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Thread: KVUO: New draconian airspace change, effective 10/1/12

  1. #1
    Senior Member Pilawt's Avatar
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    Default KVUO: New draconian airspace change, effective 10/1/12

    A meeting was held last night at Pearson Field (Vancouver WA), at which FAA announced its new airspace change for VUO, effective October 1, 2012. This change will have a serious and negative impact upon efficiency, economy and safety of operations at Pearson Field -- my Sport Cub's home base.

    It should be noted at the outset that this change is being made at the direction of a regional FAA bureaucrat in Renton. Our friends at PDX ATC are against it (as are the controllers' union, the airlines, AOPA, Washington Pilots Assn., the City of Vancouver, and all other stakeholders), but they are obliged to follow orders from Renton.

    Here is the letter from FAA, handed out at the meeting last night: www.pilawt.com/FAA_letter_120930.pdf

    In a nutshell: FAA has established what is known as the "Pearson Box", shown in blue on the diagram below. It extends eight miles west from PDX, surface to 2,100', and 2,500 feet either side of the PDX 10L localizer (which includes the centerline of the 10R localizer as well). Pearson Field is fully within the box. The box will not appear on any chart.

    When PDX is operating on east flow (10L/R, which are the calm-wind runways and favored by winds in the fall and winter), no VUO airplane will be allowed to operate anywhere within the box whenever a PDX airplane is anywhere within the box. When PDX approaches are in progress, close enough such that they might be in the box at the time of a VUO operation, the VUO operation will be prohibited. A VUO departure will be instructed to remain on the ground, and an arrival will be instructed to remain outside the VUO Class D (yellow area on diagram below).

    Delays are expected to be commonplace and lengthy; the FAA's slideshow last night indicated they are contemplating delays of 20-30 minutes for VUO operations. Controllers said they will try to create "holes" in the flow of PDX arrivals to allow VUO operations, but at high-volume times that will be impossible. VUO closed-traffic operations will frequently be prohibited, as well, effectively putting the airport's lone flight training operation out of business.

    Delayed VFR arrivals will be expected to "hold" outside the VUO Class D. There are no established "holding" landmarks, altitudes or procedures. Obviously, with floor of Class C at 1,800' in that area (shaded in green below), there will be numerous light airplanes milling about in an 800' block of airspace for extended times. Good luck with that.



    The FAA "party line" emanating from Renton is that this procedure is intended to avoid wake turbulence encounters. Interestingly, however, this procedure is not limited to large aircraft -- even a Caravan or King Air or Skyhawk landing at Portland will stop Pearson operations.

    In the seventy years that these airports have co-existed, there has never been a mid-air collision, near-mid-air collision, or wake turbulence event involving a PDX aircraft and a VUO aircraft. Safety Risk Management Panels have rejected the "Pearson Box" concept; rather the SRMPs, along with all other stakeholders, strongly recommended re-commissioning the control tower at Pearson that worked exceptionally well during its one year of operation between April 2011 and April 2012. FAA in Renton rammed this change through without NPRM or public comment, violating FAA's own internal orders and the Administrative Procedures Act.

    Here is the Fact Sheet issued by the City of Vancouver: http://www.cityofvancouver.us/upload...FieldFINAL.pdf

    If you want to get involved, send a letter to your elected state and Federal representatives. Many of them are already alerted to this issue and are on board, but constituent input is always welcome. Here is suggested language you could use in such a message:
    www.pilawt.com/Letter_of_concern.doc
    Last edited by Pilawt; 09-21-2012 at 02:27 PM.
    Jeff Jacobs
    Vancouver WA / KVUO
    C-172N-180


  2. #2
    Senior Member Pilawt's Avatar
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    Default Re: KVUO: New draconian airspace change, effective 10/1/12

    New video, produced by City of Vancouver, about Pearson Field and the proposed airspace changes (there's a Sport Cub in it!):

    Jeff Jacobs
    Vancouver WA / KVUO
    C-172N-180


  3. #3
    Senior Member randylervold's Avatar
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    Default Re: KVUO: New draconian airspace change, effective 10/1/12

    Nice job Jeff, Pearson is fortunate to have you there as a tenant and advocate.
    Randy Lervold

  4. #4
    Senior Member Pilawt's Avatar
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    Default Re: KVUO: New draconian airspace change, effective 10/1/12

    "The Federal Aviation Administration has dropped a controversial airspace restriction over Vancouver’s Pearson Field, handing a victory to the city and others who lobbied against it."

    http://www.columbian.com/news/2013/f...ction-dropped/

    Many thanks to all who wrote and worked to achieve this result.

    This e-mail just received from the airport manager:

    In case you haven’t heard, it is official … there will be no “Pearson Box” or procedures implemented over Pearson Field.

    Operations and procedures will pretty much remain the same for pilots flying into and out of both PDX and Pearson Field. However, there will be some training events for Wake Turbulence and Pearson Procedures (what we are doing right). I recommend everyone come to one of these training events. The first is tentatively set for March 13 at 5:00pm and 6:30pm in the Pilots Lounge.

    There will be a Letter to Airmen issued and I recommend everyone read it.

    Thanks to everyone who participated in our efforts! (there were a lot of them!)
    Last edited by Pilawt; 02-21-2013 at 12:50 PM.
    Jeff Jacobs
    Vancouver WA / KVUO
    C-172N-180


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