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United States Pilots Association |
NMPA President Bob Worthington, with input from NMPA officers, has prepared the following information for NMPA and USPA members. NMPA and USPA are leading the effort to insure safe transit of GA traffic within the proposed Canon AFB military training airspace, which can encompass a large portion of New Mexico.
The US Air Force has proposed that the USAF Special Operations Command take over Canon AFB
This proposal is for 90 aircraft and 3500 people to go to Canon. Already some personnel from the USAFSOC at Hurlburt are at Canon to do research and evaluate what a move would entail. Not too long ago the Base Realignment Committee gave the USAF a few years to come up with a good use for Canon or lose it. Another factor of much interest to us is that the USAF also wants to move its MQ 1 Predator (an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) mission from Creech AFB in NV to Canon. It is estimated it would take several years before all SOW units and personnel would be at Canon.
The USAF Special Operations Command located at Hurlburt Field in the FL Panhandle is a 19,000 person major command. It consists of two Wings (16th SOW and the 347th Rescue Wing), four groups, three subordinate units, two USAFR wings, and seven ANG units. The USAFSOC has major units in Germany and Japan also. The USAFSOC has a variety of C 130 aircraft as troop carriers, command and control aircraft, gunships, and other uses. The helicopters include the UH-1N Huey, the MH 53s (Pave Low), and the HH 60s (Pave Hawk). It also has several civilian aircraft (such as the Spanish pressurized twin turboprop Casa 212, the Swiss SE Pilatus PC 12, and the DC 3) built for short field, dirt strip special missions. And now they are getting the CV 22 Osprey. The normal USAF Special Operations Wing has about 90 aircraft and about 7000 personnel.
Right now most USAF Spec Ops resources are in the FL panhandle in swamps and tropical geography. Much of our actual combat employment of Spec Ops resources are in areas of the world which has deserts and rocky mountains (like NM). So moving some Spec Ops assets to here certainly makes sense.
A major USAF Command is the Air and Education Training Command. One of its units is the USAF 58th Special Operations Wing located at Kirtland (this unit is not a part of the USAFSOC, but the USAFAETC). The 58th does train all USAF Spec Ops aircrews, but its training missions extend way beyond just Spec Ops. It trains the USAF Spec Ops C 130 crews, helicopter crews, and CV 22 (Osprey) crews, and the aerial refueling crews. In fact, the first USAF Osprey aircraft will go to Hurlburt in October. The USMC already has them. For the USAF the CV 22s will replace the MH 53 Pave Lows and some C 130s. With the Spec Ops training wing so close to a regular Spec Ops combat wing, there may be more aircraft movement between Canon and Kirtland (ABQ).
The mission of the USAFSOC is to train and equip USAF Spec Ops forces for global employment. It can conduct unconventional warfare and counterinsurgency operations, as well as psychological ops. Basically it moves special ops troops, unseen, into combat areas or behind enemy lines, and provides close air to ground weapons support, medical evacuation, and extraction. It also does search and rescue operations and deploys parachute drop zone and fire control personnel in hostile areas.
This means the training involves a lot of low-level flying, air to ground weapons training, low-level aerial night navigation in "black-out" conditions, and troop insertions and extractions. For GA pilots that means aircraft training movement in the flying altitudes we favor. The different SOW aircraft fly between 90 K to 250 K.
The USAFSOC has begun its Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to examine all factors involved prior to making its final decision. Two weeks ago it held three scoping meetings in towns around Canon to explain what the AF wants to do and to solicit comments from the audience. NMPA has no doubt as to what the decision will be, but what remains to be seen is what units and what aircraft will actually end up at Canon. The comment period ends on 5 October. If any NMPA or USPA members want to personally add their comments to this proposal contact Carl T. Hoffman at HQ AFSOC/A7CV, 427 Cody Ave, Ste 225, Hurlburt Field, FL 32544-5434 or email at Carl.Hoffman@hurlburt.af.mil. The draft study is expected to be completed in March 2007.
The USAFSOC has been meeting with the Clovis area community leaders over the past three months, and the civilian leaders have already traveled to Hurlburt to visit the USAFSOC. NMPA never received any notification from the USAF, and USPA was not notified about the scoping meetings until a day or so before they began. Consequently no one from either USPA or NMPA could attend.
In the southwest the UAV is a potentially big problem for GA pilots. On 25 April this year the US Customs and Border Protection agency lost control of their Predator and didn't even know it when it crashed south of Tucson, AZ. This UAV is about the size of a C 172. There are NOTAMS at times about where they will be flying, but the FAA Center controllers do not always know where they are, and they can be flying around and across Victor airways.
A quick look at the MOAs, Restricted areas, and the low-level Military Training Routes the USAFSOC wants to use, and it becomes apparent that most of eastern NM airspace will be used for their operations. Spec Ops training involves lots of low-level night flying and much of the training is air to ground either for weapons training or troop insertions and extractions. The proposal is to use these three MOAs: Mt Dora, Bronco, and Pecos and Melrose Range (Restricted Areas R5104A and R5105). But they may also use other MOAs and Restricted Areas of Holloman AFB and WSMR.
A major concern for GA pilots is the movement of the UAV from Canon to wherever they will be doing their training. Favored night training for the spec ops aircraft is to be in "black-out" mode, i.e. no lights at night. Another concern is the low-level flights on Military Training routes. Most of the MTRs indicated around Canon AFB begin from the surface to 600 feet AGL with the upper limits at all altitudes. Also numerous airports and airstrips lie below the MOAs.
Now for the GA pilot the problem becomes one of not knowing who is where. Normal GA flying in these areas is low level for a variety of reasons. There is no FAA radar coverage here unless pilots fly quite high, sometimes well over 10,000-12,000 feet MSL. The White Sands Missile Range Restricted areas and the North-South running mountains don't give GA pilots a lot of choices flying east and west across central NM.
NMPA should not be against the USAF moving into NM. But the level of distrust that NM ranchers have against the US military and the taking of both land and airspace is still high. This all goes back to the 1940s when many ranchers lost all their land without due compensation for the creation of WSMR. Many of these ranchers still fly and resent what the federal government has done to them. In fact, USAFSOC has acknowledged that some ranchers who hold cattle grazing leases on Melrose Range (R 5104A and R 5105) may be moved off. NMPA represents some of these pilots, and they can be quite vocal in their opinions.
But our main concern is what the introduction of 90 plus low flying aircraft will do to safe VFR flying across eastern NM. If air operations in these areas increase and there is no radar separation, it could be too dangerous to fly (most especially if the Predators are also milling about) meaning that a 1-2 hour flight could stretch into several hours if pilots are forced to go south into Texas to get to Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Especially dangerous could be the low-level navigation flights on the MTRs which may be without lights and at night. So for us that live and fly in NM this is potentially a serious situation.
Now that you know what the potential safety concerns are, here is what NMPA is proposing to the US Air Force.
1. Radar coverage be implemented for all the areas that USAF aircraft will be using that will cover low flying GA aircraft.
2. Radio communications be established for GA aircraft flying in the areas that USAF aircraft will be
using so the USAF can communicate with civilian aircraft.
3. Vigorous General Aviation pilot education programs be created using FAA, USPA, and NMPA resources
to make GA pilots aware of the potential dangers of flying blind in these areas.
4. The USAF take steps to insure the people flying the UAVs are aware of the FAA rules and regulations GA pilots must obey and have safeguards to preclude mid-air collisions or UAF loss of control by their manipulators.
Bob Worthington, President, NMPA
VP Southwest Region, USPA
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association