I don't mind working in Class B airspace, but I remember the discussion in the various newsgroups about the "Bay Tour", which I assumed was a VFR transition through SFO's Class B. I wanted to get some advice on the procedure from the folks here, but ran out of time. So, I got into Oakland (interesting story about that below) and had a nice vacation in San Francisco. Leaving Wednesday afternoon, I sought out a pilot at Kaiser Air at Oakland and asked him about the Bay Tour. He simply said to request it from Oakland Ground and expect a clearance that takes me up I-880 to the toll booths for the Bay Bridge, then head west, staying north of the bridge and north of the SF bay shore. I was skeptical about how easy he made it sound. I called up ground and said "Oakland Ground, Skylane 965CW at Kaiser ramp with information [ATIS]. Request Bay Tour departure to the north, northwest." I got clearance to taxi and within a minute was given a transponder code and the exact same instructions that I got from the pilot I spoke with. The controller left out an altitude, so I ask and was allowed anything under 2500, which was fine for my purposes. Flying the departure and talking to Oakland approach, it was simple. I was amazed at how helpful and easy going the controllers are. The Class B airspace doesn't seem as restrictive as the Seattle Class B, although I understand there is a slightly new structure is in place with the issuance of the new chart yesterday. I got some great pictures of downtown SF, the bridges, Alcatraz and the surrounding areas; really, really pretty. However, I didn't see the aircraft carrier out in the Pacific that Flight Simulator always shows . Interesting story coming into Oakland: I had a heck of time finding a VFR altitude and flight condition on the Eugene-Oakland leg. Various scattered/broken layers from 3500 with tops from 12500 to over 14000. At one point, I climbed up to 13,000 (highest ever for me) to avoid some clouds, only to have to descend under the next layer. Anyway, it cleared up fine over the Redding/Red Bluff area and I tuned in Oakland Center to pick up flight following which was discontinued through the mountains. The controller was really busy and I waited a few minutes then finally said "Oakland center, Skylane 965CW" which didn't get a reply. After a few more minutes, I tried again, and got back "5CW standby". Then I waited another 5 or so minutes and called again. This time, he said, "5CW go ahead" and I gave location, altitude and destination and asked for flight following, and he said he had me on a list and would get back to me. First time that happened to me, but since I was still 50-80 miles north of Oakland, I wasn't worried. He finally got back to me, gave me a squawk code and called out some traffic. Later, I got transitioned to Travis (AFB) approach. About 2 miles north of the SF Class B, Travis tells me "radar service terminated, squawk VFR." I quickly follow up requesting flight following into Class B and Oakland approach. He repeated that I squawk VFR and to contact Oakland approach. I was ticked, because I assumed that Travis would hand be off to either Oakland or SF approach and clear me into Class B. Now I had to hold outside of Class B (near an airway), get the right frequency and call it up. As it turned out, I called Oakland approach, and I ducked under the Class B (which was at 6,000) where I was. Still it bugged me, since all my other flight following experiences were seamless. That being said, I'm still really impressed with the Oakland controllers. They operate basically two airports really close together; the north complex for GA and freight and the south complex for passenger airlines. And they do it under the complex SFO Class B. -- Charles Oppermann Copper Aviation http://www.coppersoftware.com/aviation