Special Air Traffic Rules and AIM?

[chris]

Hey guys,

I may be doing some flying in the USA come spring-time, so I have been doing a little research into some of the differences between FAA and Canadian air regs.

I was reading through the Jepp PPL book, and on page 4-47 it describes some of the detail on sectional charts. It says that if the name of the airport has a box around it, then " FAR 93 Special Air Traffic Rules and Airport Traffic Patterns" apply. Can anyone explain what this means?

Also, I understand that in the USA you guys have a book called the AIM (in Canada, we call it the AIP, but the name is getting changed to the AIM in the next few months). Here, we get our AIP and all amendments free of charge (this is changing as well, unfortunately). What kind of system is used with the FAA AIM? Is there an online version for free? Is the AIM "required material," or is it just a bunch of air regs that I can read through for free on the FAA website?

Thanks in advance,

Chris.

 

[Malko]

[ QUOTE ]
It says that if the name of the airport has a box around it, then " FAR 93 Special Air Traffic Rules and Airport Traffic Patterns" apply. Can anyone explain what this means?

[/ QUOTE ]

Without looking at the specific apt. it I cannot say decisively, but the apt may have something other than a standard traffic pattern. There could be any number of reasons as to why a given apt has Non-standard traffic patterns.

[ QUOTE ]
Is there an online version for free?

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Ask and you shall receive:

AIM - FAA Link

 

[aloft]

Any traffic or regulatory oddities for US airports will very probably be spelled out in that airport's listing in the Airport/Facility Directory for that geographic region. These A/FDs will set you back about $4 apiece.

See http://marvgolden.com/charts/afd.htm for additional info.