Air to Ground
Special Traffic Management Programs
You’ve got the plane warmed up, and you pulled weather off of the computer. It is supposed to be a beautiful sunny day with no adverse conditions. So you hop in your Bonanza and fly up to Eagle, Colorado eager to schuss your way down a mountain. Then you call the tower – and they refuse to let you land! Unfortunately, a lot of pilots do not realize that most of the ski airports around the country require reservations during certain times of the year. This is also the case for those airports supporting large sporting events such as the World Series, the Masters Tournament, college bowl games, and the Superbowl. STMP’s are sometimes issued for airports serving events like the Sturgis motorcycle rally, or large airshows and fly-ins. (DUH)
If the event is taking place near a city, not only the major airport, but all the surrounding smaller airports may be included in the STMP program. So if you are heading to Indianapolis for the Indy 500, do not assume that you can land at Greenwood (HFY), or Eagle Creek (EYE) without an STMP reservation! Though most large airports have daily traffic management procedures, the Special Traffic Management Programs or STMP’s are implemented when a special need exists. Let’s go back to the ski areas. The Aspen (ASE), Eagle (EGE), and Rifle (RIL), Colorado airports, the Hailey/Sun Valley (SUN), and Twin Falls (TWF) airports of Idaho and the Jackson Hole (JAC) airport in Wyoming all serve the most popular ski resorts in the Rocky Mountains. These airports are not continuously busy year round, so ATC may be minimally represented. For instance, Rifle has no tower and Eagle has only a VFR tower in operation. But let the flakes start flying and all these airports start running out of parking space quickly. Believe it or not, that is one of the reasons for an STMP – ramp space. Frequently the ramps will be full at Eagle or Aspen, so only those aircraft dropping passengers off, then leaving quickly, will be allowed to land. STMP’s provide spacing for aircraft entering airports with difficult landing conditions – which in the case of Aspen, Eagle or Rifle can mean any time – even clear days. Toss in icy runways and a pilot will really enjoy knowing that he can take his time without being pressured by the guy behind him. Do you know when the ski areas are the busiest? Easter week. Mexico takes Easter very seriously – most of the businesses in the country close down for a week. As a result, hundreds of executive jets sporting an “X” in their tail number flock north for a last chance ski weekend before spring seriously sets in.
The current rules regarding STMPs are:
• Reservations can be obtained beginning 72 hours in advance of the
proposed operation.
• Reservations must be confirmed beginning 24 hours but no less than
12 hours prior to the proposed operation or the reservation will
be automatically canceled and made available to others seeking
slot reservations.
• Reservations obtained within 24 hours of the proposed operation
will be confirmed automatically.
• Only two reservations per request are authorized.
• Reservations may be made online or by phone.
Pilots should be prepared to provide their destination/departure airports, estimated date and time of arrival in UTC, call sign and type aircraft. You will be issued a preliminary reservation number, which will be changed to a confirmation number when you call back within 12 to 24 hours prior to your flight. You must include your confirmation number in the remarks section of your flight plan. If you cannot make the window of time you have reserved, you may have to deal with extensive airborne holding or a reroute to an alternate destination. Aircraft are expected to arrive within 10 minutes (+/-) of their filed ETA. The FAA requests that if you discover you cannot use a reservation, that you cancel it as soon as possible so another pilot may use it. Flight Service is not allowed to get reservations for you, but you can easily access the STMP information through the FAA’s website: http://www.fly.faa.gov/estmp/index.html. If you forget all that, just enter STMP into Google and it comes up at the top of the search list. If you still stubbornly refuse to enter the computer age, you can call for a reservation at 1-800-875-9755. The Aeronautical Information Manual has a section on how to use the telephone interface.
By Rose Marie Kern. Rose works at Lockheed Martin’s ABQ AFSS. If you’d like to ask Rose a question send her an email at solarranch@aceweb.com.