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3 Answers

Adjoining Class D Airspace Question

Asked by: 1643 views General Aviation

I want to plan a flight from Rapid City to Spearfish SD.  (see link for map route).  Rapid City and Ellsworth AFB have adjoining Class D airspace.  Ellsworth also has an approach control that usually provides Flight Following.  How should I best handle this scenario with ATC to fly a direct route and transit through Ellsworth's Class D?  Thanks

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3 Answers



  1. vaflyer on Oct 06, 2019

    Call approach about 20 miles and tell them you are inbound to Rapid City. They will either pass you directly to Rapid City or hand you off to Ellsworth.

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  2. Kellan on Oct 07, 2019

    Rapid city tower will hand you off to Ellsworth and you should be able to transition straight through to Spearfish, or be ready to accept heading vectors from them as necessary until cleared direct.

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  3. Warren Webb Jr on Oct 10, 2019

    I didn’t see any special procedures in the Chart Supplement. The key is to state all intentions/requests with your initial call to ground control. Follow basic communication procedures when calling Rapid City ground – i.e. include ‘VFR to Spearfish’ (AIM 4-3-18-d-1). In this case, also include your plans for a direct route and transition through Ellsworth airspace – something like ‘I’d like direct on-course to Spearfish with Ellsworth transition if possible’. I would expect this to be a routine coordination between Rapid City and Ellsworth. Before you leave the ground at Rapid City, you should have all of the information you need – squawk code already set, and whether you will call Ellsworth tower or approach, direct on course or specific heading, altitude, etc. I’m sure in some cases, you will be told a transition is not possible at that time.

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