Can you have an FSS station in a class G aerodrome?

[DeltaFoxtrot]

I am a PPL student, and I was wondering if class G aerodromes can have FSS or RCO stations. I have never seen one on VNC charts.

[FIL884]

Hi,

Just stumbled on on your question. Yes you can, for example in Quebec you have Kuujjuaq (CYVP) and La Grande (CYGL) both staffed with 24/7 FSS operating with a 15NM MF (instead of the more "usual" 5NM) in class G airspace.

[A346Dude]

Interesting, I didn't know this existed.

So you can have an MF with an FSS in class G, or an ATF with no FSS in a class E control zone (i.e. CYZR). Make it make sense!

[thenoflyzone]

Interesting, I didn't know this existed.

So you can have an MF with an FSS in class G, or an ATF with no FSS in a class E control zone (i.e. CYZR). Make it make sense!

Forget about the airspace for a minute. Think airport.

YGL and YVP have commercial service. YZR doesn't.

Air Inuit, Canadian North, send scheduled commercial Dash-8 and 737 flights to YVP and YGL. YZR doesn't have that. YVP and YGL have larger runways than YZR. YVP even has an ILS. You need someone to monitor the ILS frequencies for it to be available as a public IAP. An FSS does the monitoring. Pilots also need RVR values during low vis conditions. The FSS has the values on a live feed, and can relay it to pilots.

An FSS also positively controls the vehicles, snowplows, etc. on the airport (just like an ATC ground frequency controller does). The FSS at YGL and YVP are there to make sure that when a 737 is short final in low vis conditions, the snowplows aren't on the runway.

You don't need that level of service at YZR.

However, YZR sits right at the border with the US, in a busy overlaying airspace environment that needs to be fully controlled. Hence the fact that it's a class E control zone.

You don't need that at YVP and YGL. In fact, forget about a 5nm class E control zone. Up there, the whole airspace up to 17,999ft is uncontrolled. But the airports have an FSS because they need someone in the tower there monitoring stuff, producing METARs, relaying SIGMETs, PIREPs, RVRs etc. After all, the weather up there can be brutal. Having a qualified FSS on the ground, taking care of things, is a huge plus.

It might look weird on paper, but it makes operational sense.

[A346Dude]

Forget about the airspace for a minute. Think airport.

YGL and YVP have commercial service. YZR doesn't.

Yes, I'm not suggesting YGL and YVP shouldn't have an FSS - I know they need one. I just don't get why YZR, which has no FSS nor commercial flights, needs to be controlled down to the surface while YGL and YVP do not.

I don't think the border or airspace is enough to explain it. 5.1 NM southwest of YZR at 600 AGL and right on the border is class G, and that doesn't seem to be a problem. There are also airports right on the border (in AB/SK/MB, for example) that are not class E. The airspace above YZR is busy and complex with DTW/YYZ arrivals, but they are all several thousand feet above the top of the class E.

YZR used to have commercial service (5-6 Georgian B1900s a day), and it was still class E with no FSS then. I guess my question is, if YZR was class G what would the problem be? Why does a place like Churchill, MB get both an FSS and a class E when it's roughly as busy as YGL, yet the MF only goes out to 5NM instead of 15?

As it stands now, in IFR conditions you could legally yeet yourself off 07 at YVP right into a 737 arrival to 25 as long as you tell FSS you're doing it, but you couldn't pull the equivalent move at sleepy YZR because you wouldn't get the required IFR clearance from YZ. It's all very inconsistent.