I am in the process of setting up a few tablets to remain permanently in the aircraft and just trying to work out what would be the most pertinent airspace settings to choose. I have made a list of airspace used by EV and am just trying to understand what they actually all mean as some are EV specific definitions. I think this list (once complete) might assist other users in making decisions about which airspace they want to see and be warned about during the planning stage and also in-flight (I think this will often differ).
If anyone can help fill in any of the missing details, or correct any of my mistakes, that would be great.
The list of all 'airspace' used in EV4 in the 'Airspace Setting' page but with annotations specific to the UK:
Class: A,B,C,D,E,F and G (needs no explanation?)
Alert - A Special Use Airspace (SUAS) which is not a Prohibited, Restricted etc. E.g. a gas compressor / gas venting site
Military - low flying areas covering most of the UK (helpful reference for NOTAM interpretation)
Danger - self explanatory - avoid if unsure of rules
Prohibited - self explanatory - avoid if unsure of rules
Restricted - self explanatory - avoid if unsure of rules
Temporary Reserved - Often areas where military training takes place. This way the airspace is free for GA use, unless the military claims it for training. After training the airspace is open to GA again
Warning - Airspaces that are closely related to Alert, but pose a more severe threat. E.g. (active) volcanoes
ADA Advisory Area - e.g. the Shanwick RVSM area
ADIZ Air Defence Identification Zone - (NOT USED IN UK) Typically found around borders to less-than-friendly states.
ARTCC Air Route Traffic Control - (NOT USED IN UK) The second 'C' is for Center. The US version of what we call an FIR, combined with an FIS
ACC Area Control Centre - This is really unclear! Sectors of airspace. eg ScottishACC and London ACC although the EasyVFR database only seems to have 1 in the UK.... (Hebrides)
BZ Buffer Zone - (NOT USED IN UK)
CTA Control Area (UTA) - usually above and around a CTR e.g over Manchester
CTR Control Zone - around major airports e.g. Manchester
FIR ARTCC Flight Information Region - London, Scottish, Shanwick region
OCA Ocean Control Area - Found near some states that border an ocean , e.g. Greenland. Shanwick OCA is the only one in the UK.
Radar Area - An airspace for which a radar service is specified, e.g. the Brent Radar sector in the UK
TCA Terminal Control Area (TMA) - usually above multiple CTA/CTR e.g. Manchester/Liverpool
UIR Upper Flight Information Region - London, Scottish, Shannon region
DELEG FIR Delegated FIR - Sometimes a state's airspace is located so that it's more convenient to delegate airspace control to a neighbouring state. If it's sufficiently large, a DFIR is created
TIZ Traffic Information Zone (NOT USED IN UK)
TIA Traffic Information Area (NOT USED IN UK)
SRZ Special Rules Zone - A region, typically of a temporary nature, in which the normal regulations of flight do not apply in whole or in part, especially regulations concerning airspace classification, altitude, course, and speed restrictions, and the like. Quite often defined by NOTAM for a period of months.
TFR Temporary Flight Restriction (NOT USED IN UK)
WXAREA - Weather forecast areas - possibly currently only in use in Australia
MATZ Military Aerodrome Traffic Zone - widely used around most military airfields
ATZ Aerodrome Traffic Zone - protective area around airfields
FISA/FIA Flight Information Service - general information & assistance e.g. London Information (Sector North)
TMZ Transponder Mandatory Zone - generally require mode S - e.g Stansted "stubs"
MBZ/RMZ Mandatory Broadcast Zone - known as Radio Mandatory Zones in UK - e.g. Hawarden
ASR Aerial Sporting & Recreation Area - this could be anything from a rarely used farm strip to a busy gliding/parachute drop site or upper level gliding areas.
AWY Airway - joining multiple airspace, usually class A, sometimes E and/or TMZ
TRZ Transponder Recommended Zone (NOT USED IN UK)
VFR-ROUTE - special route with special restrictions e.g. Manchester LLR
LARS UK Lower Airspace Radar Service - for a service on a large uncontrolled area e.g. Boscombe Down LARS
SQK UK Squawk Listening Areas - wear the squawk and listen so they can contact you if required e.g. around Leeds
FNA Fly Neighbourly Areas - FNA Fly Neighbourly Areas - A PocketFMS invention. Area's for which no formal airspace definition exists, but local knowledge makes overflying such an area undesired. An UK example would be the Brize Norton equestrian site
I will ask Marcel and Dave (our main aerodata masters) to complement this topic; it would be very useful indeed for everybody, I suppose it should be documented as FAQ also then. Please standby.....
Hi Andrew,
Quite a list you have already compiled! I'll gladly address the ones you have placed a question mark with:
ADA Advisory Area - e.g. the Shanwick RVSM area.
ADIZ Air Defence Identification Zone - The UK doesn't have one of those. Typically found around borders to less-than-friendly states.
ARTCC Air Route Traffic Control - The second 'C' is for Center. The US version of what we call an FIR, combined with an FIS. Not found in Europe.
. .
OCA Ocean Control Area - Found near some states that border an ocean , e.g. Greenland. Shanwick OCA is the only one in the UK.
RA Radar Area - An airspace for which a radar service is specified, e.g. the Brent Radar sector in the UK.
DFIR Delegated FIR - Sometimes a state's airspace is located so that it's more convenient to delegate airspace control to a neighboring state. If it's sufficiently large, a DFIR is created
. .
SRZ Special Rules Zone - A region, typically of a temporary nature, in which the normal regulations of flight do not apply in whole or in part, especially regulations concerning airspace classification, altitude, course, and speed restrictions, and the like. Quite often defined by NOTAM for a period of months.
. .
FNA Fly Neighbourly Areas - A PocketFMS invention. 😉 Area's for which no formal airspace definition exists, but local knowledge makes overflying such an area undesired. An UK example would be the Brize Norton equestrian site.
Alert - A Special Use Airspace (SUAS) which is not a Prohibited, Restricted etc. E.g. a gas compressor / gas venting site.
. .
Temporary Reserved - Often areas where military training takes place. This way the airspace is free for GA use, unless the military claims it for training. After training the airpace is open to GA again.
Warning - Airspaces that are closely related to Alert, but pose a more severe threat. E.g. (active) volcanoes.
Some of those types do indeed have an overlap in their function. We usually follow the state's ANSP in their AIP definition of such airspaces.
Hope that helped a bit?
Cheers,
Marcel
Brilliant, thanks. I have just updated the original post with your definitions to make it easier for others to follow.
I have also re-ordered them to match the settings in the software.
There are still a couple of missing items.
so what is
ACC Area Control Centre
and
WXAREA
?
Hi,
ASR: what is the long title?
I know drop zones and aerobatics boxes that show with this label.
Some clubs talk about "our" box and are unhappy if someone else does some training in it.
Is there any rule when a box is officially published and who qualifies as a user?
The acro box I am using is not shown. I normally have it issues by NOTAM.
Thanks
Heiko
According to Google/Wikipedia (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_control_center and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_area_control_centers :
An area control center (ACC), also known as a center or en-route center, is a facility responsible for controlling aircraft flying in the airspace of a given flight information region (FIR) at high altitudes between airport approaches and departures. In the US, such a center is referred to as an air route traffic control center (ARTCC). Area control centers (ACCs) control IFR air traffic in their flight information region (FIR). In 2011 there were almost 300 ACCs globally, including in almost every country in Europe (including UK - London ACC and Scottish ACC).
I presume WX Area is a Weather Area - perhaps the area of validity in a forecasting system? - but Google could not help me, the nearest things it could advise about was D-i-Y Bikini-Area Waxing (!) (NOT recommended for carrying out in flight.)
ASR means Aerial Sporting and Recreational area. For the UK these are listed in UK AIP-ENR-5.5 which can be found at https://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-3313FD7A65D575EEDEFE43810DA3EFE2/7FE5QZZF3FXUS/EN/AIP/ENR/EG_ENR_5_5_en_2021-11-04.pdf (You may need to set up a free Eurocontrol account to get in.) They can include any established area where airborne activities take place, including gliding, parachuting, aerobatics, hang-gliding, ballooning, ultralight flying, paramotoring, flying training, and even kite and model flying. Unlike an ATZ they do not offer any formal "protection" nor impose mandatary procedures, but (by being notified to the CAA for publication in the AIP) they enhance prudent fight planning and good airmanship. They do not have a formally-defined radius but on the CAA paper chart they are drawn as a 1nm radius circle. In EasyVFR they are drawn with 2nm radius because this we feel is likely to be a more realistic indication of the extent of the local activity.
I can only comment based on my UK experience, but I imagine most other European nations may have a broadly similar system. For exact procedures you will need to search your national AIP ENR, and if necessary contact your national aviation authority to see if they will allow a site to be listed.
I've updated the original list with all the information to date.
Thanks for all the input
