Planes normally take off and do a 360° so they can come back over the airport and be high enough to clear all KOAK and KSFO airspace. Coming in From KSEA thay will pass over KSFO at FL010 and pass the airport to make a loop around to land.
As shown here almost all planes due it to get above FL010 to then pass over KSFOs arrivals
Here are the actual SIDs for KSJC. They all have aircraft immediately turning away from SFO if taking off on 30R/L.
Everyone, this is not about the SIDs and STARs of KSJC. This is if you actually perform these SIDs.
Btw, thanks @Mihir_Buty for mentioning KSJC.
This is definitely one of the more interesting departures for an airport but I can understand why it is such. Airspace is very tight with two large airports (OAK and SFO) as well as the less busy airports serving business and general aviation aircraft. It’s almost like the airspace around NY/NJ. Most northerly departures from San José would collide with SFO and OAK arrivals which are usually on the base leg of the pattern if straight out departures were performed.
I have done this departure once or twice before. It’s pretty cool. :)
Is it possible for you to give me some checkpoints to make the loop as realistic as possible because every time I do it, I end skipping some waypoints and am turning in a circle instead of the oval. Thanks for the help.
I think some of the waypoints around KSJC are missing I don’t know what is with the Bay Area missing so many waypoints, especially near KSFO so all you have to do is just visualize it.
When I take off from KSJC heading north (like KPDX, KSEA, or KMSP), I turn right after about 10 to 15 seconds after leaving the ground at KSJC. I would turn right until I am right downwind of Runway 30R. Continue downwind until you are able to turn right again without flying over KSJC if you were to fly straight ahead.
Follow the path below:
Takeoff from Runway 30R, loop to right downwind runway 30r, pass the red line (as you can see, the red line is after the thresholds of Runways 30R and 30L. After passing the red line, you can now head for your destination.
Continue south if you are heading south (KBUR, KLAS, KSAN, KLAX, KONT @Daniel14, etc)
If you are heading west (Hawaii, Tokyo, Beijing), pass the red line and turn right to proceed onto your flight plan.
The path above demonstrates the path if I were to head north as if I was departing for KSEA.
Heading east to me is a little weird. For example, if you want to fly to KDFW or KDAL, you can either take the SID leading north or the SID leading south. It really depends on your flight plan. If you are heading directly east like KCLT or KDEN, you would follow the path in the second picture below.
My point is: There are some missing waypoints near KSJC and your flight plan really determines what SID you should take. **Main thing when taking off from 30R is to always turn right, go downwind, pass the red line which means passing the thresholds of Runways 30R and 30L, and then continue on your flight plan.
I do that exact flight a lot for school. My family lives in San Jose, but I am currently going to school in Seattle. And not all the planes do that. I have experienced that in aircraft like the 737, and Dash 8. But when I am on board an Airbus plane, they just do a steep climb.
Actually no. I went on FlightAware and Flightradar24 and the Airbus planes still do the standard SID. Look up the Alaska flight to KJFK, the JetBlue flight to KJFK, the American Airline flights to KPHX, and the Delta flights to KMSP.
All of them are in Airbuses Delta does bring a B738 to KMSP sometimes and they still follow the standard SIDs.
I’m talking the Seattle-SJC flight specifically. Look that up. For every other flight out of SJC, yes, they still do the SID. But for Seattle I have had 3 times where the plane did a steep climb.
Are you taking Alaska? Because if you are, they only bring their B737s, B738s, and B739s for that route.
We could continue more in a PM as this is getting off topic.
Thank you this is very helpful. I find it very interesting that the ANA flight from SJC to NRT never does the loop and just heads straight up to NRT everyday. Is it because there is not much traffic to SFO and OAK at the time or does the flight have a steep initial climb to avoid SFO and OAK traffic. I will attach a picture.
That is interesting. In summer Alaska used to sent an ex-Virgin American A320 once everyday for the SJC-SEA flight and I flew it one day and it indeed the loop.
Actually, if you zoom in closer to the picture, you will see that the flight actually did the loop.
That is funny. Because the one that is currently in the air right now took the SID.
Yea @Mihir_Buty @BigBert10. When ever ATC can give an airplane a slot in departing the will allow them to go straight out and turn left. This is rare but they do allow it if SFO gives it to them to go to Hawaii and Asia from KSJC. ATC gave them to expect 10,000 only 7 mins after depature
I do the looping departure sometimes :) Last time I did it, I flew the British Airways Boeing 787-8 from KSJC-EGLL.
I thought that Infinite Flight does not have the 787-8 livery for British Airways
You’re absolutely right. I forgot I use the 787-9 and pretend it’s the 8 because the real life route uses the 8 :P
