Meaning of surface area designated for an airport
Quote:
Originally Posted by
martymayes
Those Class E surface area extensions you claim "do NOT enclose the airport whose approaches they protect--" do in fact depict lateral boundaries of the surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport. This can be confirmed by looking at the airspace description for these airports in subpart E of FAA Order 7400.11C (incorporated by reference, see §71.1.
No, in subpart E of FAA order 7400.11C, the extensions that do NOT enclose the airport whose approaches they protect are described as (E3) "6003. Class E Airspace Areas Designated as an Extension.The Class E airspace areas listed below consist of airspace extending upward from the surface designated as an extension to a Class C surface area." and (E4) a. The Class E airspace areas listed below consist of airspace extending upward from the surface and designated as an extension to a Class B surface area.
In contrast to the dashed magenta lines that DO enclose the airports whose approaches they protect (E2): "6002. Class E Airspace Areas Designated as Surface Areas.The Class E airspace areas listed below are designated as a surface area for an airport."
S
Surface Area versus extension
Quote:
Originally Posted by
martymayes
The only reason to have a surface area would be in conjunction with an airport; it would make no sense to have a random block of Class E surface area out in the middle of nowhere.
This statement is true in the general sense, but it is not true in the bureaucratic or legalistic sense. The fact is that in FAA Order JO 7400.11C ( https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/...O_7400.11C.pdf ), the E2 airspace is named or designated as being "Designated as a Surface Area" and "designated as a surface area for an airport", while the E3 and E4 airspace is not. The E3 and E4 airspace is named as "designated as an extension." That's the whole essence of my argument. S
about those control zones--
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FlyingRon
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bill Berson
I think you can get some ATC guidance from Advisory Circular 103.6 (AC 103.6)https://www.faa.gov/regulations_poli...cumentID/22639
Unfortunately, AC 103.6 appears so far out of date and was created before class E airspace was invented.
You would need more current advice
Surface area of class E airspace designated for an airport existed, it just went by a much simpler name: "Control Zone"
I agree with Marty. Surface Area of class E airspace designated for an airport includes the class E extensions to class D airspace.
Well, I'm afraid I don't agree with Marty.
But you are raising an interesting point here.
What is the history of how "control zones" turned into Class E "surface areas"?
"Control Zones" first appeared on charts in the mid-1940's (or at least by 1950) and often consisted of a thin dashed circle enclosing an airport-- originally red, later (by 1969) blue. Sometimes there were rectangular projections to enclose instrument approaches, giving a "keyhole" appearance, or other irregular shapes. By the time of this 1974 test-prep publication, control zones had been defined to go up to the overlying "Continental Control Area" at 14,500' MSL. At that time, most (but not all) towered airports had Control Zones around them, and some non-towered airports did too. By that time, special requirements in effect within a Control Zone included 3 miles visibility and a ceiling of at least 1000', unless a pilot was granted permission to fly under "special VFR" rules. Also by that time, an "Airport Traffic" area was a different thing from a "Control Zone", requiring radio communication with the tower for entry, with a standardized circular shape, a smaller standardized diameter and a much smaller, standardized vertical height. "Airport Traffic Areas" were not even depicted on sectional charts, because they were automatically present at all towered airports, and they were standardized in shape, diameter and height. Even though Airport Traffic Areas weren't depicted on sectional charts, they were referenced on the chart legend through at least mid 1983 in the language concerning towered airports, but by sometime in late 1988 that reference had been dropped.
Now, on to ultralights-- FAR 103 was adopted July 30 1982.
Originally, FAR 103.17 said that "No person may operate an ultralight vehicle within an airport traffic area, control zone, airport radar service area, terminal control area, or positive control area unless that person has prior authorization from the air traffic control facility having jurisdiction over that airspace".
Not until mid-to-late 1992 do we see dashed magenta lines (as opposed to magenta shading) appear on sectional charts. Originally, the chart legend for the dashed magenta line read as follows: "Control Zone at airport without control tower and Control Zone extension without communications requirement". The charts now contained dashed magenta lines that encircled the airports whose instrument approaches they protected-- this would be a "Control Zone at airport without control tower"-- as well as dashed magenta extensions abutting dashed blue lines encircling airports, or abutting higher classes of airspace such as TRSA's-- these would be "control zone extensions" and not actually "control zones". Presumably the "without communications requirement" applied in both cases. So now for the first time we have two different kinds of airspace enclosed by dashed magenta lines. We also still have control zones depicted by dashed blue lines-- by this time, those control zones did have a communications requirement, since one of their functions was to fill the role of the old "Airport Traffic Area". At the same time that the control zones (and control zone extensions) depicted by dashed magenta lines appeared on the chart, the charts started showing a designated, individualized ceiling for each control zone depicted by a dashed blue line, typically around 2500 AGL. This was a step toward the evolution of the current "Class D" airspace. No specific ceiling was shown on the chart for the control zones depicted by a dashed magenta line or for the control zone extensions depicted by a dashed magenta line-- these airspaces had no upper limit other than floor of a higher class of airspace somewhere above.
KEY POINT ----> Even after "control zone extensions" appeared on the sectional charts by mid-to-late 1992, FAR 103.17 never was modified to prohibit ultralights from entering "control zone extensions" without prior authorization from ATC.
In late 1993 the nation's airspace went through a substantial change in nomenclature, along with some changes in structure-- this when the current system of Classes A, B, C, D, and E came into use. By November 1993, all reference to "control zones" and "control zone extensions" vanished from the sectional charts. Now the chart legend simply said "Class D airspace" for the dashed blue lines and "Class E airspace" for the dashed magenta lines. The latter isn't terribly descriptive, given the abundance of Class E airspace-- the pilot was simply expected to understand that this was specifically a reference to the nature of the airspace right at the very surface of the earth.
This was also when the FAA's "Airspace Designations And Reporting Points" document, was revised to delete all references to control zones. According to the January 1 1993 CFR 14 17.1, the November 2 1992 version of this document (FAA Order 7400.7A) references "jet airways, area high routes, Federal airways, control areas, control area extensions, area low routes, control zones, transition areas, terminal control areas, airport radar service areas, positive control areas, reporting points, and other controlled airspace". According to the January 1 1994 CFR 14 17.1, the June 17 1993 version of this document (FAA Order 7400.9A) simply references "Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E airspace areas and ..all reporting points".
This is when we get the awkward terminology in the headings of the Airspace Designations And Reporting Points document. The heading of the section describing the type of Class-E-to-surface airspaces that surround the airports they protect (i.e. E2 airspaces) is "Class E Airspace Areas Designated as a Surface Area". Wouldn't they have done better to title this section something like "Class-E-to-surface airspace areas designated for an airport"? The term "Surface Area" is inherently somewhat confusing, since the Class-E-to-surface "extensions" also go all the way down to the surface. As we've already noted though, the descriptive text following the titles clears things up-- the heading "Class E Airspace Areas Designated as a Surface Area" is followed by the descriptive sentence _"The Class E airspace areas listed below are designated as a surface area for an airport". We don't find this language attached to the headings for the Class-E-to-surface "extensions" (i.e. the E3 and E4 airspaces) For example,the E4 Class-E-to-surface "extensions" are described as "Class E Airspace Areas Designated as an Extension to a Class D or Class E Surface Area" ".
Around the same time-- specifically on September 16, 1993-- the text of FAR 103.17 was changed to include the current "No person may operate an ultralight vehicle within Class A, Class B, Class C, or Class D airspace or within the lateral boundaries of the surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport unless that person has prior authorization from the ATC facility having jurisdiction over that airspace."
Given the context of all of the above, there's no reason to think the phrase "within the lateral boundaries of the surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport" was intended to included the Class-E-to-surface "extensions" -- i.e. the E3 and E4 airspaces. Nowhere in the "Airspace Designations And Reporting Points" document do we see the E3 or E4 extensions referred to as a "Surface Area", or as "designated for an airport", or as "surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport".
See the next post for more on this.
S
