It doesn't make sense to have two military operations areas (MOAs) so close to each other when one might do the trick, AOPA says.
The New York Air National Guard has proposed a new airspace training complex near Fort Drum, New York, that would expand and modify existing restricted areas and MOAs. Dubbed the Adirondack Airspace Complex, it's spacious enough that it would draw close to the proposed expansion of the Condor MOA in northern Maine.
"The New York and Massachusetts Air National Guard units need to be coordinating on airspace issues," said Heidi Williams, AOPA director of air traffic services. "Considering the fact that airspace is not an infinite resource, this seems to be a needless redundancy."
The proposed airspace would replace and rename the existing MOAs. It would also expand the existing restricted area from 18,000 feet up to 23,000 feet, measuring 20 by 13 nautical miles. The entire proposed airspace area would be roughly 65 nm by 55 nm and would restrict the use of two prominent Victor airways, V196 and portions of V20, when the MOAs are in use. The floor altitudes of the western half would range from 100 feet agl to 6,000 feet msl while the floors of the eastern half would range from 6,000 feet msl to 10,000 feet msl.
Send comments by August 6 to:
Docket Management System
U.S. Department of Transportation
Docket Operations M-30
West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20590.
You must identify FAA Docket No. FAA-2006-26192 and Airspace Docket No. 06-ASO-11.
June 13, 2007