Flight Planning
Flight schools, FBOs urged to inform pilots of D.C. ADIZ
In the wake of two high-profile Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) violations, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation is reaching out to more than 1,300 flight schools and FBOs within 400 miles of the Washington, D.C., area.
“Even after all the headlines and pilot education efforts over the years—we are still seeing more than three incursions into restricted airspace every week in the Washington area,” wrote Bruce Landsberg, AOPA Air Safety Foundation executive director, in a letter to all of the businesses. “There is simply no way for me to express the collateral damage that this causes for all general aviation pilots and your business.”
The foundation sent bright orange warning posters and ADIZ requirements, operating procedures, and contact frequencies in the packet. The posters, which are heavily laminated, can be posted on flight school customer service desks, doors, or even the sides of fuel trucks.
Landsberg encouraged flight school and FBO employees to talk to pilots to make sure they know the rules for operating in the ADIZ and to encourage the customers to take the foundation’s free Know Before You Go online course.
“The most important thing to emphasize with your customers is that restricted airspace is avoidable if you have the knowledge,” Landsberg wrote. “Make sure that everyone who comes through your business is armed with that knowledge.”
Landsberg has also discussed ADIZ violations with pilots in his blog, “Safety eJournal.” Read his entry, “Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.”
April 17, 2008
