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Danger areas in the Channel, and Eurocontrol routings through them

I’ll try to keep this short.

The Plymouth DAs have been weekdays only for quite some time. But note, they can still be activated outside ‘core’ hours by NOTAM.

Access to EG-(D)s – Many EG-(D)s have associated Statutory Instruments (SI) restricting entry – these are law. This SIs are put in place to stop Mrs Miggins and her two golden retrievers getting wiped-out by a tank whilst on a nice afternoon stick-chase across the fens. A DA without an accompanying SI is just a DA – enter at your own risk. Details of SIs are annotated within the AIP (see attached for an example). Of course, most of us don’t read to the granularity of SIs and consequently tend to avoid all DAs (failsafe is good). You will also find details of agencies who have the ability to provide clearances (DACS) or information (DAAIS) depending upon the nature of the DA and the controlling authority (if there is one).

Getting to the discussion, London Control would shy away from entering the Portsmouth complex with IFR traffic as the airspace is not currently part of the Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) arrangements and it is uncontrolled airspace (Class G) below FL195. FUA is a mechanism whereby the military and civil ATS agencies agree to share sky, with the military ceding DAs to the civil organisation when not required. You can see examples of such airspace with the EG-(D) 323 complex above FL195 over the North Sea. The problem, from a civil ATC perspective, is that they don’t necessarily have the ability to tactically restructure their routes to safely make use of sky that has been given back, yet. Furthermore, London Control will never take IFR aircraft off-route outside of CAS if there is already CAS connectivity; the NATS Safety Management System says so.

From a practical perspective, there’s no reason why London Control couldn’t give joining clearances on track ##### through one of the DAs. However, the proximity of the Brest FIR (LFRR) and the associated coordination agreements with our French cousins, means that most will still be given routes via DRAKE or ORTAC, regardless of the status of the EG (D)13 -40 complex.

Fly safely
Various UK. Operate throughout Europe and Middle East, United Kingdom

Many thanks David.

The point about it being Class G is probably vital.

Departing Shoreham one starts off in Class G and London Control are handling you there (FIS only a.k.a. “basic service”). And if they have internally decided they won’t have you in CAS then you get a heading through the D area.

However departing say Cherbourg you are in CAS (or could be at the handover point).

However the whole business of filing cross-channel IFR flight plans at say FL060 is totally ambiguous as to who you will get (London Control or London Info). Whenever I filed for say FL100 (and got London Control) I always got routed around the D stuff.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Dave_Phillips wrote:

Access to EG-(D)s – Many EG-(D)s have associated Statutory Instruments (SI) restricting entry – these are law. This SIs are put in place to stop Mrs Miggins and her two golden retrievers getting wiped-out by a tank whilst on a nice afternoon stick-chase across the fens.

Do you know why such areas are not labeled “R-areas”?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Because of, reasons. Not good ones, one of these completely unnecessary idiosyncrasies.

In the UK CAA VFR charts the restricted-because-they-are-dangerous-areas are marked with an * (asterisk) so you can tell they are, but they really should be R.

Biggin Hill

I have just managed to get my hands on the 2018 chart and there is no “MON-FRI” note, like the one Jeppesen do on their “VFR” basemap in Flitestar

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I don’t have paper charts, but isn’t it in the notes in the legend?

EGKB Biggin Hill

I see only this

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

…then it’s either the AIP or SkyDemon.

Another reason for not using paper charts (among so many).

EGKB Biggin Hill

Does SD show “MON-FRI” on the moving map? EasyVFR (which is what I fly with when doing nontrivial VFR) shows it when you click on the airspace, which is probably the correct presentation from the declutter point of view.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Does SD show “MON-FRI” on the moving map?

SD doesn’t show that on the map itself, but if you look up the information for the areas (by touching them or hovering the mouse over them) it will say “Active: Weekdays”.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden
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