Is it safe to fly through a Military Operations Area (MOA)? It depends.

A pilot named Drew recently asked me if I had any advice about how to contact ATC to check the status of a MOA. Here’s what I told him.

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Yankee 1 and 2 are controlled by Boston Center.

Aeronautical Information Manual

3−4−5. Military Operations Areas

c. Pilots operating under VFR should exercise extreme caution while flying within a MOA when military activity is being conducted. The activity status (active/inactive) of MOAs may change frequently. . . Prior to entering an active MOA, pilots should contact the controlling agency for traffic advisories.

d. MOAs are depicted on sectional, VFR Terminal Area, and Enroute Low Altitude charts.

Update. 11 January 2017

An Example Supporting the FAA’s Guidelines on Use of Call Sign

via email set on 5 Jan.:

“Hi Jeff,

I wanted to weigh in on the debate about whether or not to include your make and model in an abbreviated callsign. Just the other day, I was inbound to Palo Alto tower, and there was another aircraft in the pattern with a very similar sounding callsign. The only thing that saved us from getting confused was that he was in a Skyhawk and I was in a Cherokee. It’s a good thing, since at one point I was #2 for landing and he was #1. Including the model in my callsign may very well have saved me from making a bad mistake.

So my vote would be to keep the make and/or model.

Thanks, Ian”

Your Question of the Week

When flying VFR, and using ATC’s radar advisory service, otherwise known as flight following, you are free to change altitudes at will. A controller will remind you altitude changes are at your discretion as long as you advise the controller before changing altitudes. Here’s your question. Under what circumstances can a controller restrict your altitude even though you are flying VFR? When you think you know the answer to that question, go to ATCcommunication.com/answers. There you will find the answer to this question along with a complete explanation of how that answer was derived.