Practice area

eman1200

eman1200

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bro do you even lift
I did a quick search but couldn't find a post about how I can find out where the practice area is for a certain airport. meaning, if my 'home airport' is KJQF (charlotte) how can I find out where the closest practice area is to that, or does it change? or is it even a designated area? thanks!
 
Generally speaking, there are no published designated practice areas. Some flight schools may establish them for their own operations, and may consult local ATC facilities when they do, but they aren't published in any FAA publication. So, the best you can do is ask the flight schools or tower folks at JQF what they use.
 
Ron Levy said:
Generally speaking, there are no published designated practice areas. Some flight schools may establish them for their own operations, and may consult local ATC facilities when they do, but they aren't published in any FAA publication. So, the best you can do is ask the flight schools or tower folks at JQF what they use.
Click to expand...

roger that, thanks!
 
Enroute facilities often know what the unofficial practice areas are as well, if you are at an unfamiliar airport and want to go flying but aren't sure if the place will be filled with airplanes.
 
Only in areas with large flight schools and a lot of flight training activity are practice areas defined officially on a chart. See the area west of Hillsboro, Oregon (known locally as "West Practice Area") on a Seattle sectional for an example of that. Sometimes there are notes/advisories in the A/FD like this one that provides more detail on the Hillsboro practice area. The sectional chart doesn't show area boundaries, but denotes the high-traffic practice in the general area and lists 122.75 (air-to-air frequency) to use for radio calls. The AFD puts boundaries on it (which are a generalization but provide good guidance).

But for the most part, the best way to find out is to ask the local flight schools or a CFI, either on the phone or in person. That's a great question for a discovery flight, too. :)
 
Lynchburg and it's various training operations have well defined traffic areas. I hear students reporting into ROA approach coming in and out of there. I've kind of figured out where some of them are, but usually I'm over the top of the area and I'm always either VFR with FF or IFR going through there anyhow, so it's somewhat reassuring to know the kiddies are also talking to approach.
 
You would want to be outside of the bravo shelf, or an area where its at 5k. I fly out of EQY and the "practice area" is about 15-20 miles south east of the field.
 
The only exception would be an alert area published on a sectional chart.
 
eman1200 said:
I did a quick search but couldn't find a post about how I can find out where the practice area is for a certain airport. meaning, if my 'home airport' is KJQF (charlotte) how can I find out where the closest practice area is to that, or does it change? or is it even a designated area? thanks!
Click to expand...

You are showing an Alert Area, A 531, to the east of you. Bit distant at 27 nm.
 
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