Coastal MOAs South Carolina / Georgia

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Kevin Holbrook

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I fly into KHXD a few times a year for vacation. I generally fly from the NW either IFR or VFR (generally with traffic advisories). I have not done any local flying in the area.

I have heard about the BBQ place at KSSI and am planning a flight down the coast for lunch. I also plan to visit some other areas inland. The sectional has boxes East and West of the cluster of MOAs with the legend "Coastal MOA Advisory Service VHF 119.225 1-800-229-2839."

Anyone familiar with how this works? Is it any different from requesting flight following / radar traffic advisories from civilian ATC?
 
Kevin Holbrook said:
I fly into KHXD a few times a year for vacation. I generally fly from the NW either IFR or VFR (generally with traffic advisories). I have not done any local flying in the area.

I have heard about the BBQ place at KSSI and am planning a flight down the coast for lunch. I also plan to visit some other areas inland. The sectional has boxes East and West of the cluster of MOAs with the legend "Coastal MOA Advisory Service VHF 119.225 1-800-229-2839."

Anyone familiar with how this works? Is it any different from requesting flight following / radar traffic advisories from civilian ATC?
Click to expand...

I dunno other than seeing as how it’s a phone number or frequency it’s probably just a place to find out what’s hot and what’s not. Kinda hard to get flight following/traffic advisories over the phone. If you are, they’ll know
 
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I've never used it. When I call for a briefing they will advise when/if they'll be hot or not. I also get the info on my iFly as part of the ADSB in. Here's another resource:

https://sua.faa.gov/sua/siteFrame.app

But like Doug suggested ... ring the phone and see what happens!
 
It is nice but not required that you avoid the MOAs. According to the AIM you could contact the controlling agency for traffic advisories if you do fly through one.
 
It only takes a minute to contact center and ask if the MOA is hot...if it is, you can remove your jacket .:)
 
OP here.

I made the phone call. The phone number is for flight planning purposes, they will provide info about operations for the next several hours. In the air, they offer real-time advisories via the frequency listed.

I agree that flight following / radar traffic advisories would provide the same information.
 
Flying from FL to VA I traverse these MOAs all the time. I’m always on flight following. If one is hot ATC will advise, and offer a vector or a VOR to avoid it. Once they even mentioned possibly cancelling flight following, presumably to allow me to blast on through.
Never really been an issue....but they are not uncommonly hot.
 
I know this is an old post, but just a heads up: the MOAs in this area (Savannah/Hilton Head) see plenty of action. That includes fighters, helos, predators, and the rest. In addition, there are some restricted areas tucked in amongst the MOAs west of I-95. If you fly low and slow, you're going to want to keep your head on a swivel for the helos. Having said all that, I fly VFR in the MOAs all the time and have never had an issue. The controllers are good about knowing what's up. If you're near KLHW, they can tell you immediately what's hot in their area (it's a shared military/civilian Class D). Hope you made it down to Southern Soul at KSSI. Great BBQ.
 
Sentry Savannah might have been going on (late April) when you went thru. Big annual exercise out of SAV. Beaufort MOAs aren’t active much but there’s still plenty of traffic in there that go back and forth to the Warning Areas. R3005 is pretty busy Mon-Fr day and night but it’s mostly 500 ft below helos.

Either way, I’d stick to the actual listed freq for the SUA vs an advisory freq. The controlling facility will have real-time traffic.
 
MOAs from the perspective of someone who has used them for their intended purpose: The aircraft training in a specific MOA will check-in and monitor the advisory frequency listed in Area Planning Guide and/or Sectional.
For example "Gator 61, flight of 2, BFM Beaufort 2 block altitude 12-18 thousand. Advise traffic in Beaufort 2." Then anyone else using that MOA will chime in with what they are doing and where. YMMV

After that check-in, it's game on. They may or may not see you in the tiny bug smasher traveling at approach speeds. This is more of a problem around the "primary" flight training areas. Pensacola, Columbus, San Antonio, Mother Rucker, etc... Again, YMMV
 
I look at the route of flight, see what space is along the track. Some areas are busier than others. When flying it’s good to have real time info, if hot or not. If not to far out of the way, can stay outside the edge, some may be above your altitude.

Just having FF takes care of most of it, watch for embedded restricted areas.
 
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