to 50 feet below the shelf and a slightly worried call of "Approach, N12345 off of XYZ." ATC called back with a slight edge in their voice (or am I imagining that, they sounded grumpy all day) and curtly had me enter a downwind for the field. I landed uneventfully and highly doubt there was any conflict. Immediate ASRS report was filed when I returned home as well as mental punishing myself for my complacency.

So, please be aware of how quick you can get into trouble when operating at fields close to controlled airspace. I got lucky but could easily have caused a conflict and had been given a phone number at the end of my flight. Fly safe.
 
I did the same thing early on in Class B
I predict you will never hear anything from anyone about it.

Most important thing is we learn from it.
 
What exactly would an alternate course of action be? Fly around in the tree tops while you wait for them to answer? I'm not sure how you could have done this any differently anyway. You have to climb out, you did. You have to radio them, you did. They need to answer you, they eventually did.
 
I did this once at Springfield, Mo Downtown (3DW). Those 2,000' towers loom large as one climbs out to the east. I filed a NASA report, never heard a word. But Downtown isn't aligned with the coming/going traffic of either runway at KSGF.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
What exactly would an alternate course of action be? Fly around in the tree tops while you wait for them to answer? I'm not sure how you could have done this any differently anyway. You have to climb out, you did. You have to radio them, you did. They need to answer you, they eventually did.
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That would require some pretty tall trees. The shelf is typically 1200' above the field elevation of the core airport. Where terrain reduces that distance significantly the shelf is higher than standard.
 
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These are the good kind of mistakes - no one hurt, nothing broken, and lessons learned.
 
He radioed them first at < 1000agl (below pattern altitude). They didn't answer right away. I'm not seeing what the better course of action would have been. He didn't forget to call approach. He called them, and continued to call them, and got a response in as timely a manner as possible. Should he have remained at 1000AGL flying around in circles for a few minutes?
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
He radioed them first at < 1000agl (below pattern altitude). They didn't answer right away. I'm not seeing what the better course of action would have been. He didn't forget to call approach. He called them, and continued to call them, and got a response in as timely a manner as possible. Should he have remained at 1000AGL flying around in circles for a few minutes?
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You're essentially asking if he should have adhered to the regulation. The answer is "Yes".
 
Touche. Also, I am stealing your signature for some other purposes :)
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
He radioed them first at < 1000agl (below pattern altitude). They didn't answer right away. I'm not seeing what the better course of action would have been. He didn't forget to call approach. He called them, and continued to call them, and got a response in as timely a manner as possible. Should he have remained at 1000AGL flying around in circles for a few minutes?
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In the absence of some emergency (which it's hard to come up with), yes, he does have to remain outside Class C until two way communication can be established.

KRHV has a similar configuration -- Class C on two sides, right up close to a Class D airport. I've often had to divert north somewhat until I could get ahold of KSJC Tower during a crunch time, especially if KRHV Tower is slow to approve the frequency change inside their airspace.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
They didn't answer right away. I'm not seeing what the better course of action would have been. He didn't forget to call approach
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Two way communication is not considered established until they acknowledged your call sign. Even if they say "aircraft calling, stand by" you have NOT established contact that would allow you to enter C or D airspace.

If they say "Cessna 123AB, standby"...then you have established contact and can enter.
 
Was there any separation issues? Was the other two aircraft being moved away from you by ATC?
 
OP here:

To address some questions people have, this was 100% my fault and not appropriate for the situation. Yes, departing straight out will force you to fly at around 1,000 ft AGL above trees to remain below the class C shelf. There are some small-ish cell towers about 500 ft AGL about 2 miles from the field but easily avoidable. If you continued toward the class C then you will start getting into reasonably populated areas that would make it uncomfortable to fly at 1,000 ft AGL but at that point you're getting close the the class C airport and the surface to 4,000 ft center section of the class C.

However, if one realized that they weren't going to be immediately cleared into the class C (as I should have) you can perform a 90 right turn or a 180 left turn, fly downwind in the pattern (or a wide circle around it), and quickly be outside from the edge of the class C shelf and climb to unlimited height. Also note that the field itself is right on the edge of the shelf to give you an idea of the position.

Short answer, there was no valid excuse for my climb into the class C other than it was the fastest and most habitual way to depart the traffic pattern around the uncontrolled field. A pattern which was empty except for myself.

As for the two other aircraft, they were IFR traffic departing the class C, one after another. I suspect they were being vectored around an incoming traffic which I later followed when I entered my base leg for the class C field. Both were clearly higher priority than me but were on the other side of the class C. Generally the only traffic that would have been on my side of the field would be airline arrivals at around 4,000 AGL and the occasional helicopter or light aircraft. Given the time of day and my familiarity with the local traffic I doubt there was anyone within about 5 miles of my aircraft if not more.
 
It sucks, but you've got the right attitude.

I really doubt you'll hear anything if you haven't already been given a number to call. But, others really can learn from that. Habits can get you in trouble.
 
Thanks for sharing this.

Not long ago, I turned the wrong way out of a delta towards bravo airspace and found myself 100' under the shelf proceeding towards high towers begging for a bravo clearance (which I quickly received). In my opinion, things like this that don't kill us make us better pilots in the end, and reading stories like this only remind us to never treat a flight as routine.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
He radioed them first at < 1000agl (below pattern altitude). They didn't answer right away. I'm not seeing what the better course of action would have been. He didn't forget to call approach. He called them, and continued to call them, and got a response in as timely a manner as possible. Should he have remained at 1000AGL flying around in circles for a few minutes?
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He should've remained outside of the Class Charlie. By entering it without approval, he had a pilot deviation. Just because you call an approach/tower controller, it doesn't mean you have approval to violate airspace if didn't respond to you in a timely manner. Fortunately, nothing came of this and I'm sure he won't make the same mistake again.
 
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