B A R R Y writes:

Most B & C, and lots of D airports have a VORTAC on the field. DME
will tell you the distance from the DME station, which is usually near
the center of the field, and the airspace.. Otherwise, you need to
establish where you are using off-field VOR radials and/or chart denoted
visual landmarks. Easy landmarks include airports, roads (especially
intersections), cities, towers, stacks, power lines, water feature,
etc... I haven't flown with an NDB in a long time, so I can't comment
on using those.

I've noticed that those airspaces are arranged in such a way that one
could find them without too much trouble. The B airspaces usually
seem to be concentric rings, and if you know your radial position and
distance from the center of the rings, you can figure things out.

Unfortunately, some B airspaces seem to be much more complex, and
looking on the chart I can't figure out where they start and end.

For example, look at the terminal chart for KLAX. Some of the class B
boundaries are marked, such as SMO 252° or VNY 220° at the western
extremity. But then there's a northern border that isn't marked at
all. I see water, a building, and Griffith Park observatory nearby,
but that's it. And some of the internal boundaries are even worse. I
suppose that, in time, I could figure out a route to follow based on
the chart. But the problem is that the aircraft is moving while I'm
looking, and it takes more time to figure out where I am than it does
to be somewhere else.

Yes, I could plan carefully in advance. But then, if anything changes
my route, all the planning goes out the window, and I'm back to
looking at the chart.

A moving map solves all this, but I don't like being so dependent on a
moving map to safely navigate among the airspaces. I know it will
never fail in the sim (well, actually it did once, or I did something
wrong, I'm not sure), but I cannot guarantee this in real life.

This is taught, tested, and developed during training, and good pilots
put a lot of effort into location awareness. With practice, it becomes
easy, possibly second nature.

Maybe. I suppose if you can pick and choose your route, you can find
one with lots of landmarks to use. But can you do that when you are
working towards a license?

If I'm flying near, over, or under controlled airspace, I'll at least
monitor the frequency, and call if I'm near.

If you are flying through a VFR corridor that requires no ATC contact
(see the KSAN terminal chart, which has such a corridor and explicitly
says that no contact is required), do you routinely talk to ATC,
anyway? What do you request from them?

If the space is completely restricted, why poke at the beast? You'd
simply give it a reasonable, without-a-doubt cushion while passing by.

If there is space to do that.

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