Terminal Radar Service Areas

Frogs97

Frogs97

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Frogs97
I was doing some XC planning practice morning, because it's much more fun than the performance evaluations I was supposed to be doing. One of my plans took me up into the Ft. Smith, AR area. Ft. Smith is a Class D airport, but it has the TSRA rings around it. How are you supposed to handle that? It has a shelf and a ceiling like B or C airspace, and when I look in the AFD, it lists Tower, Approach, Departure, and Clearance. Do you essentially treat it as a B or C airport.

I expect I would have FF, anyways, and they would just tell me who to call and when. But it still made me wonder.
 
Frogs97 said:
I was doing some XC planning practice morning, because it's much more fun than the performance evaluations I was supposed to be doing. One of my plans took me up into the Ft. Smith, AR area. Ft. Smith is a Class D airport, but it has the TSRA rings around it. How are you supposed to handle that? It has a shelf and a ceiling like B or C airspace, and when I look in the AFD, it lists Tower, Approach, Departure, and Clearance. Do you essentially treat it as a B or C airport.

I expect I would have FF, anyways, and they would just tell me who to call and when. But it still made me wonder.
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If you essentially treat it like Class C airspace you'll be fine.
 
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The TRSA is a remnant of the old US airspace system. Practically speaking the only difference with Class C is that you can tell them you don't want radar services. Unless for some reason, you don't like the assist of ATC, treat it as you would Class C and you will be fine.

For more info, start by reading AIM 3-5-6.
 
If you are intending to land at the airport in the center of the TRSA, you're usually well advised to participate even if it isn't mandatory. Otherwise you can cruise through it (and outside of the class D in the middle) at your own peril.
 
midlifeflyer said:
The TRSA is a remnant of the old US airspace system. Practically speaking the only difference with Class C is that you can tell them you don't want radar services.
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Just keep in mind that they have the power to punish you if you try to get around talking to Approach on your way in. Harrisburg PA is notorious for that -- if you skip Approach and call Tower from just outside the D-space, they may sequence you behind the last aircraft already talking to Approach, which might be 20 miles behind you.
 
Ron Levy said:
Just keep in mind that they have the power to punish you if you try to get around talking to Approach on your way in. Harrisburg PA is notorious for that -- if you skip Approach and call Tower from just outside the D-space, they may sequence you behind the last aircraft already talking to Approach, which might be 20 miles behind you.
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Yeah, what Ron said. Those people in Harrisburg have a seriously elevated sense of self, no sense of humor, and delusions of adequacy. Treat them like you would your crazy Aunt Hilda.
 
Shepherd said:
Yeah, what Ron said. Those people in Harrisburg have a seriously elevated sense of self, no sense of humor, and delusions of adequacy. Treat them like you would your crazy Aunt Hilda.
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Except your Aunt Hilda probably can't punish you for disregarding her requests (unless she has a lot of money and you are in her will).
 
The Fort Smith guys were pretty cool. You can treat it as a Class D or a Class C if you want flight following. Your choice.
 
I learned to fly in Colorado. We don't have a lot of TRSA's near us here. I decided as a relatively freshly minted Sport Pilot at the time to do a little cross country from CO to FL. My first overnight just happened to be at Ft Smith. I thought the same thing as you did. I had read about TRSA's in my training and noticed they have an approach freq, so I called it as I approached, the same as I would with a class C and it worked out great. The only trick is that they use Razorback Approach as the callsign vice Ft Smith. It is also apparently a training facility for FAA controllers. In any case, they provided excellent service and the FBO there was just outstanding.

Carl
 
Ron Levy said:
Just keep in mind that they have the power to punish you if you try to get around talking to Approach on your way in. Harrisburg PA is notorious for that -- if you skip Approach and call Tower from just outside the D-space, they may sequence you behind the last aircraft already talking to Approach, which might be 20 miles behind you.
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I try to keep in mind there are always consequences to choices.
 
For transitions, I'd consider it optional, but if you're landing at the field around which the TRSA is based and there's any other participating traffic, it would probably work out better if you talk to approach first. That way, your sequence is sorted out prior to calling the tower.
 
Frogs97 said:
I was doing some XC planning practice morning, because it's much more fun than the performance evaluations I was supposed to be doing. One of my plans took me up into the Ft. Smith, AR area. Ft. Smith is a Class D airport, but it has the TSRA rings around it. How are you supposed to handle that? It has a shelf and a ceiling like B or C airspace, and when I look in the AFD, it lists Tower, Approach, Departure, and Clearance. Do you essentially treat it as a B or C airport.

I expect I would have FF, anyways, and they would just tell me who to call and when. But it still made me wonder.
Click to expand...

Fort Smith is extremely laid back. The reason for the TRSA hold over was because our ANG wing was based there. Since we lost our air wing last year, the airspace has become very quite. I'd still confirm if the restricted areas surrounding the airfield are "cold".
 
We used to say 'negative stage 3' to decline services in the trsa, but that was in the 1980s pre airspace reconfiguring. Remember it because I had no idea what stage 1 and 2 were...
 
ClimbnSink said:
We used to say 'negative stage 3' to decline services in the trsa, but that was in the 1980s pre airspace reconfiguring. Remember it because I had no idea what stage 1 and 2 were...
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This piece of quaint history is still aluded to in the AIM:

NOTE-
When the stage services were developed, two basic radar services (traffic advisories and limited vectoring) were identified as “Stage I.” This definition became unnecessary and the term “Stage I” was eliminated from use. The term “Stage II” has been eliminated in conjunction with the airspace reclassification, and sequencing services to locations with local procedures and/or letters of agreement to provide this service have been included in basic services to VFR aircraft. These basic services will still be provided by all terminal radar facilities whether they include Class B, Class C, Class D or Class E airspace. “Stage III” services have been replaced with “Class B” and “TRSA” service where applicable.​

Stage I was traffic advisories and vectors for VFR traffic on a workload permitting basis.
Stage II was Stage I + sequencing
Stage III was Stage II + separation services from IFR and participating VFR.

they're pretty much all obsolete.

My favorite is pilots asking to "Cancel VFR" to which I once heard a controller asking if that was some odd way of requesting an IFR clearance.
 
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Ron Levy said:
Except your Aunt Hilda probably can't punish you for disregarding her requests (unless she has a lot of money and you are in her will).
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Too true, Ron. I had a run in with them this spring. Only the fact that everything was recorded, and proved I was right, kept me out of the frying pan. But they tried anyway.
 
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