Vancouver Airspace Modernization & VFC Flight Training
GM Corner
VFC Manager BGen (Ret’d) Gregory C.P. Matte, CD, PhD
The Vancouver Airspace Modernization Project (VAMP) is an ongoing initiative that seeks to deploy current airspace design methodologies to sustain the safety operations across the Greater Vancouver Region and Southern Vancouver Island in anticipation of industry growth. While the ongoing "town hall" meeting process with stakeholders (commercial air, recreational flyers, Flight Training Units, airport authorities and community officials) will continue into the fall of 2020, Nav Canada will likely seek to implement changes to the affected airspace in early 2021. The impetus for seeking to "modernize" the airspace, which includes the flight training area for the VFC in the Cowichan Valley (CYA 118), is based on increased air traffic. In the period between 2013 and 2018, air traffic movements in the region grew by a total of 16 per cent, including an 18 per cent increase in IFR operations and a 10 per cent increase in VFR operations. This represents an increase of more than 100,000 flights across the region per annum. The VFC has been actively involved in these meetings, but we are increasingly concerned that the outcome may be to further restrict our limited available flight training airspace. It appears that Nav Canada’s over-riding focus is on achieving greater control over air traffic. Such increased control appears to be sought through the increased expansion of controlled airspace. While this approach could increase safety through greater
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control over air traffic, it appears that the application of greater controlled airspace is pursued to the benefit of commercial air traffic. Such increased control allows for efficient arrival and departure procedures, with minimal disruption in planned flight profiles (to accommodate VFR traffic), thereby increasing fuel efficiencies (improved profit margins) as well as airfield movements (throughput of passengers and cargo). While the encroachment of an expansion of controlled airspace would seem to be a logical strategy, it negatively impacts some of the stakeholders, particularly the flight training units (FTUs) such as the VFC. The problem is that such encroachment further reduces the available airspace for training, while also increasing the cost of such training for the students due to greater time spent in transiting to/ from the training area. Instead of encroachment, the VFC is arguing in favour of airspace redistribution. Airspace redistribution is a process of collaboration in which a winwin outcome is sought. For the VFC, what is being sought is at least one (perhaps two) reasonably sized Class G training areas that would allow for safe and effective training. This in turn would not only require a reasonable lateral assignment of airspace to permit two or more aircraft to train in a given area concurrently, but also the necessary vertical airspace to allow for the safe practice of essential maneuvers including
slow flight, stalls, and spins. The provision of VFR corridors, that do not require penetration into controlled airspace, would facilitate efficient transit to/from the training area(s), while accommodating inexperienced pilots under training. Airspace redistribution that accommodates such needs for the VFC could be exchanged for the provision of changes in controlled airspace that accommodates the requests of commercial air traffic into and out of both Victoria International Airport (CYYJ), as well as Nanaimo Regional Airport (CYCD). Such airspace redistribution is in recognition of domestic and international macro-economic realities. Despite the current lull in demand for commercial air travel, there is every likelihood that the demand will return to previous levels within the next six to eighteen months. Commensurate with this assumption is the previous projections for significant shortages in commercial pilots. Industry estimates that Canada will need 7,300 new commercial pilots by 2025, but will fall 3,000 short of that mark. Worldwide, estimates are that the global demand for new pilots will hit 255,000 by 2027, with the majority yet to start the long process of training and logging flying hours. A shortage of pilots will not only potentially limit further growth in commercial air traffic, it will also inevitably lead to increased costs incurred by the airlines as
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