On the way home to Seattle after a recent visit to Las Vegas, I stopped for fuel at McClellan Airfield (KMCC) at Sacramento. The route home from Boulder City, NV (KBVU) reversed the path that I’d flown south, curving around the restricted airspace and MOAs at Palmdale and Edwards AFB and then north via the Central Valley.

McClellan is a former Air Force Base with a runway 10,600 ft long but no control tower. It’s home to a big CalFire tanker base, and it’s a popular stop for business aircraft, air ambulance flights, and other general aviation traffic.
Operating at McClellan can be challenging. The airport is just inside the ring of Class C airspace at Sacramento International Airport (KSMF), only a few miles west, and two Class D airports, Sacramento Executive (KSAC) and Mather (KMHR), complicate VFR arrivals from the south and southeast.

The traffic patterns for runway 16-34 are on the west side (right traffic to RWY 16 and a left pattern to RWY 34), but there’s little vertical and horizontal maneuvering room, given the 1600 ft. base of the Class C outer ring and the proximity of the surface area. NorCal Approach does a terrific job working VFR traffic, including many training flights in the crowded skies.

But in the end, joining the flow is up to you. The winds were light out of north, and to circumvent Mather’s airspace, I maneuvered northeast of McClellan, descended below the Class C shelf, and then crossed overhead into a direct left downwind for runway 34.

KMCC is a good fuel stop. Self-serve pumps are on the west side of the runway just off taxiway K, well clear of the busy FBO ramp. If you want full service, McClellan Jet Services is an excellent FBO.