Question for ATC

[ATCER]

I've already seen some RVSM action domestically. While over land in the US, I've crossed 1000 above or below other traffic in the Boston, New York, and Washington Centers after both my aircraft and the other traffic were queried about RVSM equipment and qualification. This has been happening for several months. Guess it depends on what sector you're in, and whether the controller has been trained and the equipment has been updated.

DRVSM should be interesting... we have been using RVSM in Oceanic Airspace for some time, I think since 2000, maybe 2001. Not sure on the exact date... what's amazing is that when we started using it you thought, hey... I have twice as many altitudes... now a few years later we are out of altitudes over the ocean on busy days and ya say ... "how did I do this without RVSM ???" LOL...

Radar sectors that border Oceanic airspace have waivers to operate RVSM, they transition the traffic to and from oceanic. This covers all the centers on the east coast (ZBW, ZNY, ZDC, ZJX, ZMA). They also run traffic on the AR routes, VS routes, etc RVSM. The offshore radar routes are also RVSM, if any of you guys have been rerouted out over AZEZU (from NY metro) during swap to get to points south, that is all RVSM airspace, you must be /W or /Q to fly out there.

I think 01/20/2005 is the date to start DRVSM, that is just from memory... don't quote me on that.

Also, there's no freakin way they're going to be able to use RVSM with much regularity over the Rockies with all the dang mountain wave out there.

Maybe not... in Oceanic if there is a report of Mod Tub then RVSM is suspended on that route UFN...

 

[ATCER]

Speaking of airspace congestion, is everyone ready for Nightmare '05 when DRVSM is implemented?

It's going to be REALLY crowded below FL290 with all the procrastinators who didn't get their planes fixed in time!

Yea... I think the smaller guys will be hit the hardest. Have the RJ's in your fleet been updated ??? I see that a lot of the big boys (mainline) stuff has been updated, during swap when they go offshore they are all RVSM.

 

[EagleRJ]

I have no idea if the RJs are being upgraded now. This company isn't exactly known for its communicAAtion skills with labor groups. The avionics are new enough that it shouldn't be too difficult or expensive to do.

The last DRVSM news I read about upgrading the GA fleet was that avionics shops aren't seeing very many planes coming in to be upgraded, and they no longer have the capacity to do the remaining planes before 1/20/05. There are bound to be some some unhappy owners with high fuel flows and bumpy rides in the spring!