Foreigners are sometimes scared off from flying through EBBU FIR after looking at the VFR map. Which is indeed speckled with all kinds of limited airspace – EBR, EBD, EBP, HTA, TRA, TSA, you name it.
It is not easy to convince some that
-) most of this stuff is only rarely active
-) all trouble can be avoided by flying in controlled airspace, i.e. FL045 or higher.
Even if and when some of these (mostly military) areas are activated, it is duly announced per notam, and all services including FIS will have the information, and communicate accordingly.
Presently there is a bit of an exception around, though:
B2244/15
From:08 SEP 15 06:30 Till:16 SEP 15 17:00
Schedule:SEP 08 09 0630-2200, 10 0430-1600, 11 0630-1530 AND 16 0630-1700
Text:WITHIN EBSU CTR, THE FOLLOWING AIRSPACE IS RESERVED FOR EBSH TFC : 500334N0052023E-500512N0052552E-500230N0052604E- 500126N0052218E ACFT SHALL CONTACT SAINT HUBERT TWR (EBSH) BEFORE ENTERING AND MAINTAIN A LISTENING WATCH WITH SAINT HUBERT RADIO ON FREQ 122.175 WHILE EVOLVING IN THE RESERVED ZONE. THE AREA CAN BE RECLAIMED BY SAINT HUBERT (EBSU) AT ANY TIME. NO MOVEMENT WILL BE ALLOWED IF EBSU IS DECLARED IMC/IFR FOR TRANSPORT ACFT
Lower limit:GND Upper limit:2500FT AMSL
This is about activating the EBSU runway, a very rare occurence. Its CTR and TMA are not described in the online AIP, I reckon they must be in the military AIP (yes, there is rumour such a thing exists but I never heard anybody claim they’d seen it). Confusing it may be: there are TWO aerodromes called Saint Hubert and they are indeed only a few miles apart. But the one (EBSH) has two perpendicular grass runways, not too long, with a marked hump in the middle, and quite a lot of glider activity; whereas EBSU is a 2600m hard runway, activated only at the rarest of occasions.
Those wishing to fly low in this beautiful area will do well to keep in touch with Brussels Information and with EBSH, as published – those sensibly flying high enough will have no issue, as per usual.
To a somewhat able pilot/communicator all of this ought to be no problem, perhaps rather a welcome distraction. And also up to tradition, all of this happens on weekdays only. Paying our military the surplus for weekend work is beyond today’s budgets.
