Canadian Airspace Question

[tombuch 0]

Are their any Canadian jump pilots (or jumpers in the know) who can answer a few questions about Alert areas in Canada, specifically how it is determined if a DZ will be covered by an alert area and depicted on the sectional in a hashed circle, or just marked with a magenta parachute symbol. Also, what are the CYA designations (T) and (F) for?

Tom Buchanan
Instructor Emeritus
Comm Pilot MSEL,G
Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

[AdD 1]

I'm not completely sure about this but I don't think there was any marking on the maps which specified our airport as a dropzone, there was only the normal boundary to designate the airport. The dropzone operations were specified in the Nav Canada NOTAMS, but there was no parachute symbol on the mao that I recall.

Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

[riggerrob 643]

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I'm not completely sure about this but I don't think there was any marking on the maps which specified our airport as a dropzone, there was only the normal boundary to designate the airport. The dropzone operations were specified in the Nav Canada NOTAMS, but there was no parachute symbol on the mao that I recall.

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All Canadian DZs should be marked - on maps - with little magenta parachutes.
Sounds like Transport Canada is slow in up-dating maps after your DZ's recent move.
Canadian DZs are normally marked by little magenta parachute symbols.
Canadian DZs used to be considered Class F Airspace, but now skydiving is considered a "normal" activity by Transport Canada.
Class F airspace is an ICAO designation not adopted by those silly Americans.

[riggerrob 643]

To quote: "From the Ground Up":

"Class F Airspace
is an airspace of defined dimensions within which activities must be confined and because of their nature and within which limitations may be imposed on aircraft that are not part of those activities.

Class F airspace may be classified as advisory or restricted.

When Class F airspace is inactive, they assume the rules of the appropriate surrounding airspace.

All designated Class F airspace is published in HI and LO charts and on VFR aeronautical charts. Each restricted and advisory area within Canada has been assigned an identification code group which consists of (1) nationality letters CY, (2) the letter A for advisory or the letter F for restricted (or the letter D for danger area if the restricted area is over international waters), (3) a three digit number which identifies the area, the first digit of the number identifying the geographic area of Canada in which the restricted or advisory area is situated (e.g. 1 for BC, 2 for Alta, 3 for Sask, etc.) and (4) in the case of advisory areas, a letter in brackets which indicates the type of activity within the area: (A) aerobatics, (F) aircraft test area, (H) hang gliding, (M) military operations, (P) parachuting, (S) soaring, (T) training. Thus an area coded CYA 511(T) denotes training activity in advisory area 511 in Ontario, Canada."

And DZs are normally marked on charts by little magenta parachutes.

[pchapman 279]

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how it is determined if a DZ will be covered by an alert area and depicted on the sectional in a hashed circle, or just marked with a magenta parachute symbol.

Messy stuff -- I'll ramble here with some info:

How the decision is made on what to show is a bit of a mystery. Sometimes it seems to take a couple years for a DZ to show up on Canadian charts with a parachute symbol.

Update cycles are for each chart here in Canada: they seem to be updated whenever enough changes have occurred, rather than on some strict cycle, as I think US charts are, which always used to show a date when they are obsolete. Still, I have sometimes looked at a newly issued chart and been surprised that a DZ that has been in operation for over a year hasn't been put on the map yet. (The US probably gets access to the source data -- I wonder if the faster issue cycle means that US charts will show Canadian airspace changes faster than the Canadian charts will show it??)

Most DZ's have both the parachute symbol and an alert area, but some have no alert area. A very few have not shown up at all.

Examples:
- Skydive Toronto is opening up a new location at Cookstown Ontario. It is in very occasional use but not full time use since the main operations are still at its old location approx. 25 miles away. The new site has the parachute symbol already, as well as an alert area.
The alert area goes to only 4500' because of the amount of air traffic around. IFR flights are not normally routed through CYA alert areas, so air traffic services (provided by the privatized NavCan corporation) didn't want to approve any higher. Jumping of course goes up higher but the jump pilots have to coordinate with ATS.

- Skydive Toronto's current / old location used to have an alert area and parachute symbol. Now it only has the parachute symbol, as it was agreed with NavCan to cancel the alert area pending the change in location -- but for the moment full time operations continue there. So it just means that the pilots have to call in & talk to air traffic services at a lower altitude than before. (This knowledge is from working / jumping at Skydive Toronto.)

- The old Parachute School of Toronto operated for many years out of Arthur, Ontario. The DZ changed owners and was reconstituted as an entirely new operation at another location maybe 4 years ago. The grass airstrip on the old property has disappeared; it looks from the air like it has reverted to farmland. Yet the current US & Cdn charts still show the parachute symbol and alert area.

- Skydive SWOOP in southern ontario operates out of a small private strip in a busy area of VFR traffic, and has for the last 5+ years, but doesn't show up at all. Not even the airstrip is shown. That's an unusual situation.

NOTAMs are naturally used for day to day changes in activity, but we all know it is maps which are what VFR pilots look at the most.

So whether an alert area is created depends on negotiations between the DZ and air traffic services. I don't know what internal rules Transport Canada and NavCan have, but there there seems to be no simple formula apparent to an outsider.

Note that the US sectionals use magenta for the parachute symbol while the Canadian equivalent, the 'VFR Navigation Charts' use blue markings. The Canadian charts show the altitude to which alert areas go - very sensible - but the US ones don't seem to for Canadian airspace, I suppose since it isn't their primary area of responsibility.

I'm a skydiver and licenced pilot, but not a jump pilot and not really current in all the rules and regs.

[tombuch 0]

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Note that the US sectionals use magenta for the parachute symbol while the Canadian equivalent, the 'VFR Navigation Charts' use blue markings. The Canadian charts show the altitude to which alert areas go - very sensible - but the US ones don't seem to for Canadian airspace, I suppose since it isn't their primary area of responsibility.

Thanks for your reply.

The depictions of specific Canadian drop zones sounds like a mess, probably because there is not a consistent means of updating the information at the database level, a serious problem here in the USA as well.

I checked my US issued Montreal sectional, and altitudes for Canadian drop zones are included on the back of the cover page in a tab section that lists all the special use airspace. That's the way all US charts list effective altitudes. My Canadian issued Enroute Low Altitude (LO6/LO5) shows the active altitudes on the chart view at each piece of special use airspace, a much more logical presentation.

I think US charts switched from blue to magenta ink for drop zones, gliders, and hang gliders, following a collision between a jumper and aircraft many years ago. It was a well intentioned, but ineffective improvement.

Tom Buchanan
Instructor Emeritus
Comm Pilot MSEL,G
Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy