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4 Answers

Authority to define “practice areas”

Asked by: 3294 views Airspace, Flight Instructor

I'm a new flight instructor with just a bit of experience at the same school where I was a student.  I recently checked out as an "approved instructor" with a flying club at an airport which is new to me (Class D).  The CFI doing my checkout showed me the "practice area" for that airport and its boundaries.    

My question is, who defined those boundaries?  They aren't on the sectional or the chart supplement.  There's no flight school here.  There are just a handful of freelance instructors.  I'm not aware of any regs concerning practice areas. 

2nd question:  Is there someone from whom I should be asking permission if I intend to train my students in a different "practice area" which I define?  

You see, this practice area I was shown looks like it was probably the ideal choice for a practice area, right up until a couple years ago when somebody went and built a wind farm under almost the entire thing.  I don't want to linger over a few hundred spinning wind turbines during every lesson while students learn stalls and steep turns.  We're in the flatlands, with pretty light air traffic anyway, and I'd much rather go a different direction from the airport, where a forced landing will be much easier should it become necessary.  

I can see the benefits of maybe having a conversation with a few of the local tower controllers about my intentions.  In all reality, though, if there is some person or some group with the official capacity to define the airport's practice area, I'd like to know where to start looking for them to present my case.  The geography has changed, and the current practice area is no longer the best option.  

 

 

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4 Answers



  1. Mark Kolber on Dec 09, 2020

    In most cases there are no regulatory “practice areas” (there are sometimes “alert areas” created). Practice areas are a convention/agreement among the flight schools/instructors, sometimes with ATC involvement if Class D (or above). The function, even in the case of nontowered airports, is to have some predictability to assist in seeing and avoiding while remaining clear of approach and departure corridors. The details of procedures and use can vary a lot. At one busy Class D with extensive training operations, they added a second practice area and subdivided them so self reporting location could be more accurate. At less busy ones it just an agreed area with no special procedures.

    If you think there is something wrong with the practice area at your airport, raise it and discuss it.

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  2. Russ Roslewski on Dec 09, 2020

    Mark’s answer is good. I would add to it the following.

    “Some” practice areas are defined through some kind of coordination with ATC. This may be an informal chat between a flight school and ATC and just displayed on a map in the FBO, or it could be an official “Letter to Airmen” from ATC. You may be able to see if it’s the latter by searching on the website below:

    https://notams.aim.faa.gov/notamSearch/nsapp.html?DISCLAIMER=AYYINDI&CLASS=LTA#/results

    If it’s NOT coordinated with ATC, then it may be a school policy. Busy flight schools may deconflict their own operations, and have designated practice areas – “Okay, you’ll be in Area 1 today, and Jimbo will be in Area 2, and Sally in Area 3”. This may or may not be coordinated with ATC. If it’s a school policy, and you’re working at the school, then you would need to comply (from the school’s perspective), or ask them about changing it. But since you’re not working at a school, this paragraph likely doesn’t apply to you.

    Or it could be a totally informal thing. To use a local to me example, my airport is on the northwest edge of the city. When we call for radar service and say we’re going to the “practice area”, from my airport it just generally means “north and west of the city”. But if you go south or some other direction, that’s fine too. Staying NW of the airport puts you in an area where there are no other airports to be concerned about, there’s a nearby VOR for training, etc. There aren’t any formal boundaries, other than you can’t go too far north because there’s a MOA, and you can’t go too far west without leaving radar service. But other than that, you can pretty much go wherever you want.

    One last case – if your airport is somewhere near a military airfield, they may have worked with local flight schools and airport managers to help educate the public on where THEY fly mostly (since not all military flying is in a MOA), and may have worked to establish “practice areas” just to help deconflict military and civilian ops. In the Air Force, this is called the Mid-Air Collision Avoidance program, and often that office will generate maps and other graphics that are posted in FBOs. I’m sure the other branches are similar. Search the web or ask the airport manager about this if you think it may apply.

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  3. Paul H. on Dec 09, 2020

    Thank you both for great information!

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  4. SkyMom on Jan 19, 2023

    Good info from the others!

    One more thing to consider – do NOT go to nice round numbers for your altitude. Remember the hemispheric cruising rule? Most of the time we practice within 3000\\\’ of the ground, so go to an altitude that no one else will likely be bopping around. (And we are the 8th busiest non towered airport in the nation, with the most takeoffs and landings of any airport in our state. It pays to NOT be an altitude sheep here. Yikes.)

    I have been teaching since 1985, and now with the advent of ADS-B in on all my plane\\\’s panels, I am constantly rewarded with this whacky idea of using 4700\\\’ as my practice area altitude, when I see others zipping over/near me at -200 and +300 altitudes! It is astounding how many times I have watched two planes get insanely close to each other because they insist on using 4500\\\’ etc. I just shudder to think how many planes have missed me over the past 4 decades HAHHA!!

    Also, our chart has an area defined as a high intensity training area. WHY does everyone continue to go over there to train LOL!!! I go the opposite way, and use a nice area with great roads for ground ref maneuvers, etc. And no other trainers!

    Let\\\’s hear it for lemmings…

    -SkyMom
    https://www.snakeriverflyers.com

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