Why did ATC vector me?
While I was being vectored, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but as I look over my track and the airspace, I can see why ATC did what they did. Just like when you are heading for a mountain that is higher than your current altitude and ATC asks you to say your intentions, this is an example of ATC helping out, but not giving the you explicit information about what is happening.
On a recent flight to Marysville, KMYV, ATC kept me at 8,500′ over Sacramento and then turned me on a heading of 280° and allowed me to descend to 3,500′. At the time I thought it was for traffic, but after reviewing my track, I think the also wanted to keep me out of the Beale airspace. By starting my descent when I turned, they knew that I would be above 4,100′ while over Beale. I may have been in the TFR, it’s hard to tell from the track, but since I was talking to ATC and squawking a code, that was fine.
They terminated flight following when the track stops and I was at 3,500′. This gave me plenty of time to make wide right traffic to KMYV and get below the 1,600′ ceiling of Beale.