THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240482
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Plans for the U.S. Air Force to expand airspace restrictions above the Dare County Bombing Range have hit some turbulence.
Outer Banks airport administrators have contacted the federal government, opposing the proposed additional area. Extra military airspace, they say, would discourage some private planes from using Roanoke Island's runways.
``The unilateral acquisition of Dare County and North Carolina airspace by the military is causing an ever-increasing hardship for air travelers trying to reach Dare County and the Outer Banks,'' says a letter the Dare County Airport Authority sent to the Federal Aviation Administration.
``The restricted airspace and military operations areas surrounding the Dare County Regional Airport are very intimidating to nonprofessional pilots, and they cause many people not to visit our region.
``It is ironic that the `Land of Aviation's Beginning' is one of the most difficult areas in the country to reach by air travel.''
Located on the Dare County mainland, between Stumpy Point and Englehard, the Dare County Bombing Range is owned by the U.S. Air Force and contains 46,000 acres. Each year, military pilots make at least 38,000 flights above the area. Many drop 35-pound practice bombs and engage in electronic warfare.
The Dare County Regional Airport is on Roanoke Island, about 40 miles northeast of the bombing range, across the Croatan Sound. Many of the 45,000 landings and takeoffs yearly into that county-supervised airport are made by planes that fly over the military area. Last week alone, Airport Manager Tim Gaylord said, 10 private planes crossed above the Air Force space en route to the Outer Banks' only commercial airport.
``Most of those planes don't have oxygen,'' Gaylord said Monday. ``So most of the pilots have to stay below 10,000 feet.''
Currently, private pilots can fly over some areas of the military airspace that extend only to 6,000 feet. If the Air Force's restricted space expands vertically, ``it will be like erecting a wall around that area,'' Airport Authority Chairman Dick Mapp said. ``It will make it much, much more difficult for private planes to get in here. It will severely hamper air access to the Outer Banks from the west.''
According to plans submitted to the FAA, the Air Force wants to create a ``Phelps Military Operations Area'' above about half of the bombing range. Currently, the military controls that area to 6,000 feet; 10,000 feet; and 15,000 feet - with different portions of the area allotted different heights. The proposed additional airspace would give the military control up to 18,000 feet for all of those areas.
The other half of the range already is controlled by the military up to 20,500 feet.
``We're not talking about restricting that entire area all of the time,'' Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base spokesman Jay Barber said from his Goldsboro, N.C., office on Monday. ``What we're talking about is giving our pilots enough room to train.
``Private planes could use that area if they were flying by visual flight rules,'' Barber said. ``If they were flying with instruments, they would be restricted from using the area while we were. But they could still get permission to use that space from the Washington Center of the FAA whenever it wasn't in use.''
The military plans to use the additional airspace from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, and occasionally on weekends.
Bombs would not be dropped from the additional heights, Barber said. But pilots of some military planes, especially the F-15E fighters, need to fly higher in order to identify targets. Extra airspace is required for state-of-the-art training, Air Force officials insist.
``Training at the range is presently limited to low and medium altitudes,'' says the Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base statement. ``One of the lessons learned from Operation Desert Storm was that pilots also need to know how to deliver weapons from high altitudes. Delivering weapons from high altitudes decreases the risk to the aircraft and crew from anti-aircraft fire.''
Dare County Airport officials say they realize the need to upgrade training opportunities for Air Force pilots. But Mapp said airspace should be better shared between civilian and military planes.
``The FAA needs to install radar at Elizabeth City so that they could control flights over that area instead of just the military,'' Mapp said. ``An additional radar system would help the situation tremendously. It would allow everyone access to an airspace that could be controlled by a neutral party. It may even solve this whole conflict.''
Officials at the Dare County Airport say they hope to meet with representatives of the FAA in August to discuss the proposed addition of military airspace over the bombing range. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
Staff
The Dare County Regional Airport on Roanoke Island is becoming a
popular destination for travelers flying to the Outer Banks.
by CNB