FAA to modify California's Castle Airport airspace

AOPA encourages pilots whose operations would be affected by the proposal, published Jan. 23 in the Federal Register, to review the plan and submit comments to the FAA by March 9.

According to the FAA, the airspace modification would extend existing Class D airspace from a 4.5-mile radius to 4.6 miles south of Castle Airport, while removing Class D airspace southwest and northwest of the airport, “thereby containing instrument IFR departure aircraft until reaching 700 feet above the surface, and removing airspace not required by IFR operations.”

In 2007, AOPA assisted with an airspace redesign in the vicinity after pilots expressed concern about the effect of the two airports’ proximity on local traffic, especially northwest-bound departures from Merced Regional Airport.

AOPA is reviewing the current proposal and urges local pilots to assess its potential impact in comments to the FAA.

In addition to its proposed reconfiguration of airspace, the proposal would remove a legal-description reference to the El Nido VOR/DME, “due to its planned decommissioning as the FAA transitions from ground-based to satellite-based navigation.”

Comments may be submitted online or by mail to U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590. Please identify FAA Docket No. FAA-2017-1091 and Airspace Docket No. 17-AWP-26 at the beginning of your comments.

Please also share your comments with AOPA.