News Archive
AOPA opposes airspace restrictions over Grand Canyon National Park
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has again opposed the expanded special flight rules area (SFRA) over Grand Canyon National Park.
During an August public meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in formal comments filed with the Federal Aviation Administration in September, AOPA said the SFRA unfairly penalizes non-commercial general aviation operations by restricting access, imposing aircraft performance penalties, and increasing costs associated with overflights.
The expanded SFRA is slated to become effective in January 2000. It is based on a final rule issued by the FAA in 1996 but includes modifications currently under review. It raises the floor over much of the area to 14,500 feet msl, expands it east to within one mile of a military operations area (MOA), eliminates the Fossil Canyon Corridor, and raises the floors of both the Marble Canyon and North Canyon sectors in which GA flight is permitted. In 1996, the FAA agreed to delay implementation of the SFRA after protests from AOPA, air tour operators, and environmentalists.
“This SFRA effectively creates a 190-mile-long barrier to navigation between western states,” said Melissa Bailey, AOPA director of air traffic services. “It is rulemaking without consensus of those concerned, exactly the opposite of the way FAA Administrator Jane Garvey wants rulemaking handled.”
Bailey cited the consensus reached by the National Park Overflights Working Group last year on a National Air Tour Management Plan for sightseeing overflights in other national parks. That group, composed of air tour operators, general aviation, the National Park Service, the FAA, and Native Americans, reached nearly unanimous agreement on air tours over national parklands.
In its formal comments, AOPA pointed out that more than one third of GA aircraft cannot practically reach the altitude of the 14,500-foot overflight restriction, let alone meet FAA rules for supplemental oxygen at that altitude. “In addition,” said Bailey, “pilots finding themselves squeezed by summer thunderstorms need safe, legal escape routes. The proposed airspace doesn’t allow it.”
She added that AOPA has worked cooperatively with the National Park Service for years to preserve the park experience for ground visitors, including the current voluntary 2,000 feet agl overflight altitude that is observed by nearly all GA pilots. In addition, GA overflights do not bring litter to the parks, demand construction of roads in parklands, or cause traffic jams and pollution.
AOPA was concerned by the FAA’s proposed relocation of the SFRA’s eastern boundaries and the Desert View Flight Free Zone, bringing them to within one mile of the Sunny MOA, a very active military training area used by jet fighters. “Prudent GA pilots avoid this area when it is active,” pointed out Bailey, “and a full third of pilots surveyed say they must always treat this MOA as active because getting real-time status information is difficult.”
AOPA also opposed expansion of the Desert View Flight Free Zone beyond the boundaries of the park, telling the FAA it misused Public Law 100-91—established to restore “natural quiet” within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon National Park—by attempting to use it to address overflight of Native American lands.
AOPA led GA community opposition to the original SFRA in 1996, citing unnecessary restrictions on GA aircraft and concern over National Park Service preemption of FAA authority. Shortly after the SFRA was issued, AOPA formally petitioned the FAA for reconsideration of the rule.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, based outside Washington, D.C., represents more than 350,000 pilots who own or fly three quarters of the nation’s 192,410 GA aircraft. GA aircraft comprise 96 percent of the total U.S. civilian fleet.
99-3-057
September 15, 1999
