Sunday, July 30, 2017

APEX’s GALLOO PROJECT HAZARDOUS to FORT DRUM AIR OPERATIONS ?

The Galloo Island Wind Farm is currently under FAA review for aviation conflicts. It’s current status is ‘circularized’, which entails a potential hazard to aircraft operation and is open for comments from the public. For many mariners on Lake Ontario, military aircraft flights over Galloo have been a frequent sight for years. Now we can understand why the FAA has been slow to make a final determination on Apex’s application and why Apex may be waiting for FAA’s final decision on the Galloo project’s impact on Ft. Drum flight operations.
Wikepedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_training_route) provided the following information on Military Training Routes for military aircraft:

“Military training routes are aerial corridors (such as IR801 for Jefferson County) across the United States in which military aircraft can operate below 10,000 feet faster than the maximum safe speed of 250 knots that all other aircraft are restricted to while operating below 10,000 feet. The routes are the result of a joint venture between the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense to provide for high-speed, low-altitude military activities. Military Training Routes are divided into Instrument Routes (IR), and Visual Routes (VR). Each route is identified by either of these two letters, followed by either four digits for routes below 1,500 feet above ground level, or three digits for routes extending for at least one leg above 1,500 ft AGL. (Note - over Galloo aircraft could be just above the 600 foot  turbine height). The difference between the IR and VR routes is that IR routes are flown under Air Traffic Control, while VR routes are not.”

IR801 Military Route.jpg
                        Grey line (IR801) encompassing Galloo Island 
                        delineates Fort Drum Military Training Route 


“Each route is defined by a number of geographical coordinates and their respective navaid fixes. From this line the corridor is extended a specific number of miles, in the vast majority of cases this is five miles, making the corridor 10 miles wide. The Routes are individually operated through one of the local military air bases (Ft. Drum), which schedule and 'own' the route.”

Sources:
Wikepedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_training_route)
  FAA website

No comments: