Bellingham, WA (BLI) ATC Q

VUOFlyer

VUOFlyer

Well-Known Member
I have a question for anyone that might be familiar with the Tracon setup for KBLI. I was curious as to why they're under the watch of Victoria Terminal and not Seattle Center or Whidbey Island. Does it have to do with their proximity to Canada? I've been wondering about this for a long time but never been able to find out as to why.
 
Not from there, nor do I work airspace along an international boundary however. Typically Class B approach controls have jurisdiction in a 40 mile radius of their primary airport and class Cs have jurisdiction 30 miles outside of their primary airport.

Looks like Victoria is reasonably close to Bellingham (just by looking at google maps 30-40 miles I'd guess). Whidbey island looks like it is around 55 to 60 miles outside of Bellingham. Terminal radar at that range won't pick up much of anything under 5,000 AGL depending on terrain. Really any time you're more than 50 miles out from a short range radar array its a crap shoot as to if you'll be seen even though the stated range of most terminal arrays is a shade over 60 miles.
 
genot said:
Not from there, nor do I work airspace along an international boundary however. Typically Class B approach controls have jurisdiction in a 40 mile radius of their primary airport and class Cs have jurisdiction 30 miles outside of their primary airport.

Looks like Victoria is reasonably close to Bellingham (just by looking at google maps 30-40 miles I'd guess). Whidbey island looks like it is around 55 to 60 miles outside of Bellingham. Terminal radar at that range won't pick up much of anything under 5,000 AGL depending on terrain. Really any time you're more than 50 miles out from a short range radar array its a crap shoot as to if you'll be seen even though the stated range of most terminal arrays is a shade over 60 miles.
Click to expand...

That would make sense, but that leads me to another question about another Seattle area airport. If notice on the charts for Everett (PAE), it says it's under Seattle Center's control. I've been curious about this for a long time as you would think given it's proximity to Seattle, it would be under the jurisdiction of Seattle Approach. Yet, Olympia (OLM) is watched by Approach and is further away from Seattle than Everett. Oh Well.
 
In the very close future paine field might become controlled by Sea tracon, but they are still deciding and fighting over this. Non of the controllers want to control pae because it add's more complexity and believe me the S46 is already very complex tracon because of the Boeing field on the 5 mile final and mountains on the side.
 
Kinda the same out here in Kansas City. Olathe and New Century are controlled by KC approach, but Lawrence is center airspace. I think it all depends on how much IFR traffic airports see to figure out who controls what.
 
To answer the PAE question....
In all honesty the tracon should control the airspace because of how close it is to seattle. The airspace is controlled by ZSE33 which also goes into NUW approach surface to 5000. The center is reluctant to give the airspace away because of their daily traffic count. They are a slow center in regards to the other centers. The talk now is that by winter the airspace should be controlled by the tracon.

To answer the BLI question....
The airspace surrounding BLI to the east and west to Canada is controlled by victoria approach. the center has made an agreement with victoria-vancouver approach to release the airspace for their use and also to provide services to US a/c and BLI/surrounding airports. NUW like somebody said is too far away to control it.
 
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