One question that almost always comes up during the oral portion of a Private Pilot practical test is: How do you locate the appropriate frequency to contact ATC to determine the status of a Restricted Area? The answer isn’t always straightforward, and can be difficult to find in ForeFlight if you’re not familiar with its settings and behavior.
Let’s look at a local example. You are trying to get more information about R-2904A, Camp Blanding, located approximately 30 miles southwest of Jacksonville International. One way is to tap and hold your finger over the symbol on the chart, which will bring up a pop-up window with more information. This will display the upper and lower limits of the Special Use Airspace, along with the published hours of operation and the name of the controlling agency — in this case, Jacksonville TRACON (a.k.a. Jax Approach).
But to find the frequency for Jax Approach, we need to look at the sectional chart legend. To do this, click on the gear symbol on the map (Settings) and select Map Touch Action — Bring chart to front with legends. You can also get there from the More button on the bottom, then select Settings.
Once you’ve done this, go back to your Map and tap lightly near the SUA in question. If you zoom out a bit on the map, you should see the Jacksonville Sectional legend appear.
Next, let’s view the information in the legend for R2904-A.
As you can see, the controlling agency is indeed Jax Approach. To find the appropriate frequency, look at the Class C frequencies table (also in the legend) and we see that if you’re in the southwest quadrant (181-269 degrees), the correct frequency is 127.775.
But let’s say we are trying to contact the appropriate ATC facility for the status of R-2903A, which according to the legend is controlled by Jacksonville Center. The frequency is not listed on the Sectional. To find the Center frequency, we need to dig into the Chart Supplement. The Chart Supplement is found in Documents – FAA. The Chart Supplement is a huge PDF document, so it’s best to bookmark the page so you can easily locate it.
