Thursday, March 22, 2012

FAA getting closer to setting rules that might affect PDK and Dunwoody

 Dunwoody is directly in the line of PDK runways.

April Hunt of the AJC did an update on the FAA changing procedures which may affect PDK flight operations, whereby final comments on the proposals are due to the FAA by April 3rd.

I have read the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) several times and pulled a few key paragraphs out of the text and placed them down below.  I am not a pilot nor overly knowledgeable on this subject except that I have written about this subject before (here, here, here, here and hear) and did sign a resolution against possible changes once I understood the basics.   

I have asked the City Attorney to verify that the above multi-jurisdictional resolution has been filed with the Federal Aviation Administration at least once and to do so again as required in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in opposition with the changes affecting PDK.

Here is a link to the FAA NPRM document and the key paragraphs that I thought relevant have been copied below.

 The Committee recommended that the current 8,000 feet and 6,000 feet Class B airspace floors over PDK be retained, or kept as close to the current altitudes as possible, in order to maintain efficient operations at PDK.
One commenter opposed the lowering of the Class B floor in the 
vicinity of PDK from 8,000 feet to 5,000 feet because it could cause 
compression of VFR aircraft given the fact that the PDK Class D 
airspace ceiling is 3,500 feet.
The existing Class B floor above PDK is 8,000 feet, while 
immediately to the east and south of PDK, the existing floor is 6,000 
feet. Under the proposed Class B changes, the floor of Class B airspace 
above the southern half of the PDK Class D airspace would be 5,000 
feet; to the northeast, the floor would be 6,000 feet; and to the 
northwest, the floor would be 7,000 feet. This would still give pilots 
room to navigate north of the PDK airport eastbound at 5,500 feet. It 
is true that the proposed change would eliminate the 5,500 foot VFR 
altitude over the southern half of the PDK Class D airspace. This may 
require the pilot to make a choice to fly eastbound below 3,000 feet 
AGL or to fly further north in order to fly above 3,000 feet AGL and 
below the Class B airspace.

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