Traffic Can Get You
What's Up With Airspace

Have you been waiting at a traffic light recently and watched people skirt through the yellow or a red light? We are all in a hurry it seems, and what's one red light more or less?

There are not enough law enforcement people to be sure we always obey the traffic rules. We travel our roads more or less safely because most of us keep our agreement to abide by the rules. When people don't keep their agreement, they and or innocent others get hurt and sometimes killed.

We could say our airspace system, a lot like busy highways and intersections, has been built on dead bodies and wrecked aircraft.

Just as at a street intersection, where the type of traffic warning could be as limited as yield sign or as sophisticated as a timed 4-way traffic signal, the more congested our airways, the more regulated our airspace.

We all share the limited space whether we are flying large air carriers, helicopters, dropping medflies, fighting fires or just learning to fly. The safety of all these operations depends on our keeping our agreements.

When we take to the air, we are agreeing that we know the rules under which we will be flying and will also comply with those rules.

You will find the rules and advisories in the Federal Air Regulations, especially Part 91, and in the Aeronautical Information Manual, (AIM,)a current edition.

Airspace is divided into two types, regulatory and nonregulatory. Regulatory airspace is Class A, B, C, D, and E aispace, Restricted and Prohibited areas. Nonregulatory airspace consists of Military Opeations Areas (MOAs,) Warning Areas, Alert Areas and Controlled Firing areas. Within both categories of airspace are types: Controlled, Uncontrolled, Special Use and Other airspace.

How a parcel of air is typed is dictated by:

• The complexity or density of aircraft movements
• The nature of the operations
• The level of safety required and the
• National and public interest.

The Mode C veil based on Los Angeles International Airport is Category: Regulatory, Type: Controlled.

Any Mode C veil is in effect 24 hours and goes from the surface to 10,000 feet mean sea level (MSL) and within a radius of 30 nautical miles around the primary airport on which it is based. It looks like a big cylinder over LAX.

On the LA Sectional, it's marked by a thin magenta circle and easier to see on the Los Angeles VFR chart. All aircraft must, while in this airspace operate their ATC transponder with its altitude capability. And, that transponder must have been inspected within 24 calendar months.

Transponder testing must be conducted by a certified repair station with the appropriate equipment to do the inspection. (CFR 91.413)

There are exceptions to this requirement for balloons, gliders and aircraft not certified or later fitted with an electrical system. The exceptions must, however, stay out of Class A, Class B and Class C airspace and below the designated ceiling or 10,000 MSL whichever is lower.

If your aircraft was not originally certified with an engine-driven electrical system and has not been upgraded with one, you may fly within the Mode C veil. You are limited with the same restrictions a glider would be.

Review your regulations and the AIM. Don't let not knowing put you in the heavy traffic unprepared Kathleen O’Brien, SPM, LGB FSDO

SoCal Aviation Safety Seminars

Socal Seminar Times are from 7:00 to 9:00 PM unless otherwise noted. No reservations are required unless noted by *. Never a fee. - For more information contact the Safety Program Manager listed in the FSDO area heading containing the event in question. All FAA Safety Seminars satisfy the requirements of AC-61.91H; the Pilot Proficiency Awards Program (Wings) and /or the Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards Program; AC-65-25A.

PHASE I
Andrea E. Filan
John J. Hegyi
Jeff Nunan
Alexander Slingeland
William A. Wright
PHASE II
John R. Allen
John A. Ferguson
PHASE III
Daniel R. Osuna

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