The Latest Military Airspace Grab: 700 Square Miles!

On 16 Feb 2005 01:52:38 -0800, wrote in
.com::


Larry Dighera wrote:
Does the military _ever_ return its airspace to public use?


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AVflash Volume 11, Number 7a -- February 14, 2005
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GA PILOTS TAKE ON MILITARY IN N.M.
New Mexico has some wide-open skies, but apparently there is not
enough room there for all the military and civilian pilots who want
to
fly. The U.S. Air Force wants to add 700 square miles to the 2,600
square miles now used by the F-16 Falcons based at Cannon Air Force
Base. The airspace expansion would mean rerouting about 40 civilian
flights per day, and intrude onto GA routes between Albuquerque and
Roswell. "They've grabbed up so much airspace, it's going to be
dangerous for small, civilian aircraft," U.S. Pilots Association
President Steve Uslan told The Albuquerque Journal. "And that's a
long
way around, and that means a lot of fuel and a lot of time wasted."
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#189168

I have to add an international flavour (flavor) to this disucssion of
controlled airspace.
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/7/DAP_EIS03.pdf
(Somewhere beneath the mishmash of controlled airspace depicted on page
2 of the document apparently lies a map of the UK)

That's interesting. Virtually the entire US lies under controlled
airspace; there is very little Class G.

And another showing low level military flying areas:
http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/uk_lfas.gif

Given the current trend, I would expect the US to be totally blanketed
with military airspace, like the UK appears to be, if the military
thought they could get away with it.

Did a lot of flying in CO and NM I think you've got it easy!

Best wishes
David

Thanks for the information.