13 November 2006
Those of you who read this month’s (December) Hot Poop feature – you’ll find it on page 18 – will discover that what we currently know as TRAs (Temporary Restricted Areas) are to be renamed in the New Year. It’s going to cause a great deal of confusion, so get ahead of the game and find out about it now.
In March next year, the base of UK Class C airspace will be lowered to Flight Level 195. The CAA says: “At the same time (to bring the UK in line with Eurocontrol Flexible Use of Airspace definitions), Temporary Reserved Areas (TRAs) will be established to cover specific parts of airspace between FL195 and FL245 to accommodate the various VFR and military operational requirements of UK airspace users.” Did you notice that ‘TRA’? That term will now only apply to bits of airspace over FL195.
Restricted Areas (Temporary), or RA(T)s, are what we will now have to look out for when planning a route. Remember that: RA(T)s (as in “RATs – I’ll have to replan my entire route”).
The big concern, of course, is that at some point in the future, somebody will forget the bit in brackets and Restricted Areas (Temporary) will become Restriction Areas. Full stop. But that would never happen, would it?
An AIC detailing the changes to RA(T)s (123/2006, Yellow 225) will be issued in early December.
