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i have lived here my whole life, and i have never once seen a plane take off from the Willamette… …let alone do THIS. wtf.

tail more than enough here - it's under the C shelf so they almost certainly talked to PDX approach on the climbout... which... (a) would love to hear that and (b) they must have been able to see it on the scope? IDK its weird...

Its the outer tier of the airspace (floor of 1200ft). The big circle on the top of the upside-down wedding cake in this picture

There is an invisible box around the city within which you need to talk to PDX (where they were, 2300 feet to 4000 feet). If you popped up out of nowhere like that on the radio you’d probably have a hell of a time explaining how you got there… but if you just buzz the river… no comms needed!

I have done the river flyover at least like 40 times and every time I contact by like LO or Scappoose and even though almost every time I was under their shelf the whole flight I still was on the radio with them because I am a normal adult who wants to not be a pain in the ass for the airport

You don’t have to talk to them strictly legally speaking if you skirt below their airspace but it’s like… it’s a tell, it’s a smell, imo (some other person will undoubtedly come in and be like nah it’s totally legit but it’s not lol)