LFA 16 is located in south Scotland and includes the Borders Region, Dumfries and Galloway and other counties up to and including those within the central belt. The Royal Navy helicopter base at Prestwick, the QinetiQ range facilities at West Freugh, and the Army training area at Kirkcudbright are located in the area. It has approximately 16,142 sq km ( 6,232 sq mls) of airspace available for low flying training, some 8.2% of the total usable overland area of the UKLFS. In addition LFA 16 includes the Tactical Training Area 20T.
LFA 16 is a good area for low flying training. It has challenging terrain, which, for the most part, is sparsely populated, a high incidence of unrestricted airspace above 2,000ft (giving increased flexibility to military aircraft to enter or leave the lower airspace), and better than average weather conditions. Additionally, the area is close to the Army Field training centre at Otterburn, and it borders on the Electronic Warfare Tactics range at RAF Spadeadam.
There are three areas in the low flying system known as Tactical Training Areas. It is within these areas that Operational Low Flying is permitted. This is when fixed wing aircraft are authorised to fly as low as 100ft minimum separation distance, although larger aircraft such as C-130 Hercules are only permitted to fly as low as 150ft.
Exercises and events taking place in LFA 16.
- 22 Mar-1 April 2010 - EXERCISE TAC BLAZE 1
- 30 Mar- 1 April 2010 – EXERCISE WYCOMBE WARRIOR 01
For a complete listing of Exercises and Events across the United Kingdom click the link on the right.