Understood. . . Review the Sectional Legend and try to start recognizing things like airspace types, Navaids, terrain elevations, and airport information. That was the idea of me asking you that question, not to get an answer (since you obviously couldn't just spit out an answer) but to get you to starting looking at the sectional chart and thinking about such things. Now, back to the question, all the terrain elevation and topography info you need is on the sectional chart. First looking at the the color coded key of the sectional chart (posted here:
http://www.txsquadron.com/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=&TOPIC_ID=1848) in comparison with the route from Rio Vista to Half-moon bay we see that any direct or northerly route we chose will take us over terrain that is shaded in green for the most part, if we take a southerly course towards San Jose we may find a few more areas shaded in light brown-yellow tones indicating terrain up to near 5,000 feet. There are two obvious routing choices. The first way would keep us clear of the San Francisco Class Bravo Airspace (indicated with the thick blue lines around the airport) but would require us to fly some sections of the route very low (which isn't ideal) and would be as follows: Rio Vista (O88) direct Concord VOR (CCR 117.0) via heading 225 degrees and any altitude above 2,000 feet would provide adequate obstacle clearance since all we see along the route is a 426 foot (MSL) tower though the large blue number that has a big 2 and little 2 means that within that lat/long quadrant there is terrain/obstructions at 2,200 feet, though as we see that isn't on your route (I used my plotter to figure out the exact heading from 088, but for now you can guess an initial heading and pick up the VOR signal ASAP and then proceed direct to it), once crossing CCR turn right and track the 228 degree radial FROM CCR until reaching the midway point between CCR and Sausalito VOR (SAU 116.2) ( this is 12.5 nautical miles from CCR) , then proceed to SAU tracking the same radial, but now using the TO mode of the VOR such that you are flying 225 TO SAU this segment can be flown no higher than the 4,000 foot class B floor, but just after SAU we need to be below 3,000 feet for the class B floor south of SAU so keep that in mind as you approach the SAU VOR. Once crossing SAU verify that you are below 3,000 feet MSL and intercept the 165 FROM Radial and track that while continuing your descent along the coastline until below the upcoming 1,500 foot floor of class B just west of SFO, soon the floor is raised up to 4,000 feet, but now you are already at Half-moon Bay so you may as well stick around 1,500-2,000 feet as you approach and enter the traffic pattern there.What you see in the above routing is that navigating around such complex airspace is difficult, and also gives you very little altitude to work with in particular when near the areas under the approach and departure zones of the Class Bravo Airport. . .that last segment where you must be below 1,500 feet is over the coastline as well as off-shore, and there aren't many places to land if you needed to (ie engine/mechanical failure) other than ditching offshore. That said, this would be a fun flight, with a lot of things to see up close for passengers. . .but consider the risks.Another option is to simply file a flight plan and request an airspace transition from ATC which will allow you to enter the Class B airspace at higher altitudes as well as to plan a more direct routing such as: O88 direct CCR-Direct Oakland VOR (116.
Direct SFO VOR Direct Half-Moon Bay at whatever altitudes you/ATC want.Lastly, if you wanted to stay higher without talking to ATC or needing to wait for Class B clearance you could take a southerly route around the Class B towards San Jose then head North West to Half-Moon Bay. . . but that's a bit longer than the other routings. S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO
