Class Delta Confusion

In class delta airspace, does air traffic control ensure separation between IFR and VFR traffic? The answer is no. Curiously enough 75% of private pilots and 70% of airline transport pilots believe it is not their responsibility. A survey revealed this shocking numbers.

An airporx involving a Saaab 2000 and a military PC-7 occured on september 10th 2010. To read the final report No.2167, including the survey, download here.

I'd like to talk through some points.

Crews themselves are responsible, according to the principle of "see and be seen" (quote from the investigation). This applies to IFR and VFR. Whenever an IFR flight is out of cloud the pilots are responsible to avoid traffic. There is only very little difference to class echo: The minimum distance from clouds makes "see and be seen" possible. In delta airspace pilots will receive traffic information additionally - but no separation. To be precise, the tower will separate runway operations only.

Class delta control towers do not even need to be equipped with radar. Radar controllers are found in charlie and bravo airspaces. In bravo airspace VFR aircraft have to follow altitude and heading instructions thus no cloud distances need to be applied - class bravo is "remain clear of clouds" and separation to VFR and IFR aircraft is given by the controller. This is not the case in class delta. During my PPL I flew into Bellingham a few times and they did not have any radar. The airline pilots were looking out for me and I was looking out for them. The controller gave traffic advisory to both of us but otherwise it was the same story as in class echo.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

There's no need to quote and comment the whole investigation. All I want is to highlight this survey and it's conclusions.

Thanks for reading.