Warbird Information Exchange

I had no idea you could fly over an airport and take pictures as you did in Los Angeles.

LAX Special Flight Rules
Los Angeles has a VFR corridor similar to New York’s, though it’s slightly better defined and more formal, but it’s equally convenient for facilitating the flow of traffic from north to south. Again, it doesn’t demand ATC services, and that’s good rather than bad. Just as in New York, ATC in Los Angeles is often far too busy to contend with VFR aircraft.

LAX is at the far western edge of the megalopolis, flush against the Pacific. Most flights approach from points east, and that means Los Angeles airspace is split in the middle. The standard-profile descent brings traffic into Los Angeles on a long straight-in from Big Bear Lake, right down the center of the Los Angeles Basin, leaving six airports on the south side and five airports to the north. Without some form of transition route, it would be impractical to fly from, say, Santa Monica or Van Nuys on the north side, to Torrance or Long Beach on the south side.

For that very reason, the FAA established the LAX Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) directly above LAX, a VFR corridor with two designated altitudes, 4,500 feet northwest bound and 3,500 feet southeast bound. Defining a corridor across the center of LAX is infinitely logical, as all airline traffic is either landing or departing below. For that reason, there’s no cross traffic above the center of the runway. (Before you ask, airline go-arounds are instructed not to climb above 2,500 feet.)