Originally Posted by
bad bear
your correct, I was surprised to see only 5 or 6 departures per day. I wonder how so much controlled airspace can be justified?
Simply put "it cannot".
The current CTR/CTA configuration came into being late 80's/early 90's. At this time there used to be a set of criteria specified by the CAA which you had to meet in order to qualify for controlled airspace. This included a minimum number of Air Transport Movements and passengers carried. BOH never came anywhere near the minimums required. Consequently a massive fudge was dreamt up by the CAA, namely that BOH was "an important testing centre", the testing being Instrument Rating Tests carried out by the resident CAAFU Examiners. From memory this was an absolute maximum of about 3-4 per day, Monday to Friday!