Class B Airspace Change at KPHL

Effective July 25, 2013 the Class B Airspace surrounding KPHL will be changing. This very important program will provide information on the changes to the airspace and answers as to how these changes could impact certain flight operations. Our special guest, a PHL Tower Quality Control Specialist will be conducting this presentation. This seminar is a must for local area pilots, for your safety and to prevent an inadvertent airspace deviation which could result in a violation.

Vince and I sat in on the seminar this evening. The seminar reviewed part 91 operations in Class Bravo airspace, old news but a review none the less.

Some of the key points:

The operator must receive an ATC clearance from the ATC facility having jurisdiction for that area before operating an aircraft in that area.

Any person conducting pilot training operations at an airport within a Class B airspace area must comply with any procedures established by ATC for such operations in that area.

No person may operate an aircraft in a Class B airspace area unless the aircraft is equipped with the applicable operating transponder and automatic altitude reporting equipment specified in § 91.215 (a), except as provided in § 91.215 (e).

Next up was a representative from the Philadelphia Tower. I found this portion a bit more interesting, however, this was a review of communications for VFR and IFR operations. If you paid attention to your PPL instructor you should already know this stuff.

One tip that was provided for VFR traffic since the question was asked about a VFR corridor. A simple look at the sectional will clearly show that there is NO VFR corridor in the Philly Bravo space. The tower rep did recommend asking for a 4,500 transition VFR since that would put you between the regionals below and the larger jets over top. Hmmm, I'll just file IFR, thanks.

BLMike from AOPA forums reminded me of the squawk code info Philly provided. "The PHL controller there said that Philly does not expect you to read back the squawk code they give you. They'll tell you if you entered it wrong in your transponder. This is important because one of the big problems Philly has is space on the radio frequency because of the amount of traffic trying to get a word in edgewise."