RED ALERT! Pine Mountain

[Tony Deleo]

Pine Mountain/Lockwood Valley Area. When I hear of a pilot(s) BOASTING about "punching out" of the sides of clouds particularly in areas so heavily travelled as the air corridor(s) this area and providing "proof of their ignorance/stupudity via pictures, I have to respond. There are a number of "Victor Airways" through the Pine Mountain Lockwood Valley corridor(s). These "corridors" are normal routes and are heavily used by aircraft(ie. airliners) entering the Los Angeles Basin, they service many airports including Burbank, LAX, etc. This area is also a MOA (military operations area). There is a VOR on the western end of the Tehacapi Mountains which pilots use to navigate, in addition Interstate 5 is used as a "navigational" route for air traffic traversing the state north to south and vice versa. Anyone who flys Pine Mountain through The Tehacapi Mountains "should" be aware of these issues and "always" adhere to FAA Regulations. The area is Class "E" airspace. Above 10,000' you need to 1000' clearance above and below the clouds and 1 mile horizontal seperation between yourself and the clouds. One incident with a powered aircraft could percipitate the closing of Pine Mountain and much of Southern California to the "soaring" community. There already is intense pressue on the "soaring" community and the areas available to us to fly, as civil aviation grows our areas to fly diminish as the regulations become more stringent.