Special treatment

The Washington, D.C., Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) has been in place in its current size and shape since 2009. This patch of airspace evolved as a security measure after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (see “Class B to ADIZ to SFRA,” at right). It starts at the surface and extends to but does not include Flight Level 180. Laterally, the SFRA is within a 30-nautical-mile radius of the Washington, D.C., VOR/DME (identifier DCA), so it engulfs Southern Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and a chunk of Northern Virginia to boot.

The SFRA includes the Flight Restricted Zone, the airspace surrounding Washington, D.C. The requirements to fly in the FRZ are even more stringent than those to fly in the SFRA (see “PINs and needles,” p. 46). Prohibited Areas 56A and B cover the White House and the U.S. Capitol.

Both the SFRA and the FRZ are marked on sectional and terminal area charts. A larger, 60-nautical-mile ring surrounds the SFRA. Inside the so-called “speed ring” but outside the SFRA, VFR aircraft are restricted to an indicated airspeed of 230 knots or less. Inside the SFRA, VFR aircraft may not fly faster than an indicated airspeed of 180 knots. If you cannot comply with these speed restrictions, you must advise ATC of your operational limitations.

I won’t go anywhere near the SFRA, pilots have been known to declare. Their trepidation is understandable. Mess up in the SFRA, and you face worse than a phone call from the tower—you might find yourself escorted to the nearest airport by a fighter jet, or lose your piloting privileges, or face criminal prosecution.

On the other hand, general aviation airports continue to function within the SFRA, and thousands of pilots have made their peace with the communications, equipment, and training requirements that accompany this airspace. If they can live—and train, and fly—in the SFRA, so can you.

Before you take off

If you are flying near the SFRA but you don’t intend to enter, know where the airspace begins and keep your airplane out of that airspace. It sounds simple, but each year pilots graze or penetrate the boundary and subsequently find out their incursion was clocked on air traffic control’s radar. Monitor the emergency frequency 121.5 MHz while operating in or near the SFRA.

If you intend to fly VFR within 60 nautical miles of the DCA VOR, you must first complete an online training course—even if you have no intention of going into the SFRA. Navigating the DC Special Flight Rules Area is available from the FAA (www.faasafety.gov). The course lays out all the requirements for entering, flying within, or exiting the SFRA.

Take the course, pass the multiple-choice quiz at the end, and print out a copy of the certificate. You do not have to carry it with you, but you must make it available to the FAA, the NTSB, or law enforcement upon request.

Aircraft requirements

Much like the requirements for operating within certain controlled airspace, an aircraft flying under visual flight rules to, from, within, or through the SFRA must have an operable two-way radio capable of communicating with ATC on appropriate radio frequencies, and an operating automatic altitude-reporting transponder.

Go through the gates

The SFRA entry and exit points are called gates. The gates are used to file SFRA flight plans, establish two-way radio communications, and avoid congestion over specific areas. In the SFRA west sector, the gates are LUCKE, JASEN, FLUKY, and BRV. In the south sector, they are GRUBY and WHINO. In the east sector, the gates are PALEO and WOOLY. Each sector has its own ATC frequency. Each gate is defined by radials off the DCA VOR, plus one or more corresponding visual checkpoints. For example, the WOOLY gate is defined by the 341 and 044 radials, and interstates 270 and 95.

It starts with a flight plan

To enter the SFRA to land at an airport within it, or to transit the airspace, you will need to file and then open an SFRA flight plan.

As with VFR flight plans, you can file a SFRA flight plan online through a flight planner or by calling flight service at 800-WX-BRIEF. (Local pilots generally call flight service, because online plans have been known to disappear.) Filing a VFR flight plan is optional, but filing a SFRA flight plan is required.

Specific instructions on completing the flight plan are laid out in the FAA’s online course, but a couple of pertinent highlights to keep in mind are that you will choose “IFR” for flight rules in Block 8 and your departure point is not the airport you launch from, but the gate you choose to enter.

When filing your flight plan, be sure to check the latest notices to airmen. Operating procedures may change within the SFRA and those changes will be communicated by notam.

Activate the flight plan in the air by contacting ATC to obtain a discrete transponder code. Contact ATC 10 to 15 miles outside the SFRA so that the controller has time to observe your transponder code.

When ATC has specifically cleared you into the SFRA, fly through the gate you listed on the flight plan, and heed any other instructions from the controller. You don’t have to fly directly to or over the specific fix for which the gate is named. Note that a clearance into the SFRA is not a clearance into Class B airspace. Radar services are not guaranteed either, so watch for other traffic.

You’ll need to maintain two-way radio contact with ATC. Keep the assigned discrete beacon code until you land (inside the SFRA) or ATC advises you that you are outside the SFRA and can squawk VFR. Never squawk 1200, the VFR code, in the SFRA.

Once you land and shut down at an airport in the SFRA, the flight plan is considered closed, so you don’t have to call flight service or do anything else. As you exit the SFRA and ATC advises that you can squawk VFR, the flight plan is considered closed.

Traffic pattern operations

Let’s say you’re parked at an airport in the SFRA, and now you’d like to do pattern work. At a nontowered airport, you would file a SFRA flight plan, contact ATC to activate it, and receive a discrete transponder code. Monitor 121.5. Once on the ground, you do need to close the SFRA flight plan by calling Potomac Tracon at 540-351-6129.

If you elect to do pattern work, you can’t exit the traffic pattern or engage in any other flight operations in the SFRA unless you comply with the SFRA standard operating procedures.

Many pilots declare they won’t go anywhere near the SFRA. Their trepidation is understandable. But thousands of pilots have made their peace with the requirements that accompany this airspace.At a towered airport, there’s no need to file a SFRA flight plan if the tower is open. Before departure, request to remain in the pattern. Squawk 1234 unless ATC instructs otherwise. Maintain two-way conversation with the tower controller, and monitor 121.5.

If the tower is closed, you would need to file a SFRA flight plan, and you would need to close it after landing by calling Potomac Tracon.

Leesburg maneuvering area

Special procedures exist for operations at Leesburg Executive Airport (JYO) in Leesburg, Virginia, which sits in the SFRA’s west sector. The course details the procedures.

Flying IFR

For the most part, flying under instrument flight rules in the SFRA is transparent—that is, you file an instrument flight plan, obtain your discrete squawk code from ATC, and establish and maintain two-way communications with ATC, just as you would flying IFR in any other part of the country.

There are a few exceptions. You can’t get a pop-up IFR clearance into the SFRA, and, as noted previously, you cannot use the 1200 transponder code while in the SFRA, even after closing your flight plan.

What about emergencies?

If you lose your radio during operations in the SFRA, squawk 7600 and exit the airspace by the most direct lateral route. If a transponder issue crops up, contact ATC to report the problem and ask for instructions. If you can’t contact ATC, you will want to depart the SFRA by the most direct lateral route.

There’s always the remote possibility that, despite your best intentions, you will get intercepted by military aircraft. It happened in 2005 to a couple of pilots from Smoketown, Pennsylvania, who blundered into the then-ADIZ and the FRZ without following procedures. Their incursion caused the White House and the U.S. Capitol to be evacuated. They were escorted to a nearby airport and forced to the ground at gunpoint.

Remember the interception procedures laid out in the Aeronautical Information Manual, remain calm, communicate, and comply. If you are not in contact with ATC, squawk 7700, tune to 121.5, establish communication, and comply with any instructions.

Failure to comply

The FAA isn’t kidding when it says there are serious consequences for failure to comply. Enforcement action can include civil penalties or suspension or revocation of your airman certificate. Criminal prosecution is a possibility in the event of a knowing or willful violation. And, “if it is determined that an aircraft poses an imminent security threat, use of deadly force is possible,” the FAA cautions.

Alarming as this sounds to a newcomer, flying within the SFRA gets easier each time you do it. Transiting the SFRA from the west to the east or vice versa saves lots of time and affords beautiful views of Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay. What’s more, all that talking with ATC will give you superior radio communication skills.

Jill W. Tallman is technical editor of Flight Training magazine. She has a FRZ PIN.