The Old Dawg Learns New Tricks- Part 4 of 12

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LIGHTS, TOWERS AND PLANES … OH MY 

(This is a sectional chart for the St Louis area)

Well gang, two weeks of aviation  ground school are in the books and we’ve learned a lot.   Last night we learned about all the different types of air space (no not the stuff between my ears) that surrounds the airports.

 Airspace has a variety of categories as you could imagine.  Big airports like Lambert/St. Louis are Category B (meaning BUSY) For safety and effenciey reasons, It is highly controlled. Category C air space is for medium sized cities who still have very active (CONGESTED) airport traffic.  Category D airspace still requires the pilot to contact Air Traffic Control  but has even less traffic  (Scott AFB/Mid-America is a good example).  Category E is last category of airspace and it basically stands for everyplace else.   There is an uncontrolled air space category, G but it’s pretty scarce and located out West.  What about Category A?  Wel,l as a private pilot that will be flying visual flight rules, I’m not allowed there.  It’s at an altitude above 18,000’ and for those pilots flying an Instrument Flight Rules flight plan (most if not all commercial aviation flights).  

 Another lesson from last night dealt with finding our way on a airport  layout. Just like navigating the streets and highways around St. Louis, the airport has it’s own variety of directional signs, warning and caution lights.  We learned all about maneuvering our way from point A to point B and the big thing,  “COLLISION AVOIDANCE”.  That will help us avoid running into anything like a vehicle or another airplane.

 Field Trip- I’m really excited about next Tuesday’s class, it will be conducted in the control tower at Scott AFB/Mid America Airport.  I often dreamt of doing that job, but realized the planes wouldn’t appreciate me playing music along with directions on taxi, takeoff and maneuvering through my airspace.  C’mon who doesn’t like a little Toby Keith with their request to land?  Just thinking out of the box gang.    Anyways, check back next Wednesday for a full report.

 Thanks again for checking out the blog and if you are interested in learning to fly, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll get you in touch with our instructors.

 Until next time... fly safe.

 -Rik Out.