News

Academy moves powered-flight airspace to avoid conflict

  • Published
  • By Don Branum
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  Go East, young man.

That's not quite the same advice offered to 19th-century settlers moving to Colorado, but none of them had to fly in airspace shared by two major airports.

New training areas for the Air Force Academy's powered flight airmanship program took effect in December, moving operations several miles east of the previous areas.

The Federal Aviation Administration claimed the previous training areas, near the Interstate 25 corridor between Monument and Castle Rock, to create GPS-guided navigation routes for corporate aircraft, said Ted Goodlin, a next-generation implementation specialist with the FAA.

The airspace over Interstate 25 between Denver International Airport and Colorado Springs Airport is a busy corridor, Goodlin said.

"Finding the sweet spot on where to locate the satellite-based navigation routes is a difficult task," Goodlin added. "That's what generated the change."

Cadets spend five to 10 minutes longer flying to and from the new training areas because they're further east, said Lt. Col. Andrew Julson, director of operations for the 557th Flying Training Squadron, which oversees the powered flight airmanship program.

"We've lost some training time due to the change," he said. "What we're looking at is changing our syllabus and refocusing the program so that instead of a breadth of exposure, we narrow the focus to preparing cadets for a solo flight."

Julson said that in the year he's been director of operations, he's fielded three requests to move the Academy's airspace. He recognized that the airspace near Interstate 25 would only become more congested as Colorado Springs Airport grows.

"Instead of having to fight (for airspace) and having to continually reprint training publications at a huge cost, we decided we're going to do this in a fashion that will preserve Academy training airspace for 20 years," Julson explained. "We designed a pattern from scratch.

"Given the constraints we had, we looked at how we could design an airspace that would allow us to be the best neighbors we can, along with building something that could withstand the changes that will go on with the Colorado Springs community in the next 20 years," Julson said. "We've developed safer procedures that can handle more volume without upsetting our neighbors."

The training areas overlay rural parts of Colorado in a semicircular pattern, stretching southeast past the Bullseye Auxiliary Airstrip, east near Calhan and north near Elbert.

The new training areas may also reduce the number of noise complaints that the Academy receives. The Academy previously received some complaints from residents in Larkspur, said Rich Droll, who oversees the Academy's noise complaint program for the Public Affairs office.

While investigations often determined that the aircraft generating complaints didn't belong to the Academy, moving the Academy's training out of Larkspur airspace should reduce the volume of complaints received, Julson said.

Aircraft will fly higher than previously as well -- between 8,500 feet and 11,500 feet -- which should serve to further mitigate noise complaints, Julson said.

"Aircraft noise is less than 60 decibels from that height," he said. "The noise generated from Interstate 25 makes more noise than our aircraft at 8,500 feet, and that's with the engine at full power, so when we cruise, you can't even hear us."

Julson noted more aircraft are flying over State Highway 83, which runs parallel of Interstate 25 from Black Forest into Denver.

"The additional volume might raise concerns, but we've been doing this now for a little more than a month, and we haven't received any complaints," he said. "We intentionally designed (our routes) to fly over low-population areas and to have our noise masked by highway traffic."

Cadets in the powered flight program conduct nine sorties of 90 minutes each, for 13.5 total flying hours, in T-53 Kadet II single-engine aircraft. Those who demonstrate proficiency are allowed to take a solo flight at the end of the program, Julson said.