[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 161 (Monday, August 21, 2006)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 48495-48496]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-7063]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

14 CFR Part 71

[Docket No. FAA-2006-24878; Airspace Docket No. 06-AWP-4]
RIN 2120-AA66


Proposed Revision of Class E Airspace; Mountain Home, ID

AGENCY Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION:  Notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: This action proposes to revise Class E airspace at Mountain 
Home, ID, beginning at 1,200 feet above ground level (AGL), replacing 
the existing Class G uncontrolled airspace. This airspace action will 
accommodate the terminal environment transition between Salt Lake Air 
Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) and Mountain Home AFB Radar 
Approach Control (RAPCON) by placing aircraft in controlled airspace 
during the transfer of aircraft radar identification between the 
facilities. In addition, a review of the legal description revealed 
that it does not reflect the correct airport reference point (ARP) of 
Mountain Home Municipal Airport and geographic position of the Sturgeon 
Non-Directional Beacon (NDB). This action will correct those minor 
discrepancies.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 5, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Send comments on this proposal to the Docket Management 
System, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room Plaza 401, 400 Seventh 
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. You must identify the docket 
number FAA-2006-24878; Airspace Docket No. 06-AWP-4, at the beginning 
of your comments. You may also submit comments on the Internet at 
http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Francie Hope, Airspace Specialist, 
Western Terminal Service Area, Federal Aviation Administration, 15000 
Aviation Boulevard, Lawndale, California 90261; telephone (310) 725-
6502.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Comments Invited

    Interested parties are invited to participate in this proposed 
rulemaking by submitting such written data, views or arguments as they 
may desire. Comments that provide the factual basis supporting the 
views and suggestions presented are particularly helpful in developing 
reasoned regulatory decisions on the proposal. Comments are 
specifically invited on the overall regulatory, aeronautical, economic, 
environmental, and energy-related aspects of the proposal.
    Communications should identify both docket numbers (FAA Docket No. 
FAA-2006-24878 and Airspace Docket No. 06-AWP-4) and be submitted in 
triplicate to the Docket Management System (see ADDRESSES section for 
address and phone number). You may also submit comments through the 
Internet at http://dms.dot.gov.
    Commenters wishing the FAA to acknowledge receipt of their comments 
on this action must submit with those comments a self-addressed, 
stamped postcard on which the following statement is made: ``Comments 
to FAA Docket No. FAA-2006-24878 and Airspace Docket No. 06-AWP-4.'' 
The postcard will be date/time stamped and returned to the commenter.
    All communications received on or before the specified closing date 
for comments will be considered before taking action on the proposed 
rule. The proposal contained in this action may be changed in light of 
the comment received. All comments submitted will be available for 
examination in the public docket both before and after the closing date 
for comments. A report summarizing each substantive public contact with 
FAA personnel concerned with this rulemaking will be filed in the 
docket.

Availability of NPRMs

    An electronic copy of this document may be downloaded through the 
Internet at http://dms.dot.gov. Recently published rulemaking documents 
can also be accessed through the FAA's Web page at http://www.faa.gov, 
or the Federal Register's Web page at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html.
    You may review the public docket containing the proposal, any 
comments received, and any final disposition in person in the Dockets 
Office (see ADDRESSES section for address and phone number) between 9 
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except

[[Page 48496]]

Federal holidays. An informal docket may also be examined during normal 
business hours at the office of the Western Terminal Service Area, 
Federal Aviation Administration, 15000 Aviation Boulevard, Lawndale, 
California 90261.
    Persons interested in being placed on a mailing list for future 
NPRM's should contact the FAA's Office of Rulemaking, (202) 267-9677, a 
copy of Advisory Circular No. 11-2A, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 
Distribution System, which describes the application procedure.

Background

    Mountain Home AFB RAPCON works daily with Salt Lake ARTCC, 
transferring traffic between the facilities' airspace areas. The 
RAPCON's airspace has been charted into the ARTCC mapping file 
structure and extended to join with the Owyhee MOA boundary to the 
southwest of Mountain Home AFB. This wedge of airspace is outside the 
current 40 DME arc from the Mountain Home TACAN which accommodated the 
former approach control boundary to the southwest. The 46 DME arc 
brings that wedge into Class E airspace and is a fluid transition from 
adjoining Class E airspace along V113 to the southwest and around to 
V253 to the southeast, incorporating the northern portion of the 
Jarbridge MOA, accommodating the terminal environment transition and 
making control procedures more operationally efficient.

The Proposal

    The FAA is proposing an amendment to Title 14 Code of Federal 
Regulations (14 CFR) part 71 to revise the Class E airspace area with a 
base altitude of 1,200 feet AGL in the vicinity of Mountain Home AFB, 
ID. Class E airspace is used to transition to and from the terminal or 
enroute environment, allowing a buffer for arriving and departing IFR 
aircraft from uncontrolled to controlled airspace. A review of the 
airspace in southern Idaho revealed a large area of uncontrolled (Glass 
G) airspace immediately adjacent to the (controlled) Class E airspace 
currently utilized by Mountain Home AFB RAPCON. Because this airspace 
is Class G below 14,500 feet mean sea level (MSL), Mountain Home AFB 
RAPCON does not have the authority to initiate IFR (Instrument Flight 
Rules) control instructions and vector aircraft transferred to them 
from Salt Lake ARTCC. IFR operations can take place in Class G, but the 
ability of the approach control to provide vectors, as an example, 
should not happen until within the confines of the approach control 
delegated airspace. The 46 DME arc provides for this buffer where 
transition from Class G to E can take place (arrival or departure), and 
allows the approach control in question to provide that vector within 
Class E. The Mountain Home AFB RAPCON airspace extends only to the 40 
DME arc, and therefore, has no safe buffer currently established.
    The proposed airspace revision incorporates into Class E airspace 
that portion of Mountain Home AFB RAPCON delegated airspace that was 
extended to join with the Owyhee MOA boundary to the Southwest of 
Mountain Home AFB. This wedge of airspace is outside the current 40 DME 
arc from the Mountain Home TACAN, which accommodated the former 
approach control boundary to the southwest.
    In addition, the 6500 feet MSL Class E airspace to the southeast 
within the Jarbridge Military Operations Area (MOA) will be 
incorporated into this 1200 foot AGL Class E airspace. Neither Mountain 
Home AFB RAPCON nor Salt Lake ARTCC utilize this airspace at 6500 feet 
MSL, and containing it at 1200 feet AGL will allow Mountain Home AFB 
RAPCON to vector aircraft to Jarbridge MOA at lower altitudes.
    Class E enroute domestic airspace areas are published in Paragraph 
6005 of FAA Order 7400.9N dated September 1, 2005, and effective 
September 15, 2005, which is incorporated by reference in 14 CFR 71.1. 
The Class E airspace designation listed in this document would be 
published subsequently in this Order.

List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 71

    Airspace, Incorporation by reference, Navigation (air).

The Proposed Amendment

    Accordingly, pursuant to the authority delegated to me, the Federal 
Aviation Administration proposes to amend 14 CFR part 71 as follows:

PART 71--DESIGNATION OF CLASS A, B, C, D, AND E AIRSPACE AREAS; 
AIRWAYS; ROUTES; AND REPORTING POINTS

    1. The authority citation for part 71 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 106(g); 40103, 40113, 40120; E.O. 10854, 24 
FR 9565, 3 CFR, 1959-1963 Comp., 389.


Sec.  71.1  [Amended]

    2. The incorporation by reference in 14 CFR 71.1 of Federal 
Aviation Administration Order 7400.9N, Airspace Designations and 
Reporting Points, dated September 1, 2005, and effective September 15, 
2005, is amended as follows:

Paragraph 6005 Class E Airspace Areas Extending Upward from 700 
Feet or More Above the Surface of the Earth.

* * * * *

ANM ID E5 Mountain Home, ID [Revised]

Mountain Home AFB, ID
    (Lat. 43[deg]02'37'' N., long. 115[deg]52'21'' W.)
Mountain Home TACAN
    (Lat. 43[deg]02'26'' N., long. 115[deg]52'28'' W.)
Mountain Home Municipal Airport
    (Lat. 43[deg]07'53'' N., long. 115[deg]43'47'' W.)
Sturgeon NDB
    (Lat. 43[deg]06'48'' N., long. 115[deg]39'31'' W.)
    That airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface 
within 8.7 miles northeast and 7.9 miles southwest of the Mountain 
Home AFB Tacan 135[deg] and 315[deg] radials extending from 15.7 
miles southeast to 15.7 miles northwest of the TACAN, and within a 
7.4-mile radius of the Mountain Home Municipal Airport, thence 
extending east of the radius 3.1 miles each side of the Sturgeon NDB 
112[deg] bearing to 7.4 miles east of Sturgeon NDB; that airspace 
extending upward from 1,200 feet above the surface bounded on the 
northeast by the southwest edge of V-253; to long. 115[deg] 00'11'' 
W.; south to lat. 42[deg]24'00'' N.; east to lat. 42[deg]24'08'' N., 
long. 115[deg]18'09'' W.; thence on the southeast, south, and west 
by a 46.0-mile radius of Mountain Home AFB; on the west by the 
southeast edge of V-113; northeast to the southwest edge of V-253.
* * * * *

    Issued in Los Angeles, California, on August 7, 2006.
Leonard A. Mobley,
Acting Director, Western Terminal Operations.
[FR Doc. 06-7063 Filed 8-18-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-M