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Military Operating Areas and What They Mean to YOU
If you don’t want to read this entire piece, please just scroll down and read the last paragraph – it could save your life.
Alright, how many of you have ever flown through an active MOA while you were IFR? Most likely none of you have because ATC keeps you away from them while they are active (by active I mean military aircraft training in progress). How about while you were VFR? My guess is that if there’s a MOA near you, you’ve been through it and you were completely legal the entire time too. Did you feel safe?
When I was a student at Purdue University I flew several cross countries to airports that had military aircraft. To get there I flew through many MOAs and never thought twice about it. I was taught that if you were VFR it was okay to go wherever you wanted, pretty much.
Now that I’m in the Air Force I know what happens in the MOA. Guess what, when I rent a small plane to fly home I find out when the MOAs enroute will be active, what altitudes they range and then I AVOID THEM anyways. In the MOA here at Columbus, MS you may see only a couple MOAs on your sectional – we divide those into over 40 areas for ourselves. That means we normally have at least 50-60 aircraft airborne in those areas.
Did you know that a T-38 begins a loop at 500 KIAS and it takes approximately 10,000’ to complete? That means in a MOA that goes from 8,000’ to 22,000’ a T-38 usually starts the loop at 10,000’, but will sometimes dip down to gain airspeed. Did you further know that we also can do loops during formation maneuvering – that means one airplane doing a loop right behind another airplane. When I’m flying my loop trying to follow another airplane at 500 KIAS do you think I’m looking around for a C-172 in my MOA? NO WAY! I’ve got to keep my eyes on the other T-38 to make sure I don’t hit them.
Okay, so you know a little of what goes on with a T-38. How about F-16s, F-15s, they will almost always be in some type of formation – that means if you see one, there’s another one nearby – and they’re not necessarily looking for you either.
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