[JYO] ...Latest from Operation Raincheck

 
 
 
I'm forwarding the excellent email below with the permission of its  
author, Mike Sapp of the TSS Flying Club. He attended the Operation  
Raincheck session on Saturday and has very interesting news and perspective to  
share. 


The meeting he refers to, by the way, is our monthly meeting  of the 
TSS Flying Club - _http://www.tss.http_ (http://www.tss.org/)  - six Cessnas 
based at  of GAI.

-Bart
_bepstein@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:bepstein@xxxxxxxxx)  
------------------------------

TSSers-  

This is a long e-mail which is a de-brief on my session today at  
Potomac Tracon as part of Operation Raincheck. If you are interested in the  
future of the ADIZ and our airport you will want to read on. Unfortunately, 
the  news is a mixed bag - and not very good for us at GAI at all. 

If you  haven't made it out to this session yet you really should. It 
is well worth  the half day of time. Now on to the details: 

At today's session, the FAA  management was allowed to share details and even 
a copy of the draft plan to  replace the ADIZ. This is 
ostensibly the result of all the feedback we gave  during the NPRM 
period some months back. The controllers told us right up  front that 
even though they and the FAA management lobbied hard for a  solution that 
made sense, the security folks calling the shots really don't  care. At first, 
FAA Management and rank and file thought that 
perhaps the  problem was that the people driving the changes just 
didn't understand the  complexity of the air traffic control. Now 
after many months of meetings and  discussions it is apparent that 
they do indeed understand, but they just  don't care. Sad. 

They also told us about 100 times that this plan,  although targeted 
for implementation in July, has been modified many times  in the past 
couple of weeks and we really shouldn't take any of this as  written 
in stone yet. 

Anyway, here's the basics of what our  wonderful government has come up with: 

1) The new plan will be a  permanent fixture - not a temporary one 
like the ADIZ. The new airspace will  not be called an ADIZ - 
although the precise name of what they will call it  is somewhat up in 
the air. 

2) The FRZ is basically left the way it  is, although they are 
planning to take a small slice off the top near the  BWI VFR corridor 
to make that corridor a bit wider and easier to navigate.  Dave 
Wartofsky is still screwed. He was there today and was very  
interesting to hear by the way. 

3) The new ADIZ (which isn't an ADIZ  anymore) will basically be a 
30NM circle from the DCA vortac. All the parts  up around BAL and IAD will be 
gone. This is good news for a variety of satellite  airports 
like Bay Bridge and MTN which won't have to deal with this stuff  
anymore. 

4) They are going to cut notches in the 30NM circle for  certain 
outlying airports like Manassas, Quantico, and Leesburg. These  
airports will be given a *very* narrow VFR corridor to get in and out  
without a clearance. I think the current procedures have those 
aircraft  squawking a specific code that's it - kind of like some of 
the boundary  airports do now. (more on this in a minute) 

5) Ok, here's the bad news.  GAI is just plain screwed. We don't get 
any special notches or anything. We  are right in the heart of this 
new airspace and even with pleadings from  ATC, the security people would not 
cut any notches for us - we were just too  close to DC. 

So, this doesn't sound so bad....except for number 6! Read  on.... 

6) The new airspace will require complete positive control of all  
aircraft operating within it. This means that the existing 
requirements  to File, Squawk, and Talk, will be done away with and 
replaced with a much  more onerous requirement. We will now have to obtain a 
clearance to enter  (exactly like class B) 

At first glance that doesn't sound so bad -  that's basically the way 
we operate now except that the phraseology will now  include "cleared into 
the XXX" But here's the problem. According to ATC, the new  rules require for 
them to maintain the kind of control that can only be  accomplished if you are 
talking to the controller who is working the sector  whose airspace you occupy. 
This means that all VFR departures would have to talk  to the same controller 
who is working IFR departures. They would be unable to  continue with the 
126.75 frequency - since that controller doesn't actually  "control" any 
airspace at all. They explained that the whole reason they  created 
that frequency was to avoid the massive delays that were happening  
during peak hours before they set it up. VFR departures would be 
held on  the ground at GAI just like IFR departures. The same would 
happen with  arrivals. If you think it's bad waiting for a squawk on 
126.75 on a busy  weekend, just try getting a clearance into the 
airspace during rush hour at  BWI. The controllers at Potomac are 
convinced this is going to be  disastrous. 

There are dozens of issues that the controllers say haven't  been 
worked out yet. For one, they don't understand what services they  
will be required to provide you as VFR since they will be forced by 
this  reg to give you "radar contact." They don't know for example 
what the lost  com procedures will be or what separation they will be 
required to give.  

The controllers also said they have grave concerns about the funnel  
airspace created at these notches for JYO and the like. All the VFR  
arrivals and departures will be sharing a very small slice of 
airspace  and right now the FAA is not planning on charting the 
procedures. The  Potomac Tracon people are pleading with the charting people 
to make VFR flyway  charts like days of old for these 
corridors. 

There were a number of  other things discussed which could be of 
interest to members that I  observed: 

1) If you are interested in the Dulles East Downwind you  cannot know if you 
are going to get it until you are right there. The  
controllers will make a snap decision on the spot if they can  
accommodate you. They have actually been getting in trouble with  
management for giving it out to GA when there are too many arrivals 
in  the vicinity. They know that the alternative sucks, but if they 
can give it  to you they will. 

2) If you want to check for flight planning, you can  check the FAA 
web site at _http://www.fly.http://www.fly.http://www.http_ 
(http://www.fly.faa.gov/Products/AADC/aadc.html)   and they have a real-time 
graph of arrival 
loads at all major airports. You  
can plug in IAD and get an hour by hour forecast of arrival loads 
into  the airport. If you see that graph spike you know you won't be 
getting the  transition at that time. 

3) Many times people who are waiting for ADIZ  clearances fly towards the 
ADIZ and then when they get close they turn at right  angles and fly along the 
ADIZ boundary. At this point they are flying an arc  which is almost coincident 
with the radar sweep. When you do that in many cases  you become invisible to 
the radar - even the primary.They suggest a 45 degree  turn to avoid flying in 
tandem with the radar antenna. 

4) When you file  IFR flight plans, don't just file direct to a far 
off place. File your first  one (or even better two) fixes in the 
Potomac airspace so that they know  which direction you're intending 
to go. Apparently, they get lots of flight  plans with lat longs in 
them which just causes them to have to do all your  flight planning 
for you. NOTE: Even filing EMI direct is not good enough  since 
they won't know which direction you are planning to go after EMI.  
File EMI MRB for the west or EMI BAL for the south or east. At least  
that way they know where you are trying to go. 

5) Never trust your  GPS to show you clear of the ADIZ. They 
apparently have to bust a  significant number of people who seem to 
make a game of how quickly they can  squawk 1200 after leaving the 
ADIZ. They don't care how long you keep that  code after departing 
the ADIZ. Be safe and keep it in the box for a bunch of  miles before 
going 1200. 

6) You can never really know when 126.75  will be active. They 
suggest that you just call the normal sector controller  first and he 
or she will tell you to call 126.75 (while it still exists  anyway). 
They acknowledged that sometimes you can get a gruff sounding  
response to this, but they assured us that this is the correct 
procedure  and they really aren't upset with you for that. 

Interesting tidbits were  learned as well. I didn't realize that 
although they are indeed all in the  same room at Potomac, the 
controllers do not get qualified in different  areas. The Dulles 
controllers do not switch and do Baltimore and vice versa.  They 
qualify in a specific area and stay only in that area. There are  
over 350 altitudes that must be memorized to work the Mt. Vernon 
(DCA)  area alone. 

That's quite a lot, but I'll be at the meeting on Monday to  discuss 
if desired. 

-Mike 








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