Casey Wilson wrote:
I just got my weekly dose of AOPA's E-Blurb. In it is an article about
AOPA's latest aid to navigation, a list of all SUAs and their current
status -- within six minutes, anyway.

Being as I am imbedded in SUAs with restricted areas and MOAs all around
KIYK, I took a gander at the two nearest ones, R2505 and R2505. BIG errors
in altitude regimes. 2505 is normally SFC to UNL and 2506 is SFC to 6K.
AOPA has them listed as 2505::6K to UNL and 06 as SFC to UNL. And both are
listed as HOT.

In fairness to AOPA, they are merely mirroring the information produced by
FAA at:
http://sua.faa.gov/atcaalist.jsp

That puts both sites on the incredible ( is UNcredible a word?) list.

Now for a telephone visit to my local friendly 800-WX-BRIEF. R2505 and
2506 are on his list as cold. And guess what, they are. Flex friday is a
down day at China Lake and all ranges are cold.

I guess the point is FAA needs to get on the ball and AOPA needs to quit
piggybacking stuff already available -- expecially when it is flawed.

Go Fly!

Casey

Well, AOPA lists right at the top of their list that the information is
supposed to supplement, not replace a call to the briefer. Its the same
with the other online aviation databases out there (like AirNav for
example), the information on the web should not be used exclusively to
replace the official sources.

The SUA website is pretty new and has some other problems too (it's
dog-slow for one, which the AOPA list actually alleviates). But the
system is dependent on all the centers and military sources to actively
update the list.

I think it's a step in the right direction though. I predict after a
year of continuous use by pilots and the feedback they provide, the
list will be a fairly accurate way to keep up to date on the status of
the SUA's. In the meantime though, pilots who check the list and then
call the briefer can ask "hey the SUA site lists R2505 as being hot, is
that right?" From that perspective the list serves to remind pilots of
the SUAs in their area of flight and to explicitly verify them with a
briefer.

Pat