I am contemplating a trip from UK to Ireland later this year, and I wanted your local knowledge as the possibility of getting a transit of the Dublin controlled airspace if I route from Waterford up the coast to Newcastle and Drogheda. All tips and advice gratefully received. Cheers!
@Propman there used to be a low level VFR transit via the Pigeon Towers, hopefully the active Ireland forumites are along shortly to update.
Am also hoping to cross over when restrictions allow. There is a short grass strip near Dublin which I use, perhaps a bit short for the Worrier. Birr HQ for @WF also a nice destination.
Hi,
If you look at the eastern section of this chart you will see the Lambay Transit route. Dublin Low Level would be happy to chat anyone on the phone if they wanted a briefing on it first.
You are indeed very welcome in Birr. We have Mogas, Avgas and no parking or landing fees. I can certainly be around to bring you into town. Good places to eat in Birr, and it’s a handy stop of going West.
Flown not above 500ft a few miles out to sea, so bring your life jackets 
Almost all airspace in Ireland is accessible without much difficulty, with the exception of the Dublin CTR/CTA.
WilliamF has given you a link to the Dublin CTR chart. That is what you will need if crossing the area.
At present, I would not imagine any difficulty whatsoever crossing the CTR. But that is because of the low volume of traffic due to COVID. I suspect you’ll be coming once traffic returns to normal and then things become more difficult.
Part of the answer will depend on where you want to transit. The Lambay transit route at 500ft AGL is your most likely bet. But as pointed out, it’s 500ft AGL a fair bit out to sea. It is quite picturesque though 
But you might end up holding outside the CTR for quite a long time waiting for a gap in the traffic. Long enough that give up and go around the zone. Hit it the right time, and there will be little problem, but the wrong time and you could be there a long time. Dublin will not seek to adjust its traffic to accommodate you. You’ll be left until a gap comes along naturally.
You might also be offered to follow the M50 Motorway around the west of the city and dumped over to Weston, to exit at Maynooth and proceed along to the west of the zone below controlled airspace.
You don’t need to enter controlled airspace to get to Newcastle.
My advice:
If Newcastle is just a routing point, then don’t bother. Route west of the Dublin Zone instead. Must more straight forward.
If Newcastle is a destination then go for it. Expect the Lambay transit route, and be prepared for a 20 minute wait. There might be no wait, and there might be a longer wait, just plan for a wait so it’s not a problem. If you are left holding for a long time, ask for alternatives. What if you climb higher…will that work for them? What if you follow the M50? What if you hold closer to the airport so you only need a smaller gap? If you are persistent, they’ll find a way through. If you’re quiet, you could be left a long time.
You might be lucky and get a much more straight forward 2000ft route across the city. Just no way to be sure. A lot depends on the controller on duty and the traffic at the time. But make sure you have that chart that WilliamF linked to with you, or your nav software shows the VRPs and the Lambay transit route.
Thanks Dublin Pilot. I wanted to go west of Dublin but was put off by the military areas. Maybe they would be easier to fly through?
You could just go Waterford, Newcastle and cut through the Dublin Mountains, if it’s a nice day. Maybe stop in Kilrush for fuel and head from there towards Drogheda (Dowth Hall maybe?)
You will get to see the Guinness lake on the way and avoid the Class C.
Propman wrote:
Thanks Dublin Pilot. I wanted to go west of Dublin but was put off by the military areas. Maybe they would be easier to fly through?
The “military areas” to the west are actually no problem at all.
While the map looks like a red spiders web, it’s not really that bad at all.
There are essentially three areas there.
MOA (Military Operations Areas)
R16
R15.
Each are broken down further, but that’s mainly because they have different bases in different areas.
The first piece of good news, is that they are all controlled by the one controller on 122.0 (Baldonnel Approach). So you don’t need to worry about swapping between controllers in quick succession looking for successive clearances.
The second bit of good news is that you can largely ignore the MOA. You don’t need any clearance to enter them, and don’t need to be talking to anyone to go in there. I do that routinely. They are simply areas where the military often operate and can’t guarantee compliance with the rules of the air. By all means talk to Baldonnel (same frequency as above) or Dublin FIS or Shannon FIS if you wish, but you don’t have to. Treat them like a MATZ in the UK. Talk to them if you wish, but there is no legal requirement.
The third bit of good news is that R16 is inactive more often than not, particularly so on the weekends. Officially they are active Mon-Fri, but they go hot and cold all day/week long and at short notice. So no matter what the notam says, give Baldonnel three calls on 122.0 for active status. If after three calls, you don’t get an answer, then you can assume that they are closed and continue on through. Maybe best for a non-local to check with Dublin or Shannon to confirm that Baldonnel is closed (in case you miss something that a local takes for granted!)
The last bit of good news, is that even if they are active, in the 20 years that I’ve been going through there, I’ve never know a transit to be refused. The worst you’ll likely to get is to be asked to say below 1000ft or report a VRP, but even those are rare. 99 times out of 100 you just tell them what you want to do, and that’s no problem.
Now the last point is the one to be careful about. While you can ignore the MOA and R16 is trivial, you need to be cautious of R15, and R23 (the ATZ around Baldonnel). R15 is also inside the Dublin Class C CTR. So when it’s not active (not restricted) it reverts to class C airspace. So you’ll either need a clearance from Baldonnel 122.0 if it’s active or Dublin ATC if it’s not active. But still a lot more likely to get a clearance through this class C than the CTR to the east of the city. R23 (the ATZ around Baldonnel) is a no-go area, but it is very small and you’d not likely be going through there anyway.
As you exit R16 northbound you are likely to cross paths with the traffic in and out of Weston and the the areas where they do their upper air work training, but really traffic levels are nothing like you’d be used to in the UK!
This side of the zone is much easier to transit, but less scenic than the low level route through Dublin bay.
I hope that helps.
Colm
