SID Busts
See if you can spot the difference between these two clearances:
"ATC clears Tartan 150 to the Toronto Pearson airport via the Halifax 3 departure, flight planned route, squawk 3101."
"ATC clears Tartan 150 to the Toronto Pearson airport via the Saint John 2 departure, flight planned route, squawk 3101."
The SID is the big difference, right? Wrong. Checking the SID plates, they are both worded the same way, "ALL RWYS: Climb runway heading for radar vectors, maintain 5,000 or as assigned." Care to guess again?
The big difference is that the Halifax 3 departure is rarely busted, and the Saint John 2 departure is frequently busted. For some reason, aircraft departing Saint John, Fredericton and Charlottetown depart frequently with SIDs from these airports and immediate make a turn on course and break through 5,000 in the climb. The persistent theory includes the fact that these airports are uncontrolled, but as mentioned in the previous posts, this only means no control tower in operation. There is still controlled airspace to the ground at these places. It is a mindset issue at these FSS-served airports? Pilots I've spoken with off the radio are at a loss to explain why this occurs. Other airports with SIDs which are not equipped with control towers don't seem to have the issue, either. Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them.
"ATC clears Tartan 150 to the Toronto Pearson airport via the Halifax 3 departure, flight planned route, squawk 3101."
"ATC clears Tartan 150 to the Toronto Pearson airport via the Saint John 2 departure, flight planned route, squawk 3101."
The SID is the big difference, right? Wrong. Checking the SID plates, they are both worded the same way, "ALL RWYS: Climb runway heading for radar vectors, maintain 5,000 or as assigned." Care to guess again?
The big difference is that the Halifax 3 departure is rarely busted, and the Saint John 2 departure is frequently busted. For some reason, aircraft departing Saint John, Fredericton and Charlottetown depart frequently with SIDs from these airports and immediate make a turn on course and break through 5,000 in the climb. The persistent theory includes the fact that these airports are uncontrolled, but as mentioned in the previous posts, this only means no control tower in operation. There is still controlled airspace to the ground at these places. It is a mindset issue at these FSS-served airports? Pilots I've spoken with off the radio are at a loss to explain why this occurs. Other airports with SIDs which are not equipped with control towers don't seem to have the issue, either. Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them.
posted by Michael at
08:27
