Departure from San Diego
After spending the night in San Diego, I arrived at the airport around 10 AM, paid $5 overnight parking fee and ordered the tanks to be topped off. The photo above is actually from the evening of the day before.
After a brief delay of about 30 minutes, I took off San Diego’s Montgomery Field for a trip to Sedona, Arizona. I followed the border with Mexico, keeping a proper distance of about 6 miles (10 km). I did not want any mishaps with unauthorized border crossing!
Initially, San Diego controllers refused my request for flight following, indeed they were very busy with several practice approaches and a string of arrivals into San Diego International. I listened to the approach frequency but picked up my flight following only around Yuma, AZ.
Passing Yuma, I bent towards the north-east, following the restricted area boundaries towards Prescott, Arizona. At Prescott, I went direct Sedona.