Skip to main content

6.2 Legislative Acts

                49 U.S. Code § 40103.Sovereignty and use of airspace

       The United States Government has exclusive sovereignty of all airspace within the USA. This law is important because it is designed to do a couple of important things like keeping aviation safe and secure for all airline travelers, reducing illegal immigration, and protecting our airspace from foreign and unauthorized penetration.
        All US citizens have the right for transit through public airspace, but not all citizens have full operating rights within that airspace, for example, not just anyone is allowed to operate drones or airplanes in certain areas. Some spaces require Air Traffic Control authority for necessary operation. This law states the rights of citizens to utilize airspace while giving final authority to the US Government. 
        This law put away several theories US citizens had about who exactly owns what airspaces. Before air travel, they simply followed the rule of  "cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum et ad infernas." It translates to, " whoever owns the land owns everything above and below it." A looser grasp on airspace ownership was also put away as legislation created secure airspace in which our government and military may operate in order to continue keeping aviation safe.


References: 49 U.S. Code § 40103 - Sovereignty and use of airspace. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/40103
Cummings, J. (1956). Ownership and Control of Airspace. Marquette Law Review,27(2), 1-2. Retrieved from https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3130&context=mulr.
Cummings, J. (1956). Ownership and Control of Airspace. Marquette Law Review,27(2), 1-2. Retrieved from https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3130&context=mulr.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2.3 The Operating Environment and Aircraft Performance

    "The effects of encountering volcanic ash during flight."           Encountering volcanic ash in-flight has been known to have damaging effects on aircraft such as surface abrasion, and loss of pilot visibility. When ash is sucked into jet engines, it can melt and then re-solidify in cooler parts of the engine reducing the performance, and even causing engine stress.            It has been known also that volcanic ash can cause avionics and electrical equipment to fail. " Encounters of Aircraft with Volcanic Ash Clouds: A Compilation of Known Incidents, 1953-2009  documents 79 damaging  ash /aircraft encounters. Twenty-six of those involved significant to very severe aircraft damage, including nine encounters where engine failure occurred during the flight."    (Volcano Hazards Program, 2015)   Luckily, according to the NTSB , there have been no known plane crashes or fatalities recorded ...
Post a Comment
Read more

8.2 Air Traffic Control Entities

Tower Vs  Ground Control      During aircraft operations, the first 3 people a pilot talks to during a flight is the weather briefer, ground control, and tower. Ground control is a part of air traffic control, but they control the aircraft requesting taxi on the ground. Soon after landing and turning off the runway, the pilot holds short of the taxiway before switching radio frequencies to Ground Control. Everything after leaving the taxiway onto a runway and before turning off the runway is communicated with Tower.      Separating the two entities frees up radio space on the airport and provides more efficient separation by giving the controller only one area (ground or air) to focus on. Pilots must be in contact with ground control as soon as they cross the ATC line. This rule ensures that ATC is aware of every aircraft moving on the airport in high traffic areas. However, pilots do not have to be in contact with ATC while taxiing in hang...
Post a Comment
Read more

9.2 Weather Hazards

Weather Hazards      I believe tornadoes are the most dangerous weather condition to handle aircraft operations in. During a tornado, the primary focus around airports is where to put the aircraft so that they are not lifted from the ground and completely destroyed. All planes are quickly put in hangars or evacuated from the airport if possible. The updrafts caused by tornadoes are certain death for any unlucky pilot who happens to be in the air within a certain radius of the storm. Tornadoes are complete disasters for every airport they plow through, like a hurricane, only tornadoes can affect airports from all over the US.      In order for a tornado to form, certain conditions must be present. They most commonly form during violent thunderstorms, because thunderstorms provide sufficient instability, and there is wind shear in the lower atmosphere. Earth's weather occurs in the troposphere, and tornadoes cause the wind in the troposphere to violen...
Post a Comment
Read more