DESCRIPTION

Sector 4 is one of the more congested sectors in L.A. Center, lying just to the north of LAX and over the San Fernando Valley. It is very small, only about 50 miles long by 20 miles wide. Primary it handles stacks of departures off of L.A. area airports that need to get up to their cruising altitude. They key word is stacks; jets will be stacked under jets, and props under the jets. Or sometimes, jets get stuck underneath props. You need to start the top aircraft in the stacks up first, and step-climb the others underneath.

The west half of the sector is almost all departures (jets and props) from south to north. The right half is mostly prop arrivals descending from north to south (with routings that keep them clear of the jet departures in the west half), and a few north-south and south-north overflights. Finally, you get occasional west-east/east-west overflights, and some south-north overflights to get in everybodys' way.

There's very little room to vector aircraft around, so mostly just keep them separated by altitudes and hand off to the next guy to finish. SOCAL Departure loves throwing clusters of departures at you, so do your best to sort out the mess and get everybody on their way!

L.A. Sector 4 (sketch--not to scale)

VORTACS

EHF Shafter GMN Gorman RZS San Marcus FIM Filmore LHS Lake Hughes

PMD Palmdale POM Pomona PTV Porterville SLI Seal Beach

AIRPORTS

BFL Bakersfield BUR Burbank VNY Van Nuys SBA Santa Barbara LAS Las Vegas

LAX Los Angeles SMO Santa Monica SNA Orange County ONT Ontario FAT Fresno

SECTORS

Sector 4 owns from 14,000 to FL230, except from V12 to the northern boundary, which sector 4 owns from the ground to FL230.

Sector 3 lies to the north of sector 4, from 14,000 to FL230

Bakersfield Approach (sector 66) lies underneath sector 3, from the ground to 13,000.

SOCAL Approach (sector 88) is underneath sector 4, south of V12, from the ground to 13,000.

Sector 17 is to the east of 4, in this version covering from the ground to FL230.

Sector 18 is to the south of 17, from 14,000 to FL230.

Sector 13 is to the west of 4, from the ground to FL230.

Sector 27 lies above 4, from FL240 and up.

PROCEDURES

LAX Jet Departures will turn northward, direct GMN, climbing to 15,000. They must be climbed to FL230 and handed off to sector 27.

BUR Jet Departures will be direct GMN or PMD, climbing to 14,000. If going toward GMN, they should be climbed to FL230 and handed off to 27; if toward PMD, climb them to FL190 and handoff to 17.

ONT Jet Departures will be direct GMN or turn direct EHF, climbing to FL230. They should be handed off to 27 as-is (climbing to FL230).

Basin Prop Departures from LAX, BUR, VNY and ONT will be climbing to 10,000 if single-engine pistons, or 12,000 if turboprops. They should be climbed to their requested altitude (or as close as you can get) and handed off to sector 3 if at or above 14,000, or Bakersfield (66) if at or below 13,000.

BFL Arrivals should be descended to 10,000 or 12,000 (if not there already) and handed off to Bakersfield Approach (66).

Basin Arrivals (LAX, SMO, SNA) should be descended to 13,000, (or 11,000 or 9,000 if you need to) and handed off to SOCAL approach (sector 88). The LAX props should be at least 10 miles-in-trail.

BUR/VNY arrivals should be descended to 9,000 (or left at 9,000) and handoff to 88.

Overflights should be left alone and handed off to the next sector along their route.

HINTS

- The main job in this sector is to sort out the stacks of prop and jet departures that are climbing northbound to different altitudes. Do not take handoffs on aircraft until they are fully separated from each other! Otherwise, you are bound to be charged with an unfair deal. You can (usually) safely take handoffs on the jets from LAX and BUR, but under no circumstances should you take handoffs on props until they are almost to V12! If you take them earlier, inevitably you will get a jet departure off of BUR that will climb right through them, and if you have a handoff on both aircraft, you will be charged with a deal. Just leave the props flashing at you (and level at either 10 or 12,000) until they are almost to V12, then take them once they are altitude-separated.
- The other main area is the prop arrivals from the north, direct LHS. The ones at 15,000 will need to be descended to 13,000, but the others (at and below 13,000) can just be left alone. As always, though, don't take handoffs from sector 3 or 66 unless they are separated from all the others. If necessary, get on the landline and issue a climb/descent/turn to the other aircraft.
- Overflights west/east and north/south (especially when above 16,000) really cause a mess with your jet departures. Look out for the ONT jets conflicting with these overflights between LHS and BUR; stop the ONT jets beneath the overflights, if necessary, until they pass.
- The BUR jets over PMD will hardly even hit your airspace (usually), but somebody has to work them. Climb them to FL190, initiate the handoff to 17, then switch them as soon as 17 takes the handoff (usually right away). If you handoff to 17 before the aircraft is on your frequency, SOCAL controllers get confused and the aircraft gets lost (and stuck at 14,000). So, wait until you are talking to the plane before you start the handoff (or use the landline to bring them back to your frequency (e.g. SWA235,*) if they do get lost in the shuffle).
- Some of the turbprops from the south (e.g. at FL200) might look like overflights, but actually land at BFL and need to be descended to 12,000 (and handed off to 66). It's usually best to start them down to 16,000 right away and turn them to the right a little (like a 340 heading) to get them away from the jets climbing out.
- The ONT jet departures usually just need to be left alone and handed off to 27; however, you can have prop overflights in confliction, and look out for fast-climbing 737's from LAX and BUR conflicting with any ONT jets around the GMN area.

As always, and especially with sector 4, you are expected to correct the mistakes, straighten things out and get everybody on their way and off of your frequency. You may get a larger than usual number of "lost" aircraft (in the middle of your sector but not on your frequency), and you need to get on the landline and get them over to you before climbing/descending them and switching them over to the next guy. It's very fast-paced at seemingly chaotic at times...good luck!