Radar

Langen ACC sector Pfalz is responsible for the airspace around EDDR, also including the AFIS field EDRZ and the US military field ETAR, as well as presequencing traffic into various airports adjacent to the sector. Additionally, controllers will occasionally see low level enroute traffic cross the airspace.

Station	ID	Login	Frequency	Remarks
Pfalz	PFA	EDDR_PFA_APP	129.675	--

Sectorization

Sector PFA

Sector Pfalz (PFA) is part of Langen ACC EBG 5, whose sectors Eifel (EIF) and Kirn (KIR) it borders to the North.
Toward the North and East, the sector borders various other Langen ACC sectors. Located South of the sector is French airspace with Strasbourg APP and various LFEE ACC sectors and in the West it covers EBBU ACC sectors over Luxembourg.
In addition, the MIL APP position Ramstein GCA is located within the sector.

Sector PFA consists of various subsectors with differing vertical boundaries. For the detailed sectorization, please refer to the sector page.

Ramstein GCA

Ramstein GCA covers the area around ETAR up to 5000ft.
Sector PFA is responsible for maintaining full radar separation (i.e. 3NM laterally and 1000ft vertically) to the border of this airspace. Various EDDR and EDRZ procedures infringe on this separation, thus requiring individual coordination of each affected movement. Additionally, unless otherwise coordinated, IFR departures from ETAR will only have been cleared to the final waypoint of the SID and their clearance limit thus has to be changed to the destination.

For more detailed information on Ramstein GCA, please refer to the ETAR SOP.

Airspace

With the exception of the two D-CTRs EDDR and ETAR, the RMZ EDRZ, and a small section of the TMZ EDFH as well as the TMZ EDDR in delegated French airspace, the entire airspace of sector PFA is class E below FL100 and class C above FL100.

Airports

There are multiple airports of direct relevance to sector PFA, though they all usually see only low traffic levels.

EDDR & EDRZ & ETAR

EDDR, EDRZ, and ETAR are the three IFR-capable airports within sector PFA.

EDDR is a controlled airport with usually very limited IFR and VFR traffic.
EDRZ is an uncontrolled AFIS field with IFR procedures that usually sees similarly low IFR and VFR traffic levels.
ETAR is one of the largest and busiest military airports in Germany and the headquarters for the US Air Force in Europe and Africa as well as NATO's Allied Air Command, but on VATSIM it usually sees very low traffic levels.

Procedures for these airports, especially EDDR and EDRZ can conflict with each other. If necessary, controllers covering sector PFA should ask underlying Tower controllers to hold departures for release until the risk of conflict is gone.

EDFH

EDFH is a controlled airport located in neighboring sector EIF; some of its in- and outbound traffic passes through sector PFA.

EDFM & EDRY

EDFM is a controlled airport and EDRY is an uncontrolled AFIS field with IFR approach procedures; both airports are located in neighboring sector NKRL and some of their in- and outbound traffic passes through sector PFA.

ELLX

ELLX is a controlled airport located in neighboring Luxembourg; some of its inbound traffic passes through sector PFA.

Restricted airspace

Langen ACC EBG 5 is one of Germany's main areas of military air traffic activity, which can have a significant impact on usual operations.

Area	Remarks
Baumholder (ED-R116)	may prevent some shortcuts for low level enroute traffic as well as inbounds and outbounds of various surrounding airports
TRA Lauter (ED-R205)	prevents civilian operations above FL95 in parts or the entirety of sector PFA, depending on active segments

VATGER currently doesn't require controllers to respect real world area activations - thus, controllers who wish to simulate real world area activations must coordinate this with neighboring sectors where necessary.
Similarly, controllers are allowed to reject area reservations by a VSOA by informing them via the area booking thread.

Areas currently active in the real world will automatically be displayed with 15 minutes advance notice through the TopSky plugin TSA function, including actual lateral and vertical limits.
Similarly, areas reserved by a VSOA can be manually activated through the TopSky plugin TSA menu.

NLFS

ED-R150, also known as the NLFS, is a series of corridors used for low altitude MIL jet night operations. A small part of it is located within sector PFA, as depicted on the left.
Only certain segments of the NLFS will be active at any given time, depending on the exact mission to be flown by the pilots and all traffic within the NLFS will operate under MVFR.

Due to the significant impact on operations at the airports within sector PFA, VSOAs are currently restricted from using segment GE1-JE1 and it is highly recommended that controllers don't approve its use as well.

As with any other area reservation by a VSOA, controllers may reject reservations of NLFS segments within their airspace by informing the VSOA via the area booking thread.

The NLFS, including waypoint labels and segment levels, can be displayed via the TopSky plugin map function: Military -> NLFS

VFR airspace

A number of PJEs (parachuting drop zones) and glider sectors are located at least partially within the PFA sector.

Full radar separation (i.e. 3 NM laterally and 1000ft vertically) has to be maintained to PJEs from approval to drop until 5 minutes after the last jumper jumped; 1 NM lateral and 500ft vertical separation has to be maintained to glider sectors while they are active.

These VFR airspaces are currently not implemented in the FIR Langen package, but included in this SOP as the related pilot procedures are publicly available to pilots.

PJEs

PJE	Level	Airfield	Remarks
Bad Dürkheim	GND - FL100	EDRF	managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by NKRL due to airspace
Lachen-Speyerdorf		EDRL	managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by NKRL due to airspace
Saarlouis		EDRJ	--
Schweighofen		EDRO	managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by STG due to airspace
Zweibrücken		EDRZ	--

Glider sectors

Sector	Min./Max. level	Remarks
Local sectors
Local sectors are only available for specific airfields and activation can only be requested by the respective airfield operator. Pilots are required to monitor that airfield's frequency to stay informed about any changes to the status of the respective sector.
Baumholder-West	1500ft - FL95	managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by EIF due to airspace associated airfield: Idar-Oberstein (EDRG)
Idar-Oberstein	4500ft - FL75	managed primarily by EIF, but requires approval by PFA due to airspace associated airfield: Idar-Oberstein (EDRG)
Wave gliding sectors
Activation of wave gliding sectors can be requested by any pilot through Langen Information. Pilots are required to monitor the applicable FIS frequency to stay informed about any changes to the status of the respective sector.
Haardt	FL100 - FL195	managed primarily by PFA, but requires approval by STG due to airspace