Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 16; Flight Crew Total 1362; Flight Crew Type 71
Situational Awareness
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Airport; Human Factors; Chart Or Publication; Airspace Structure
During a VFR personal flight I entered into the KUAO class D airspace inadvertently without contacting the tower. The tower at KUAO is newly built and I did not realize it was operational. Prior to entering into the airspace I had consulted a current sectional chart to gather the frequency for the KUAO airport and saw the CTAF of 122.7 in the block of information and the airport symbol shown in magenta. I took this to indicate that the tower was still not operational (other tower controlled airports show the airport in blue and list the CT frequency in the information block).The tower controller contacted me on the CTAF and instructed me to switch to the CT frequency (120.35). I did so immediately and was cleared into the class D airspace. The tower controller took the opportunity to inform me about the new tower and handled the situation very gracefully. There was no other traffic operating at KUAO at the time.
The pilot of a small aircraft entered controlled airspace around an airport with a tower that had only recently become operational.