OF
INTEREST TO PILOTS
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Officials with the Branson
Airport, the first privately developed and operated commercial service airport
in the US, announced this week the airport's official three-letter designation
for purchasing airline tickets will be... BKG.
Travelers may use the code to identify the Branson Airport when they
wish to book a flight... but if you're a pilot, don't use it to enter Branson
as your destination into a GPS.
The FAA assigned Branson the code BBG in the summer of 2008
and is the official code for pilots to reference when flying into the airport.
However, the International Air Transport Association, which assigns consumer
codes to airports, previously assigned the BBG code to Butaritari Airport, in
the Pacific Ocean.
Since the BBG designation was already allocated, the consumer
designation BKG was assigned to Branson Airport on December 8, 2008.
"We want to make sure there is no confusion when customers book
flights into and out of Branson Airport," said Gene Conrad, Deputy Airport
Director. "Going forward, when passengers see the letters BKG, they'll
know it stands for Branson, and a unique flying experience unlike any they've
ever had."
Pilots should continue to use BBG as the code for the Branson Airport,
which opens for business May 11, 2009.
Got all that?
FMI: www.flybranson.com
In a recent letter of interpretation (which is still being
"clarified"), the FAA Eastern Region offered a definition of what is
considered known icing conditions. The letter states that known icing
conditions exist when visible moisture or high relative humidity combines with
temperatures near or below freezing.
It continues to state that since clouds are visible moisture, flying
through them when the temperature is at or below freezing would constitute
flight into known icing conditions. Althought somewhat ameliorated since then,
the letter strictly concludes with "Flight into known icing conditions
when the airplane flight manual or
pilot operating
handbook prohibit such flight constitutes a violation whether the aircraft
accretes ice or not."
·
A
Quiz on TFR (Temporary Flight Restrictions
Keep those interceptor jets at bay
·
Change
in Ground Control Procedures
This will
be effective Tuesday, February 17, 2009, the day after the President's Day holiday.
No longer will an aircraft be on Ground Control's frequency while
crossing a runway. The new procedure will require an aircraft
crossing a runway be on Tower's frequency. This is safer and will help
prevent runway incursions.
Most of you will be instructed by Ground Control to hold short of a
runway and then monitor the Tower's frequency. This does not alleviate
the responsibility to read back the "hold short" clearance.
Reading back that you will hold short of a runway is still required and vital
in preventing runway incursions.
Realizing there is a learning curve, I am getting this out to as many
people as early as I can in hopes of most of our users having a leg up and have
a chance to become familiar with what to expect.