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VANCOUVER: Forget about showing-off your model airplane or model rocket to Olympic visitors in 2010.
Don’t plan to use your parachute, hang-glider, balloon or blimp for almost two months. All crop-dusting and banner advertising flights are also grounded while the Olympic and Paralympic villages are open.
Those are among the airspace restrictions for a vast, figure eight-shaped area in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington state. The restrictions -- issued July 2 by NAV Canada and July 6 by the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration -- run Jan. 29 to March 24, 2010.
The "eight" is actually two conjoined “Olympic rings” within a 30 nautical mile radius of Vancouver International Airport and the Whistler athletes village. All airports, heliports and floatplane bases from Pemberton, north of Whistler, south to Meadow Mist, near Ferndale, Wash., are included. The restrictions even impact Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
Within the rings are three control areas and inside those are seven restricted zones. Operations are limited to emergency, security and authorized essential service and media aircraft. Where scheduled, commercial flights are allowed, point-to-point operations must be specified in flight plans.
The restricted zones are over all competition and training venues and villages for security and public safety reasons, including potential aircraft failure or airspace capacity issues. All persons, including passengers, must be screened. Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, the RCMP-led Olympic security force, will register crews and authorize flights on an individual mission basis.
NAV Canada is expecting 500 to 600 “non-scheduled aircraft movements” that could exceed runway, parking, fueling, deicing and customs facilities on peak days. To prevent air and tarmac traffic jams, reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis for Vancouver, Abbotsford, Boundary Bay and Victoria airports beginning Sept. 15.
The airspace restriction documents do not include a schedule for anticipated region-wide airspace closures for opening and closing nights of the Games. Major airports closed during ceremonies at the start and finish of the Salt Lake 2002 and Torino 2006 Games as a security precaution. Updates closer to the 2010 Games, in the form of NOTAMS or notices to airmen, are expected.