Government advocacy teams from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association are working together to help preserve GA access to the national airspace system (NAS) in Salt Lake City, Utah; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles. Both organizations, as well as other GA groups, have adopted the “Stronger Together” mantra as a pledge to work cooperatively for GA’s greater good.
In the FAA’s Salt Lake City Class B airspace revision proposal, EAA and AOPA are united in opposition to increasing the ceiling from 10,000 feet MSL to 12,000 feet MSL as this would force GA pilots to either carry supplemental oxygen or fly hundreds of miles around the Class B airspace. The FAA says it needs the additional ceiling to allow airline traffic more room to maneuver so it can enter the airspace from the top instead of the sides (as current FAA policy prescribes).
In our nation’s capitol, the FAA and industry groups (including EAA and AOPA) have begun a long-range review of Potomac Class B airspace. An industry/public ad hoc committee, chaired by AOPA’s Tom Kramer and co-chaired by EAA volunteer Dave Watrous will submit a proposal to the FAA by the end of the year that maximizes public access to and through Class B. Final changes to this airspace are not anticipated before 2013, EAA officials noted.
In LA, the Southern California Airspace Users Working Group (SCAUWG) has formed to ensure a public voice in all airspace matters within this very complex airspace area. SCAUWG co-chairman and EAA volunteer Jack Kenton works side-by-side with AOPA’s Kramer and other area aviation leaders focusing on several airspace issues affecting the Los Angeles area including but not limited to:
- Long Beach, Ontario, and March AFB Class C airspace revisions
- VFR helicopter route structures
- VFR transition routes over LAX
- The FAA’s LA Basin Optimization of Airspace and Procedures (OAMP) study team
- The Palm Springs TRSA
- FAA charting of VFR fixed-wing and helicopter routes
- Development of flight training area collision-avoidance frequencies.
