Goodbye SCATANA... Hello ESCATS

[jayleswo]

ANN reported today (see link to article below) that DoD, Transportation and Homeland Security are rolling out a new emergency response plan, replacing SCATANA, that places the military in charge of all airspace during an emergency and also places the military in charge of determine even if their is an emergency to begin with. CAP needs to figure out how this affects us, as our existing regulations do not address this new plan.

http://www.aero-news.net/news/commair.cfm?ContentBlockID=1c8e9dfe-efd6-4bb2-bc0e-2717fa755b9e&Dynamic=1

John Aylesworth, Lt Col, CAP
Commander, PCR-CA-151

[DNall]

1AF already had disaster airspace. just cleaning up the process since 1AF stood all the way up & Katrina affter action. Just place nice w/ 1AF is all CAP has to care about.

[KyCAP]

Although these are for much more complicated situations, working with AFRCC to declare airspace restrictions for even a small SAR is piece of cake.   I have declared a TFR personally in a airplane SAR in September to keep local helicopter traffic clear of a marginal VFR search area in some pretty nasty terrain here in Kentucky.  Called the duty officer and told him a center point, radius and altitude I wanted blocked off and why.   15 minutes later, Indy Center TRACON manager called me and said it will be effective in 15 more minutes.   Checked the FAA website for TFR and sure enough... it was there...  So, keep in mind, when you need it and it is justified even for small scale issues, use it to keep everyone safe in the grid....

Especially useful tool even as a veiled suggestion to keep News helicopters who want to "follow" your CAP aircraft in the grid for "footage"...... I used it as a reminder in another SAR earlier this past year... The pilot of the news chopper didn't want to "walk" home....  They didn't follow us around....   Need I say more......