here's a question for knowledgeable people, recently i was in wilmington nc flying with an instructor. there is a nuclear power plant in the area and he said to steer clear of it. i had studied the chart previously and did not see any mention of it being a nuclear power plant and i was wondering why the airspace would not be marked/identified/restricted.
a notam exists on this subject and contains this text (from: http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html#1/1980):
4/0811 ...SPECIAL NOTICE... THIS IS A RESTATEMENT OF A PREVIOUSLY ISSUED ADVISORY NOTICE. IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND TO THE EXTENT PRACTICABLE, PILOTS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO AVOID THE AIRSPACE ABOVE, OR IN PROXIMITY TO SUCH SITES AS POWER PLANTS (NUCLEAR, HYDRO-ELECTRIC, OR COAL), DAMS, REFINERIES, INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES, MILITARY FACILITIES AND OTHER SIMILAR FACILITIES. PILOTS SHOULD NOT CIRCLE AS TO LOITER IN THE VICINITY OVER THESE TYPES OF FACILITIES. WIE UNTIL UFN
i'm assuming that someone living in the area would be familiar with it and thus not practice maneuvers anywhere near it but someone not familiar might be unaware. i'm also guessing that the text "to the extent practicable" means they would prosecute a pilot that appeared to be loitering and could not give a reasonable explanation.
the reason this comes to my attention is that i'm planning a cross country to richmond, va and i think my (original) return flight was going to take me near one.
3 comments:
Personally I wouldn't worry about just flying over during a cross country, so long as you don't circle around the thing. If you're thinking about the plant at Lake Anna, I've flown over the lake a few times (as have other students at my club) and have never had even a hint of a problem. Good luck on the XC.
I got lost in North Texas on a dual cross-country as a student pilot. My instructor seemed to know where we were and wanted me to figure out how to regain my bearing. He told me to fly toward that building near the lake (many miles away at our 12:00). After we traveled half the distance there (maybe 15-20 minutes), he said, "Doesn't that look like the [such-and-such] hotel?" I admitted that it could be, but the hotel and lake in that town aren't nearly that close together. he said the distance created the illusion that they were close together. After about 10 more minutes, I said, "Those are nuclear cooling towers."
He stated an expletive, said, "That's Glen Rose, not Mineral Wells. Make a 90 degree left turn."
I was new to North Texas. My sectional showed the town Glen Rose, the lake, and a number of towers with their heights. I'm glad he ended up figuring out where we were, because, I would never have known the town by the nuclear power plant. Although, I do think the F-16's would have given me some notion of my location when they intercepted me.
There's no specific restricted airspace over power plants...it would be on your map if there were. It's more a gentle suggestion that you steer clear. It used to be, with old Flight Service system, when you'd call up and get the automated answering system it would remind pilots of the NOTAM requesting them to remain at least 3K feet above a power plant. Unlike stadium TFRs, or the airspace in DC, there's no actual restriction to flying over the power plants, though. But as has been said...if you plan to spend a lot of time loitering around one, make sure you brush up on your intercept procedures first. It's no concern for a cross country, though, unless the sectional shows a warning/prohibited area over the plant.
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