Best Practice – Pilot Briefing

• Ensure that pilot briefings include full details of civil airspace restrictions, with particular reference to commonly infringed airspace.
• Local rules vary between countries and additional restrictions may apply to airspace classifications. These should be fully briefed.
• Civil airspace or routes close to the military exercise areas should be highlighted in briefing materials.
• Regular infringement hotspots should be a particular focus of briefings.

Cost - Some extra time spent on mission briefings

Examples

In the Netherlands the Maastricht TMA has suffered from regular infringements as military aircraft transit East-West and West-East. A change of airspace to Class D and improved communication with the military has led to an improvement in the past year. Also, there are a number of military aircraft infringing the North Sea helicopter area as they drop below FL55 (the base of the military exercise area in that region) without coordination. Although the North Sea helicopter area is Class G there is a requirement for aircraft to call the FIS or for military aircraft to be coordinated and this does not always happen. In the UK military infringements have been addressed by giving briefing material to the squadrons who have included it in regular crew training.