What happens when the Tower closes at a Class C or D Control Zone?

If you’re a new Student Pilot, you’ll learn this from our Private Pilot Ground School or our Commercial Pilot Ground School… but it’s also a great reminder for the rest of us!

Class E Control Zone Example

[00:00:00] So what happens when the Tower closes at a Class C or D Control Zone? The thing you want to remember, very often on Transport Canada written exams, cause it’s not well-known, is that a Class C or Class D Control Zone automatically reverts to Class E when the Tower closes. So regardless of what the level of service is, Class C or Class D service, when the Tower is operating, when the Tower closes, it automatically reverts to Class E and becomes a Class E Control Zone.

[00:00:45] So a little reminder. A Class E Control Zone surrounds an aerodrome. So we know, one of those circles you see on the map, there is no Air Traffic Control unit in operation. And what we mean by that is there’s no Control Tower. [00:01:00] Okay. So a Class E Controll Zone is simply a Control Zone with no Tower in operation.

[00:01:09] So with that, you got to remember that some Class E Control Zones are permanent. They never have a Control Tower. Many of those have a Flight Service Station on site, or they might have Remote Airport Advisory Service. So called “RAAS” service where you’re talking to a flight service specialist, who’s located at another location, but not all of them.

[00:01:31] There are examples of Class E Control Zones that have neither of those things. But Class E Control Zones are always identified on navigation charts and I’m talking of the permanent ones now. So we’ll look at a couple examples. So one example we’re going to look at is Whitecourt Alberta. So there’s no Control Tower.

[00:01:58] There’s a Flight Service Station [00:02:00] on site that operates limited hours and there’s a Mandatory Frequency in effect during the Flight Service Station hours. So here’s the maps that shows Whitecourt Alberta, and you can see the distinctive Class E Control Zone symbol that I’m sure everybody’s got memorized, but certainly everybody should.

[00:02:22] This is different from the symbol that’s used for Class C and Class D Control Zones. And we’ll see an example in a little bit. This heavy line box is a dead giveaway meaning there’s a Flight Service Station there. The heavy line box indicates that there is a Flight Service Station on site. And in fact, there’s a clue given to the frequency and use, but also at the bottom, you notice it says FSS operates limited hours.

[00:02:52] Other times see CFS, Canada Flight Supplement. So lots of clues on the map, if you look for them, [00:03:00] but that heavy line box means there’s a Flight Service Station there. Another clue is if you look at the aerodrome listing and we’ve expanded it here for you, it tells you that 122.3 MHz is a Mandatory requency.

[00:03:17] That’s what the “M” means, okay, along with all of the other airports stuff that I won’t get into right now.