EASTBOUND DEPARTURES: Most airwork and maneuvers will be done near Alpine, over El Capitan Reservoir, and occasionally we will do ground reference maneuvers over Jamul, so this will be a common departure. There is a lot of traffic flying east and west over Montgomery and Gillespie, so keeping an eye out for other traffic is a high priority while transiting this area. The graphic below depicts a typical eastbound departure from Montgomery Field using runway 28R (typical for eastbound departures).
WESTBOUND DEPARTURES: Occasionally, due to weather to the east, or other factors, we may elect to use the coastal area for maneuvers. There are several cross country routes that may have us depart to the west as well. While there is training traffic along the coast, there are also a lot of aircraft transiting the coast north and south at all altitudes. Many of these aircraft are not familiar with local traffic practices such as position reporting on 122.75. Note that this route has you transit between a section of class B airspace over Torrey Pines. The airspace cutout that we fly through starts at 3200 ft and goes up to 6800 ft. As long as we use VFR cruising altitudes (East is odd + 500, west is even + 500) and are above the airspace altitude requirements, this does not require us to communicate with ATC.