FAA to Test Sky Charts for Local Pilots in L.A. Area
Pilots flying by visual flight rules in urban areas in the United States may soon have new charts to guide them along routes that avoid airspace around busy terminals, if a Federal Aviation Administration test program in Los Angeles proves successful.
Under a plan approved by the FAA late last week, charts showing recommended arrival and departure routes will be developed for as many as 21 Los Angeles-area airports and distributed free of charge to local pilots. The charts should be available in three to four months.
The charts, proposed by TWA Capt. Barry Schiff of Los Angeles after the midair collision over Cerritos last Aug. 31, are expected to depict routes already in use by experienced pilots at the airports.
Data for the routes was gathered last month by FAA accident prevention specialists and was presented last Thursday to representatives of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn., the Experimental Aircraft Assn. and Caltrans as well as the FAA. The group decided to refine the routes and then submit the charts to pilots for comment.
Jack Norris, accident prevention coordinator for the FAA’s Western Pacific region, said the charts would be put into packets and handed out at airports and flight schools along with a questionnaire.
The Los Angeles test is “only an evaluation program,” Norris said. “Beyond the test period, we then have to worry about environmental impact and legal ramifications.”
The charts will show recommended routes into and out of airports near or underlying airspace such as the Los Angeles Terminal Control Area (TCA), which surrounds Los Angeles International Airport. The TCA is off-limits to pilots not in radio contact with approach controllers. Airports at Santa Monica, Hawthorne, Compton, Torrance and Fullerton lie beneath the TCA.
Other airports in the chart program include Van Nuys, Bracket, Riverside and John Wayne, all of which underlie Airport Radar Service Areas (ARSAs) established around jet transport or military terminals.
Charts currently used by visual pilots show terrain features and radio navigational aids as well as terminal airspace boundaries. The charts have been criticized as cluttered and hard to follow. The new charts, intended as supplements, depict little more than routes and airports.
Alarming Number of Incursions
Schiff proposed the simplified charts in the wake of the midair collision over Cerritos in which a pilot not in contact with controllers apparently flew into the TCA.
Shortly after the Cerritos disaster, in which 82 died, the FAA took a close look at terminal control areas and found an alarming number of incursions by unauthorized private aircraft. In the nation’s 23 TCAs, the FAA counted 429 violations in the last quarter of 1986.
In Los Angeles, FAA officials reported counting 21 TCA incursions during a six-hour weekend period only a week after Cerritos. All 21 aircraft had radar transponders and altitude reporting equipment that made their positions inside the TCA unmistakable on radar. It was impossible to tell how many aircraft without such equipment had penetrated the area. The TCA incursions made it clear to the FAA that the mere establishment of reserved airspace was an inadequate safety hedge; something more had to be done to keep trespassers out.
In October, the FAA released a list of 40 recommendations aimed at improving pilot training, enforcing airspace regulations and revising flying procedures in and around TCAs. One of the recommendations was to “simplify and standardize TCA design as much as practicable.”
Safe, Legal Routes Charted
But Schiff, an L-1011 pilot who often flies small planes out of Santa Monica Airport, suggested that visual pilots need a new kind of chart--not one that shows where they can’t fly, as current charts do, but a chart depicting safe and legal routes into and out of the smaller airports in busy terminal areas.
Schiff got the backing of aviation publisher Jeppesen Sanderson Inc., which produced two prototype charts to illustrate the idea. Wayne Rosenkranz, the president of Jeppesen, later volunteered to publish the charts for the Los Angeles test at no cost.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. also backed the idea. Schiff is a regular contributor to the AOPA’s Pilot magazine, which made Schiff’s proposal the cover story in its December issue.
However, the idea appeared to generate little interest within the FAA until Rep. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), a freshman member of the aviation subcommittee, drafted legislation to direct the FAA to develop the charts. The FAA then agreed to explore the concept.
Inhofe, a veteran pilot and flight instructor, says he likes the new charts because “for the first time it shows a visual pilot what he can do--emphasize CAN do --in order to fly in controlled airspace and comply with all of the regulations to avoid collisions.
‘Extremely Confusing’
“In the absence of this, charts only show him what he cannot do, and what you cannot do on charts is extremely confusing even for sophisticated pilots.”
Some critics of “recommended routes” fear that what is at first recommended may later become mandatory, as are such visual routes in European countries.
“I’ve made it very clear that the intent is not to have it as something that’s mandatory,” Inhofe said. “That defeats the purpose.”
Norris said that some pilots interviewed at Los Angeles-area airports “thought the FAA was going to shove something down their throats.” Instead, Norris said, the intent is to find out what routes the experienced pilots are using to remain clear of TCAs and the newer ARSAs and to depict them on charts.
