Originally Posted by
Adam S
Hello everyone.
As a PPL I am ashamed to say I have never contacted a military airfield.
For my next flight I decided to contact Wattisham and try to obtain a clearance to turn at their overhead.
I know that they can be very useful, and that obtaining a clearance for a MATZ penetration is a regular thing, but is a clearance to enter their ATZ even obtainable? Should I ask for something other than a 'MATZ penetration' when I give them a call to clarify that I want to turn overhead?
Are there militry airfields that would not let you go through their zone?
Hope that's clear.
Thank you
Don't be afraid, these guys might be happy to see something else. In most cases it is easy to get permission to penetrate MATZ or even get cleared for The Core. There was a time I was frequently asking for GCA practice at MATZ and from memory I would guesstimate about two third of the GCA training requests were granted - a very fond gesture I am still quite grateful for.