Special Use Airspace Lesson
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Special Use Airspace Lesson
We're going to continue the airspace lecture now by covering Special Use Airspace. I've written several different types of Special Use Airspace on the whiteboard with a legend depiction. I'm going to cover each one, and then we're going to go to a sectional so you can see what it looks like on the sectional as well.
Let's start with the first, prohibited areas. If it's prohibited, it really means you are prohibited from entering that area. You can't fly there. It's a national security issue. Think about areas like the White House, the Pentagon, monuments, places like that. It will be depicted on a sectional with the blue hatched line. We actually don't have a sectional here that has that on it, but if you looked at a sectional that included the Washington, DC area, you would definitely see that. Pay attention to those, you'll be in a lot of trouble if you bust one of those airspaces.
Next would be the Air Defense Identification Zone, also known as the ADIZ. It's surrounding international and coastal boundaries. You do need clearance, you need to file a DVFR or IFR flight plan, and you need a Mode C transponder. It is depicted on a sectional by a magenta line with some polka dots there. We'll go to the sectional and show you what that looks like. This sectional is showing you the border, the ADIZ contiguous US defense area ADIZ that's between the United States and Mexico. You can see this here, this is the boundary that we're looking at. Anywhere you see something like that, you know you need to have clearance and a flight plan and a Mode C transponder.
Next are restricted areas. Restricted areas are not prohibited, but they are subject to restrictions. It would be wise for you to know what these restrictions are because some of them could be hazardous to your health. Unusual, often invisible hazards to aircraft and occupants, for instance, gunnery, guided missiles, artillery. You may need clearance in these areas depending on the flight level and operating hours. You don't always, but if you see this on a sectional and it has an R, that means it's a restricted area. There is a way to look it up on a sectional so you know what the operating hours are or the flight level so you know whether or not you need clearance. Let's go to the sectional and take a look.
Special Use Airspace Lesson
On the Chicago sectional, you've got a restricted airspace area here that is depicted by R-6903. The way you can find out whether that's in operation currently is there's another legend on your sectional that has in blue for the restricted spaces, there's a number that corresponds. What it says here is, "Unless otherwise noted, altitudes are MSL and in feet, time is local." "To" on altitude means to and including. For this particular one, R-6903, it tells you that it is to flight level 450, which means it's up to and including 45,000 feet. The next column over on R-6903. Time of use is intermittent by NOTAM. NOTAM will be issued when this is an active restricted area.
Next column over, controlling agency or contact facility is the Minneapolis Center, and the final column gives you the frequencies for center. If you haven't seen a NOTAM and you've looked at all of your resources but you're not sure, the easiest and best thing to do would be to call Minneapolis Center, say, "I'm planning to fly through R-6903, and what are the hours of restriction?" They'll be able to let you-
All right. Next would be warning areas. These areas are three nautical miles outward from the United States coast. It's got activity that may be hazardous to non-participating aircraft. This is not a restricted area, it's not a prohibited area, but you have been warned that there may be some activities going on there that you don't really want to be part of. Again, this is going to be depicted on a sectional.
We don't have a sectional that has a warning area on it, but in this textbook, this gives you a good example. Very similar to what we've seen on the sectionals, you still have the blue crosshatched line, you've got a warning area with a corresponding number. That number will then be in a legend on the top of the sectional, so you can take a look at that and find out, what are the restrictions of that warning area, what do you need to know about that? Again, you can contact the local flight service station, the closest one within 100 miles, and they should be able to tell you about that as well if you just can't figure it out on a sectional.
Next step would be military operations areas. These exist to separate IFR traffic from military training. There's certain military training activities that are going to go on in these areas like air combat practice, formation flying, low altitude operations. The Department of Defense has authority to operate aircraft at greater than 250 knots below 10,000 feet MSL here. Good idea for you to know what's going on there. These activities can change frequently, and again, you're going to contact the closest flight service station within 100 miles of that area for your current operating information.
We're back to our Chicago sectional, and the Minnow MOA which is adjacent to the restricted area we looked at previously has a similar crosshatch line, but it's in magenta. Then up here we have a table that outlines the specifics of that military operating area. You look at Minnow, you find that the altitude for that operating area starts at 10,000 feet. Again, that's going to be MSL. Time of use is intermittent by NOTAM, normally daylight hours. Minneapolis Center is your contact facility for this MOA, and then your frequencies are listed there. You can give them a call and find out what's going on there, if you're okay to fly through if you're concerned about it.
Special Use Airspace Lesson
Alert areas. These are areas that have a high volume of pilot training or unusual activity such as parachute operations, gliders. These will be depicted on a sectional for the airport area as well, you'll see parachute and glider activity. If it's a really high rate of training, that is going to be surrounded by the blue cross-hatched line. Let's take a look at that. Here's an example in the textbook of an alert area. This has an alert area surrounding the US Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs. There's intensive student pilot training and parachute jumping, you've got this blue hatched line that tells you what's going on there, glider activity also exists in the area, and these will be designated by alert area and a number with a letter following. You can look it up in the top of the legend again so you can get all the information that you need about that alert area.
Another special use airspace area that could be hazardous to your health is ... Controlled firing areas are also special use airspace. There can be hazardous activity, however it is not depicted on a sectional because they use spotters. It won't be charted, but it's also no factor. They have personnel in the area that are flying around looking for civilian aircraft. As soon as they see somebody, they stop all operations, you go through, and then they resume. Don't be alarmed, hopefully they're doing their job. It's not something that you can see on a sectional.
Next is a national security area. Here, these are areas where there's increased safety on the ground, can be temporary. It's suggested that you don't fly through those. It's not prohibited, but they're suggesting that you don't fly through it due to increased safety concerns on the ground. NOTAMs will be issued if there's something specific that you need to know there. This is going to be depicted by the dashed magenta line.
We do have an example of a national security area here. There's a requirement for increased safety and security on ground facilities. Here it tells you, "For reasons of national security, pilots are requested to avoid flight below 6,500 feet MSL in this area." You can see the dashed line here, not to be confused with airspace, not to be confused with class E to the surface. It looks similar, but not quite. If you have this here, there's going to be a marking on the sectional that tells you why and what it is.
Temporary flight restrictions. TFRs are not going to be depicted on a sectional, but you do really need to know this is Special Use Airspace that you're required to ... You're responsible for knowing what's going on there. A TFR, there are a few places you can find it. If you use some of the third party applications like Fore Flight or Jeppesen, something like that, TFRs should be listed there. However, that's not the final authority. If you are at all concerned about whether or not there's a TFR, you need to call flight watch.
Special Use Airspace Lesson
I know, I thought I was doing so well. I know. TFRs are not depicted on a sectional, but as a pilot you are required to know where these TFRs are in occurrence. There are third party applications like Fore Flight, Jeppesen, you could even look at the faa.gov and they have a TFR section so you can find out what's going on there, but none of these are really the final authority. If you are at all concerned about whether or not there's a TFR in an area that you're flying, you've got to call flight service. It would be on record because you've called to get a briefing. They have your tail number, they know that you called, so if something pops up while you're in flight, there's a record of that and you at least have done your due diligence as a pilot and you know where the TFRs exist or that there wasn't one that morning and you decided to fly through it within the next 30 minutes and didn't know.
If you have weather on a Garmin, if you've got a GPS in your aircraft, for instance, we fly with a Garmin 796, and we do have weather on there, XM Weather and TFRs will also pop up on those as well, supposedly in real time, but again, not the final authority on that.
Couple other that I just snuck on the board over here because I've used up a lot of space. Military training routes, these are areas where there's going to be flying in excess of 250 knots, good for you to know where these are. Let's take a look at a sectional and see how that looks. Here are two examples of military training routes. Here's an IFR and a VFR. They're depicted in grey, which is different from VFR airways which are depicted in blue. Generally, military training routes are established below 10,000 feet MSL for operations at speeds in excess of 250 knots. Routes at and below 1,500 feet AGL are designed to be flown under VFR. Routes above 1,500 AGL are developed primarily to be flown under IFR. You're not restricted from flying through a military training route, but you do need to check in with Flight Service within 100 nautical miles to obtain that current information regarding activity in your area so you're not surprised by a really fast moving aircraft.
The last area I wanted to talk to you about are wilderness or noise sensitive areas. It's depicted on a sectional with a blue line that has blue dots inside and it's always going to be surrounding something like a national park, a wilderness area, a national wildlife refuge, something like that. It's not prohibited, it's not a hard and fast rule, but you are requested to fly 2,000 feet vertical and lateral from these areas. You don't want to be disturbing wildlife, you don't want to be disturbing people who are having a nice wilderness experience, something like that. You do want to be a courteous aviator and make sure that you are keeping these areas in mind. Let's take a look at one on the sectional.
There are a couple here that I can see, and you'll find these almost on any sectional, I'm pretty certain. You've got a warm springs wilderness area here, outlining the boundary. You've got another wildlife refuge area right here, and a wilderness area right there. It'll tell you pretty specifically. Some of them, like Grand Canyon, that kind of stuff's going to be obvious. Some of these areas you may not have known that there was a wildlife refuge, so just pay attention when you're planning your flight route so you know where these areas will be encountered.
This concludes the second part of the airspace presentation. I know it's a lot to know, but you are required to know it. Make sure that you go over these, you go over your controlled and uncontrolled airspace. A really good way to keep current on this is always be looking at a sectional. You can always learn something by looking at a sectional, ask other pilots, use all your resources. I know it's a lot of information, but hopefully this will help you keep some of it straight.
Special Use Airspace Lesson
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Let Helicopter Online Ground School help you with all of your ratings! We have four FAA certified courses, Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Instrument Pilot, and Certified Flight Instructor. We have a bundle pack called Professional Pilot Lifetime Membership, which includes all this for life.
Any course completion will automatically award WINGS phase credits and you are on your way to satisfying the flight review requirement.
