I just read a thread in another forum here about the River Approach at DCA and was reminded of the "Bay Tour" out of SFO and OAK. Have any of you ever flown the "Bay Tour"? For the uninitated, it use to go like this:

PILOT: "Bay Departure, SWA1234 with you, climbing to 2,000, requesting the Bay Tour".

ATC: "SWA1234, Bay Departure, RADAR contact. Remain over water at all times, fly over the Golden Gate Bridge, maintain at or below 3,000, depart the bridge heading 210, advise when ready for higher."

The pilot would fly out over the San Francisco Bay... take a turn around Alcatraz (traffic permitting)... overfly the Golden Gate Bridge or the Marin Headlands... then turn south along the San Francisco peninsula and request higher and on-course.

As long as the departure sector wasn't too busy, the Bay Tour was a real cool thing for pilots and passengers alike. It was always interesting to have SFO and OAK departures check-in at the same time, with both aircraft requesting the tour. Visual Separation would be applied, and these two aircraft would head out over the San Francisco Bay for the most beautiful tour that an airline ticket can purchase.

One Sunday morning a UAL B737 checked-in after departing SFO and hearing the "Bay Tour" instructions issued to another aircraft. He said that he'd never heard of the Bay Tour, but he wanted to take it. One thing led to another, and I lost count after 18 departures in a row all asked for the Bay Tour. The TRACON Supervisor finally came over to the departure sector and told me to "cease conducting Bay Tours".

It was fun while it lasted that day... I had a string of commercial airliners departing SFO and OAK, all flying up the Bay, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and eventually down the coast to Southern California. It looked nice from my side of the RADAR scope, but I sure wish that I could have seen it from your vantage point.

Last time I asked my buds at Bay/NORCAL about the Tour, I was told that it was no longer allowed. Next time you are out there, ask the SFO or OAK Departure Controller for the Bay Tour and see what happens. If they let you fly it, you won't be disappointed.

MEM_ATC