5.13. Competition for Land, Air, and Sea Spaces
The military manages or uses land, air, and sea space to accomplish testing,
training, and operational missions. These resources must be available and of
a sufficient size, cohesiveness, and quality to accommodate effective
training and testing. Military and civilian air and sea operations can
compete for limited air and sea space, especially when the usage areas are
in close proximity to each other. Use of this shared resource can impact
future growth in operations for all users.
The land, air, and sea spaces used by the military can be owned by the DOD,
designated for DOD use by a federal or state agency, provided through
easements or other agreements with public or private entities, or
maintained as a historic usage right. Public and private requests to share or
assume some of these resources may have a negative impact on military
training and test objectives.
Class D Airspace. Both Maxwell AFB and Montgomery Regional Airport have
Class D airspace surrounding them. Class D airspace encompasses an area
within a five‐nautical mile (NM) radius of the center of the airfield that
extends upward to 2,500 feet mean sea level (MSL). Given the proximity of
the airfields, there is not enough space to provide the full five‐NM radius,
because of the overlap in airspace for Maxwell AFB and Montgomery
Regional Airport. However, the FAA designs and individually tailors Cass D
airspace to be able to contain instrument procedures. Use of Class D
airspace requires the use of two‐way communication with Air Traffic
Control, which must be established prior to entering Class D airspace. No
transponder is required. VFR flights in Class D airspace must have three
miles of visibility, and fly an altitude of at least 500 feet below, 1,000 feet
above, and 2,000 feet laterally from clouds.
Issue Assessment
Key Terms
ISSUE
LAS‐1
General Aviation. General aviation is defined as aviation activity that is not
commercial or military. This term typically covers all civil aviation operations
other than scheduled air services and non‐scheduled air transport
operations for hire.
Controlled and Uncontrolled Airspace Descriptions
To help air traffic controllers and pilots manage varying traffic conditions in
the sky, United States airspace is divided into six different classes (A, B, C, D,
E, and G). These classes each have different requirements for entry into the
airspace, pilot qualifications, radio and transponder equipment, and Visual
Flight Rules (VFR) weather minimums.
June 2017
Competition for Airspace
There is an overlap of operational areas between
Montgomery Regional Airport and Maxwell AFB. This creates
competition for local airspace between military and civilian
aviation operations.
Maxwell AFB is located approximately five NM north of Montgomery
Regional Airport‐Dannelly Field, which creates an overlap of operational
areas within the Class D airspace. Due to the proximity of the airport to the
Base, air operations are coordinated through the FAA and all flight paths into
Background Report
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