Regional Affairs
Access issues must be resolved before MOA expansion
Pilot concerns about IFR access to airports that underlie a proposed expansion of Georgia’s Bulldog Military Operations Area (MOA) must be identified and resolved before the airspace is created, AOPA told the Air Force.
AOPA previously filed formal comments on the airspace plan, and has now added supplemental comments after new concerns were raised by area pilots. The concerns came out at an additional public hearing on the proposal following a congressional inquiry into the airspace plan.
The FAA and Air Force have promised to allow IFR access to airports beneath the special-use airspace. Details of how that access will work are to be spelled out in a formal letter of agreement between the FAA and the military.
The MOA expansion was first proposed in 2005, but that plan was defeated, in part because of the anticipated impact on civil aviation. Earlier this year, the Air Force introduced a new proposal that would create two new MOAs, Bulldog C and Bulldog E, under the existing MOA shelf. AOPA and others have argued that the new proposal still doesn’t do enough to protect civil aviation, creating safety hazards and threatening businesses at underlying airports.
November 25, 2008
