Unknown Florida Airspace Question

Douglas

Old School KSUX
Any Florida CFIs around?

I have a friend in florida that is about to fly from the south to the north, VFR.
She stumped me.

There is a section of special use airspace that runs coast to coast, E to W. The airports the vicinity are St. Augustine, Gainsville Regional and Lake City (LCQ).

There are altitudes and frequencies available on the sectional.
I noticed the airspace black hash marks are at a 45 degree angle so I looked it up in part 93, but couldn't find any info on it. (wrong color I suppose for that)

What type of special use airspace is it?
Can you fly through it VFR? Without permission?
 

Attachments

  • Picture 2.jpg
    Picture 2.jpg
    207.3 KB · Views: 628
  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    25.5 KB · Views: 437
That depiction is used north of Los Angeles in an area running from near Victorville, (VCV) to approximately Santa Barbara (SBA). It is used for UAV test flights and has a floors and ceilings for use. By looking at the chart though you wouldn't know. There is just a note regarding special activity and to contact FSS for more details.

Edit: just looked at Skyvector. It is identical. What did your friend learn from contacting FSS?
 
She hasn't called yet, she won't be leaving until Tuesday. But I will give her the suggestion to call and chat with them about it.
 
Any Florida CFIs around?

I have a friend in florida that is about to fly from the south to the north, VFR.
She stumped me.

There is a section of special use airspace that runs coast to coast, E to W. The airports the vicinity are St. Augustine, Gainsville Regional and Lake City (LCQ).

There are altitudes and frequencies available on the sectional.
I noticed the airspace black hash marks are at a 45 degree angle so I looked it up in part 93, but couldn't find any info on it. (wrong color I suppose for that)

What type of special use airspace is it?
Can you fly through it VFR? Without permission?

That is a military training route for unmanned drones. The two numbers are the ceiling and floor of that route. You will see the reference to route IR 32 directly in the center of the area you mention.

One way to handle this is to stay out of the altitudes between the floor and the ceiling.

If you do need to enter the special use airplace altitudes then you can check the status of these route by contacting the FAA/DoD facility on the designated frequencies along the route as depicted on the chart which in this case is Gainsville radio on 122.2

Joe
 
That area you are pointing out is just north of me. I've never heard of anyone having a problem operating in and around the designated area. I too have been told that it is there for UAV's.

See and avoid, right? :eek:
 
I haven;t looked at the other answers yet, but this was a question I used to ask my students - no one ever knew what it was. I asked not to make them feel inadequate, but to demonstrate that tere are always funky things you can find on a chart that you have to go searching for the answer.

The answer I found was that it is the area for military unmanned vehicle training.
 
Same thing with the corridor you see here north of KMRF surrounding certain MTRs, namely IR-102/141. CALCMs use these particular IRs as high-speed navigation routings to/from the McGregor Range/R-5103 complex.

Personally, I wouldn't necessarily expect a civilian pilot to know specifically what goes on in these airspace areas. I'd just expect them to know where to call or inquire in order to find out the status of them.

http://www.runwayfinder.com/?loc=MRF
 
I just past through that area about two weeks ago, VFR.

I had no problems with it but I was under flight following the entire time. Jax approach had nothing to say about it.
 
We were told at Riddle that the military used that to test fire cruise missles from the Atlantic to the Gulf. Not sure if it's true, but it has that UAV story beat on a "cool" factor.

Never heard that one before, but I'll have to file it along with all the other somewhat crazy ERAU explanations of things.
 
look on your jacksonville sectional. Just a little east from St. Augustine over the ocean there is a box that says "special military activity contact gainseville radio on 122.2 for activity status"
 
look on your jacksonville sectional. Just a little east from St. Augustine over the ocean there is a box that says "special military activity contact gainseville radio on 122.2 for activity status"

That doesn't give the official name. Gajre dug it up though.
 
There is one of these that runs through a significant area of middle-west Alabama. On my first long solo xcountry, I started contacting controlling facilities and FSS on the radio and every single person I spoke to on the radio seemed confused.

If memory serves, the atlitudes for it were like 1500' AGL to 3500. By the time I got multiple "I don't knows" I was about to plow through it so I started climbing from 3,000 towards 4,000 (Heading west). Of course, I was in a C-150 on a hot summer day. By the time I got to 4,000, I was a mile past the thing...hahaha.

Oh well.
 
Back
Top