How does one find out where aerobatic boxes are? I have heard that there are a few around me, but where do you find this info and use the box.Thanks,larry
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How does one find out where aerobatic boxes are? I have heard that there are a few around me, but where do you find this info and use the box.Thanks,larry
Hi Larry,
I recommend that you get in touch with your local IAC chapter. You can find contact information using EAA's chapter locator page. More often than not, it's a local chapter member who holds the waiver for a box. He or she can brief you on the particulars – location, markings, terms of use and the like.
Hope this helps,
Jim Ward
Thanks, I would have thought that FAA would have a searchable list or notam list to reference.
As the "owner" of an aerobatic box, reading this e-mail thread I thought that I might take a moment to speak to some of the basics of the administration of boxes that average pilots mostly don't know. In the interest of brevity, I will simplify some stuff.
Aerobatic box Certificate of Authorizations are issued by the individual FAA Flight Standards District Offices. At each office you will find one Aviation Safety Inspector who is designated as the "Airshow Coordinator". These individuals handle our practice and contest box paperwork as well as airshow paperwork.
I will note that each FSDO is a little, sort of independent, slice of the FAA. They get guidance from the Region offices and from DC, but do not appear to coordinate with each other. FSS is yet another FAA and does NOT coordinate procedures with the FSDO's.
I am not aware of a national FAA database of Certs of Auths. You local FSDO Airshow Coordinator can probably tell you who has aerobatic boxes in your area. You might try to telephone. If you live near the boundary of the service areas of more than one FSDO office, try calling both/all of those FSDO's.
FSS NOTAMS - Most if not all aerobatic boxes are part time use. When I talk to FSS, they tell me that they can not accept a NOTAM more than 72 hours in advance of the start time. So you are unlikely to get any info from FSS about aerobatic boxes Monday through Wednesday. I suspect that we all call on Thursday to post the NOTAM(s) for Saturday and/or Sunday.
Aerobatic box Certificates of Authorization name a *responsible individual* as the "owner". This is the person who coordinates the use and this is the person whom the FAA will take to task if the operating limitations are exceeded or there is a crash. I will observe that you should pay attention to the "owner" of the box if you are requesting to participate in the use of the box or you receive a request to alter some aspect of your use of the box from that individual. The "responsible individual" is on the hook to the FAA for all of the users. We all want to have fun and sharpen our skills, but given the investment in time and energy required to obtain the Certificate of Authorization, I, and I suspect most of the other box owners, reluctanly feel that if we have to be designated adults, the other participants need to help us out and be good citizens also.
If there is no "permanent" box near you, you can talk to one of your underused local airports about flying there, followed by some digging into the internal FAA manuals, available on the internet for public consumption, and file your own FAA Form 7711-2, requesting a weekend of aerobatics. You will likely request that you be allowed to ignore 14CFR19.303's prohibition on flight near airways, as well as the reg on airport traffic patterns. Temporary Certificates of Authorization are relatively easy to get from the FAA once your local airport manager/owner says yes. Its not a lot harder than filing your own taxes. Once you have done a series of weekends in the summer, you can investigate the more complicated process of applying for a long term, "permanent" box.
Hope this info is helpful. Its harder to find a good coach than to set up a temporary box. Here in the Northeast we have 6 airports that we fly acro at, with a permanent box at one of those airports. Our different locale's cater to different subsets of our IAC 35 chapter members, as well as help spread the noise around.
Best of luck.
Wes
N78PS
Out-going IAC 35 Chapter President
Thanks Wes, I always wondered how that worked. Fortunately, I live in a pretty "free" area west of ORD. I was currious about they process by how to find out about the boxes via the FAA. You did a good job educating me.Thanks again,larry
Larry,
IAC Chapter 1 has a box at Morris Airport.
Contact Doug Partl Chapter Pres at dmcff@msn.com and he
can give you more info.
Should be close enough for you.
Jim Klick
IAC 6870