Safety of flight risk- new restricted airspace effective June 27

[cum...@juno.com]

Hello everyone,

 

AOPA has asked me to pass along this information about some airspace changes occurring this June in our area that will not be depicted on the current Washington Sectional chart for almost a one month period.  Please use caution if you will be flying near Fort AP Hill anytime after June 26, 2013.

 

Doug Cumins

ASN Volunteer, W96

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: "McCaffrey, Melissa" <Melissa....@aopa.org>

To: "McCaffrey, Melissa" <Melissa....@aopa.org>

Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:59:31 -0400

Subject: Safety of flight risk- new restricted aispace effective June 27

Message-ID: <9BEE205BFBAEEC4585C3...@aopaexsrv.aopa2.org>

 

ASN Volunteer,

 

My name is Melissa McCaffrey, I am part of AOPA’s air traffic services division. I had previously sent information regarding a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the modification of Restricted Area R-6601- Fort A.P. Hill, VA June of last year. Since then, the FAA issued a Final Rule which outlines the expansion of R-6601. Details are as follows:

 

The modified airspace would extend from the surface up to 9,000 feet MSL and consists of three subareas designated R-6601A, R-6601B and R-6601C.  The new R-6601A has the same lateral boundary as the current R-6601.  The ceiling of R-6601A is lowered from 5000 feet MSL to 4,500 feet MSL.  R-6601B extends from 4,500 feet MSL to but not including 7,500 feet MSL; and R-6601C extends from 7,500 feet MSL to 9,000 feet MSL the times of designation will also be increased by 3 hours daily.

 

The bigger issue here is that the effective date of the new airspace is June 27, 2013 yet the next charting cycle for the Washington Sectional is not until July 25^th, leaving a 29 day gap where you, the flying public bear the incredible burden of penetrating new restricted airspace that you didn’t know existed (because it doesn’t on VFR charts) It is important to note that restricted airspace is established to confine or segregate activities considered hazardous to non-participating aircraft like yourselves. This could prove catastrophic if a GA aircraft unknowingly penetrates this new airspace area while hazardous operations are being tried.

 

As this is such a serious matter, AOPA has formally urged the FAA on several occasions to align airspace actions with VFR charting cycles to ensure that accurate airspace depictions are made readily available to the flying public. Unfortunately, this example illustrates one of several airspace actions this year where there is a significant gap, in which information is not readily available to VFR pilots who bear the safety risk. We recently urged the FAA to issue a safety alert to further disseminate the information I shared with you today, if that happens, your cooperation will play critical in getting information out the flying community locally. Please distribute this message widely, I thank you in advance for taking note of this very important matter, please feel free to contact me directly with questions.

 

 

 

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