Vancouver Airspace Modernization VFC Flight Training Contributed by Greg Matte, GM

Vancouver Airspace Modernization & VFC Flight Training

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 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

they compete for a limited pool of pilots. Such competition will be felt by passengers through hikes in ticket prices that will be driven by the increased wages and benefits that will be offered to pilots. The near term savings in fuel efficiencies through increased encroachment of controlled airspace to facilitate arrivals and departures will be far outweighed by the increased costs related to escalations in salaries and benefits in the competition to attract pilots. This led to the first of many recommendations by the Federal Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities that emphasized the critical role of FTUs in terms of Canada’s national interests:

That the Government of Canada— in co-operation with relevant stakeholders…develop policies to support and encourage the

growth of Canada’s flight training industry.

This same report identified the need to support FTUs like the VFC in order to ensure a future domestic supply of Canadian pilots to meet the projected shortfalls. The committee also stressed the vital role of commercial aviation in Canada, not only for leisure travel, but more importantly, as a critical air bridge to supply Canadians living in isolated locations in the north and certain coastal communities.

The VFC has previously witnessed encroachment of controlled airspace, such as the introduction of the terminal control airspace extension to the north west of CYYJ’s PCZ. This extension had the restrictive consequence of introducing a ceiling of 3500’ MSL forVFR transits to/ from CYA 118; a ceiling that extends well into CYA 118 further restricting the limited available vertical airspace. A further negative consequence of such encroachment has been the requirement for the VFC to conduct its training at lower altitudes, which has lead to a rise in noise complaints in the Cowichan area. VAMP modernization considerations impacting CYA 118 relate to demands by commercial air for increased protected (controlled) airspace for arrivals to runway 34 and departures from runway 16 at CYCD.

The way forward proposed by the VFC has been to seek a fair, balanced and transparent approach that enables a redistribution of airspace in a collaborative manner. This would require an adjustment to the boundaries of CYA 118, including an increase in the ceiling, as well as the provision of VFR corridors that provide students with easy access to/from our preferred flight training areas without the requirement to deal with terminal controllers. As the VAMP process and “town hall” meetings continue through the summer and fall, we’ll continue to advance this position so as to protect the interests of our VFC students and members.