DC airspace

GrantHubbell

GrantHubbell

New Member
Hey guys, i have been gone for a couple days in DC on a school trip. I noticed while walking the reflecting pool I say a ton of aircraft flying into Reagan Airport. They were flying over the potomic river ( i think) and seemed to be within the restricted airspace. IS that restricted airspace a exeption for Reagan traffic or what??

thanks.
 
There are only three types of traffic that are allowed in the FRZ. One is scheduled airline service. Next is GA that's jumped through special clearance hoops. Finally there's law enforcement and military.

But when you put it together, the sheer volume of planes flying in and out of NATIONAL -- nobody who's spent any time here would ever call that airport by it's convoluted, forced down the local's throats by Congressional reps who talked about how the federal government should leave local governments alone name of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport -- plus the other two makes for a lot of traffic.
 
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nobody who's spent any time here would ever call that airport by it's convoluted, forced down the local's throats by Congressional reps

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Yes, the citizens of the District of Columbia must be very bitter about any undue interference from the Federal government. LOL
 
The airport's in Virginia. And the airport authority gets money from residents from Maryland, Virginia, and DC.
 
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The airport's in Virginia. And the airport authority gets money from residents from Maryland, Virginia, and DC.

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OK, I stand corrected. Somehow I always associated Reagan National with DC, but you are right geographically. I still get a kick out of the idea that anyone in that friggin' area is worried about influence from the feds. Could it be that your statement: nobody who's spent any time here would ever call...... would work better as: no Democrat who's spent any time here would ever call.......

Come on Tony, I kid.
 
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Could it be that your statement: nobody who's spent any time here would ever call...... would work better as: no Democrat who's spent any time here would ever call.......

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Not unless the folks who live in the area are 70/30 democrats. The Washington Post did a survey, and they found that most people, regardless of what they thought about Reagan, wanted the name left alone.

I know that Reagan won Virginia both times, not sure if he won Maryland once or not, but when you've got that kind of a margin, it's pretty clear the locals didn't like the idea regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum.

Hell, man, his own son said naming buildings, airports, and roads after ole Ronnie wasn't something his dad would have liked. I figure he voted for his dad but he was opposed to naming everything after his dad!
grin.gif


This is one of my pet peeves. I thought Washington National Airport was just fine. Why mess with something that works perfectly, especially when you've got the son of the man you're naming it shaking his head?
 
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Hey guys, i have been gone for a couple days in DC on a school trip. I noticed while walking the reflecting pool I say a ton of aircraft flying into Reagan Airport. They were flying over the potomic river ( i think) and seemed to be within the restricted airspace. IS that restricted airspace a exeption for Reagan traffic or what??

thanks.

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Yea, that arrival procedure is called the River Visual Rwy 19 approch
They just follow that river and it lines them up with the Rwy
 
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Hey guys, i have been gone for a couple days in DC on a school trip. I noticed while walking the reflecting pool I say a ton of aircraft flying into Reagan Airport. They were flying over the potomic river ( i think) and seemed to be within the restricted airspace. IS that restricted airspace a exeption for Reagan traffic or what??

thanks.

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Yea, that arrival procedure is called the River Visual Rwy 19 approch
They just follow that river and it lines them up with the Rwy

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What about in IFR conditions?
 
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Hey guys, i have been gone for a couple days in DC on a school trip. I noticed while walking the reflecting pool I say a ton of aircraft flying into Reagan Airport. They were flying over the potomic river ( i think) and seemed to be within the restricted airspace. IS that restricted airspace a exeption for Reagan traffic or what??

thanks.

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Yea, that arrival procedure is called the River Visual Rwy 19 approch
They just follow that river and it lines them up with the Rwy

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What about in IFR conditions?

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Visual Approachs are used in VFR conditions only. IAP's are used when in IFR conditions
 
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Could it be that your statement: nobody who's spent any time here would ever call...... would work better as: no Democrat who's spent any time here would ever call.......

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Not unless the folks who live in the area are 70/30 democrats. The Washington Post did a survey, and they found that most people, regardless of what they thought about Reagan, wanted the name left alone.

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That ratio sounds about right. But I agree on the naming thing. I did get lectured a couple of times when I just called it National so I started calling it Reagan National, seemed to keep everybody happy.
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For National in IFR if the winds call for 19 to be active I believe they use the LDA/DME 19 or Rosslyn LDA(The LDA DME has slightly lower minimums if I'm reading the chart right, correct me if I'm wrong) which are sort of like offset ILS approaches. They also have a VOR/DME or GPS into 19 which is also offset.
 
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Funny that a President that did what he did to ATC ended up with an airport named after him.

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Just for my own edification what was it Reagan "did to ATC"?

If you are referring to the PATCO strike all he did was take action to stop an ILLEGAL strike. No more no less.

FWIW I spend 9 years in Federal Civil Service and have a good working knowledge of the rules involving union's in the Federal Government and what they can or cannot do.

If it doesn't have to do with the PATCO strike, disregard the above two comments and just go with the question.
 
You are correct.

Flew many, many times into/out of DCA. The MD90 was one of, if not the only one that had no noise time restrictions so we went there a lot.

The two LDA approaches were basically something to get you down where you could see the river and complete the approach to 19.

Another interesting thing is you can be flying that approach with up to a 10 knot tailwind. Yup! Twisting and turning, into a 6000 foot runway with a 10 knot tailwind, sometimes a quartering one to boot! They are really reluctant to swap runways as it is a pain in the wazoo with all the airspace restrictions around there. Would they ever "fudge" on the wind callout? Well that's one of those things as a pilot you've probably wondered after you land and see a 15knot wind sock standing straight out, with the wind from behind you, as you clear the runway!

True "War Story" now...

First time I ever saw the "River Visual" I was a F/O on a MD88. The approach lines you straight up with the runway I THOUGHT we were going to land on! (Note the very dangerous operative word "THOUGHT" especially when it is used in conjunction with a F/O! who thinks ((there it is again...bad Jon, bad, bad)) he KNOWS it all!)

I was sitting there fat, dumb and happy wondering what all the big deal was about that winding, twisting approach. I mean it was straight in! I could see the runway from 10 miles out. Piece of cake.

Then about 100 feet above the ground, while I was sightseeing, looking UP at the USA Today building...WHAMMO! the Captain rolls in about 30 degrees of bank, twists and turns twice and plants that sucker on the end of the runway! NOT the runway I had been watching for the past 10 miles.

The approach lines up with runway 15 but you land on 18 (this was the designations back in the late 80's). One of those times I was so far behind the airplane I would not have been hurt had we crashed!

Did bring up an important lesson though. Before you do something the first time, REALLLLLLLY know what it is you are about to do! Don't ASS U ME you know!
 
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Just for my own edification what was it Reagan "did to ATC"?

If you are referring to the PATCO strike all he did was take action to stop an ILLEGAL strike. No more no less.

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Agreed. If you are a federale, you know when you go in that you CANNOT strike. Period. I may be critical of Reagan for a number of things, but this is not one of them.
 
Myself, my colleagues and friends all fly out of DCA all the time. We all it "National". I only say "Reagan National" when I am on the phone with a ticketing agent.

Mahesh
 
Yanking, banking, and keeping a suspicious eye on that PLI!
 
whats PLI? i was jogging down there yesterday. the weather was incredible and there mustve been 1000 people watching the rwy19 arrivals. gawking, oohing, and ahhhing.....it is a really neat approach
 
Pitch limit indicator. Very roughly the point at which you're going to risk a stall.
 
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