AOPA prods FAA to fix Los Angeles VFR Terminal Area Chart
Thanks to AOPA, the new Los Angeles VFR Terminal Area Chart will be fixed so that pilots can identify Class B airspace boundary lines. In the meantime, AOPA is using its Web site to give pilots the necessary data to navigate around the Los Angeles Basin Class B airspace.
The new L.A. Class B airspace took effect July 17 following the publication of the final rule and the terminal area chart. But the FAA neglected to include any waypoint information to help pilots locate the new boundaries of the Class B airspace. Since only a few boundary lines coincide with geographic features, it’s impossible for a VFR pilot to determine the limits of controlled airspace without that waypoint data.
As soon as it learned of the missing chart data, AOPA contacted the FAA to obtain a solution. The FAA promised the next revision of the chart—to be issued in January—will include VOR radial/DME distance waypoints to identify different Class B sub-areas.
AOPA asked the FAA to include latitude/longitude coordinates as well for the benefit of GPS and loran users.
AOPA also obtained a “supplementary” chart that describes each sub-area boundary line by both VOR/DME and latitude/longitude fixes. Until the next issuance of the Los Angeles area chart, pilots can use the supplementary data, coupled with the current terminal area chart, to help navigate the Los Angeles Class B airspace.
AOPA worked to improve L.A. Class B design
AOPA has been fighting for years to make the complex Los Angeles Basin airspace more “user friendly.”
As a member of the FAA-funded Southern California Airspace Users Working Group, AOPA began working on a better airspace design eight years ago. But the FAA preempted SCAUWG in 1995 with the surprise issuance of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for modification of the Los Angeles Basin Class B airspace. The FAA proposal included many changes detrimental to general aviation, including elimination of established VFR corridors.
AOPA and other users strongly opposed the NPRM. The FAA subsequently incorporated many of the users’ concerns in the final rule, restoring the LAX, Shoreline, and Hollywood Park VFR corridors, lowering the top of the Class B area from 12,500 to 10,000 feet msl, and raising floors of some sub-areas to provide more room for VFR aircraft to transit underneath controlled airspace.
August 2, 1997
