Mention the Next Generational Air Transportation System to pilots and the first thing that comes to mind is money and the pain resulting from complex changes. If you’re a GA flyer, add unkind words for the airlines, the primary beneficiary of the satellite-based NextGen system.
Or are they? Numerous articles have recently floated the idea that NextGen systems could reopen the runways at historic Floyd Bennett Field (that’s FBF on the left), across Jamaica Bay and 5 miles from JFK. This opportunity, and what it means to general aviators nationwide was a cold slap that screamed SNAP OUT OF IT, breaking the endless circle of cynicism and despair stemming from the inconvenience of change that NextGen represents.
Nationwide, there are hundreds of airports like FBF, buried under Class B airspace that, one way or another, inconveniences, limits, restricts, or shuts down their operations. There are 119 such airports under the inverted airspace wedding cake pounded into DFW.
It just so happens that the FAA’s NextGen team is, this year, working to streamline approaches and departures in the DFW metroplex. The FAA’s goal is to “deconflict” 21 such areas by 2016. Next up are Atlanta, Houston, Southern and Northern California, and Charlotte. And they are going to do it by putting airliners on narrow, satellite-defined tracks. They are already in place at JFK, and in time more airliners and their crews will be capable of using them. That gives GA flyers some more breathing room, and surely is a benefit due to NextGen.
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