Diverse Vector Areas

Imagine youre departing into a low overcast, and the tower assigned you a heading. ATC has some way to keep you from hitting anything on that vector, right? Yeah…sorta.

Diverse Vector Areas (DVAs) have been established at some larger airports for a safe and standardized way to guarantee obstacle clearance for aircraft departing on radar vectors. DVAs have been surveyed and found to be clear of obstructions on a standard-or published non-standard-climb gradient. Theyve recently started to appear in the terminal procedures publication.

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Diverse Vector Areas (DVAs) are rigorously surveyed and published areas at some larger airports that guarantee obstacle clearance for aircraft receiving radar vectors after departure, including below the Minimum Vectoring Altitude (MVA), provided specific climb requirements are met.
At airports without published DVAs, ATC vectors below the MVA rely on controllers observing a subset of obstacles on radar, a method less rigorously validated and lacking the comprehensive TERPS analysis of DVAs.
Pilots are responsible for obstacle clearance until receiving a radar vector; while DVAs provide guaranteed clearance when complied with, pilots should utilize Obstacle Departure Procedures (ODPs) for safety, especially at non-DVA airports or before receiving a vector.

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Imagine you’re departing into a low overcast, and the tower assigned you a heading. ATC has some way to keep you from hitting anything on that vector, right? Yeah…sorta.

Diverse Vector Areas (DVAs) have been established at some larger airports for a safe and standardized way to guarantee obstacle clearance for aircraft departing on radar vectors. DVAs have been surveyed and found to be clear of obstructions on a standard—or published non-standard—climb gradient. They’ve recently started to appear in the terminal procedures publication.