Narrative:

Sgj has an aerobatic box that borders runway 13/31. When I say borders I mean one side of the box goes right to the runway edge. I actually used to do a little aerobatics back in college and aircraft competing in events routinely go out of the box. I was departing runway 13 in sgj and was aware that the aerobatic box was active however; I wasn't aware how close I would actually get to the aircraft practicing aerobatics. I was below 300 ft when I first saw the aircraft who was in a knife edge turn; turning toward my aircraft. His flight path would have crossed mine directly if he had made a mistake and not continued the turn or had rolled out for any reason. I decided that the margin of safety was insufficient and told my sic to turn right (our departure instructions were runway heading). I immediately contacted the tower; who I was still talking with; and told them that we were deviating right for traffic. The response I got threw me; controller said; 'your supposed to be on runway heading'. Initially I responded that the aircraft doing aerobatics was unacceptably close and that we would be correcting back momentarily. Controller briefly started telling me that he was in the box and was VFR on the radio and I responded that I would not debate on the radio and asked for a phone number. This turned out to be a huge distraction which I didn't realize how much until I realized that we were at 240 KTS with the flaps set at 7 degrees. The pilot flying slowed and we put the flaps up. Once we got to cruise altitude I transferred the radios over to the pilot flying and called the company. They had us divert for an inspection of the aircraft. The rest of the flight was uneventful. On the ground the aircraft was written up for inspection and I called the sgj tower to discuss the event. The tower supervisor explained that when the tower opened 7 years ago he thought it was highly unusual to have an aerobatic box within class D airspace. This is when he told me that the aerobatic box goes right to the edge of the runway. I said is there any way it could be offset so that there is a greater margin of safety. He said that was a good idea and worth checking into. He also said that the mco FSDO certified the box every year. The dimensions of the box are 3000 x 3000 ft from the surface up to 3500 ft. He then told me that their only obligation is issue advisories that the aerobatic box is active. I think that at a minimum departure procedures from the airport when the box is open should include a right turn away from the box as soon as possible after takeoff. Aircraft that are in aerobatic competitions routinely go outside the box and are just deducted points from their overall score. Having a box immediately adjacent to an active runway and non-participating aircraft is not ideal. I would hate to see the box closed but we need to figure out a way to keep aircraft separated. The current safety margin for situations like mine are unacceptable. The pilot tightened up his turn while we passed and when he saw me. I feel like we were within 200 ft of each other but it may have been a little further than that.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CE560 Captain reports deviating during takeoff from SGJ to avoid possible conflict with aircraft practicing aerobatics in box adjacent to runway. Flaps are over sped during the incident; requiring diversion and maintenance inspection.

Narrative: SGJ has an aerobatic box that borders Runway 13/31. When I say borders I mean one side of the box goes right to the runway edge. I actually used to do a little aerobatics back in college and aircraft competing in events routinely go out of the box. I was departing Runway 13 in SGJ and was aware that the aerobatic box was active however; I wasn't aware how close I would actually get to the aircraft practicing aerobatics. I was below 300 FT when I first saw the aircraft who was in a knife edge turn; turning toward my aircraft. His flight path would have crossed mine directly if he had made a mistake and not continued the turn or had rolled out for any reason. I decided that the margin of safety was insufficient and told my SIC to turn right (our departure instructions were runway heading). I immediately contacted the tower; who I was still talking with; and told them that we were deviating right for traffic. The response I got threw me; Controller said; 'Your supposed to be on runway heading'. Initially I responded that the aircraft doing aerobatics was unacceptably close and that we would be correcting back momentarily. Controller briefly started telling me that he was in the box and was VFR on the radio and I responded that I would not debate on the radio and asked for a phone number. This turned out to be a huge distraction which I didn't realize how much until I realized that we were at 240 KTS with the flaps set at 7 degrees. The pilot flying slowed and we put the flaps up. Once we got to cruise altitude I transferred the radios over to the pilot flying and called the company. They had us divert for an inspection of the aircraft. The rest of the flight was uneventful. On the ground the aircraft was written up for inspection and I called the SGJ tower to discuss the event. The Tower Supervisor explained that when the tower opened 7 years ago he thought it was highly unusual to have an aerobatic box within Class D airspace. This is when he told me that the aerobatic box goes right to the edge of the runway. I said is there any way it could be offset so that there is a greater margin of safety. He said that was a good idea and worth checking into. He also said that the MCO FSDO certified the box every year. The dimensions of the box are 3000 x 3000 FT from the surface up to 3500 FT. He then told me that their only obligation is issue advisories that the aerobatic box is active. I think that at a minimum departure procedures from the airport when the box is open should include a right turn away from the box as soon as possible after takeoff. Aircraft that are in aerobatic competitions routinely go outside the box and are just deducted points from their overall score. Having a box immediately adjacent to an active runway and non-participating aircraft is not ideal. I would hate to see the box closed but we need to figure out a way to keep aircraft separated. The current safety margin for situations like mine are unacceptable. The pilot tightened up his turn while we passed and when he saw me. I feel like we were within 200 FT of each other but it may have been a little further than that.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.