Graphical TFRs In Practice…
With TFRs coming and going all over the landscape — and presidential TFRs proliferating as the campaign trail heats up — it’s lucky that the FAA’s graphical TFRs are finally starting to come online. A visit to the FAA Web site over the weekend showed dozens of full-color TFR depictions, from Arkansas to Alaska, Honolulu to Washington, D.C. Among the biggies: a 30-nm presidential TFR set for today over New York City, affecting operations at more than 20 airports, heliports, and seaplane bases. AOPA said over the weekend that although it opposes such large TFRs, it was “pleased” to see the zone where flying is banned outright held to a 7-mile radius. Within the airspace between a 7-nm and 30-nm radius, operations are limited to aircraft arriving or departing local airfields. “AOPA continues to lobby against these oversized presidential movement TFRs,” said AOPA President Phil Boyer, on the organization’s Web site. “TFRs this large have significant operational and economic impacts on pilots and absent a specific, credible threat, we don’t think they need to be this big.”
…And A Very Stern Warning
Later today, President Bush will head for Camp David, and the standard Prohibited Area there will be expanded to a 10-nm radius for tonight and tomorrow. Don’t even think about messing with this one: AOPA says federal security officials told them this is a “highly sensitive” visit, and enforcement actions will be “severe in the extreme” — meaning that military patrol aircraft are authorized to shoot down violators. Most operations are banned within a 5-nm radius, with restrictions on flights up to 10nm out. All aircraft departing from private airports/air fields within that outer ring must be on a heading away from the center of the prohibited airspace, the NOTAM says. More TFRs are expected as the president travels to fundraising events in Miami and Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday. Over the next several weeks TFRs can be expected in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Houston and Detroit, according to EAA.
