Now that he has won the presidential election, Donald Trump’s home in midtown Manhattan is within a Temporary Flight Restriction. The VIP TFR, effective Wednesday, closes open flights through the popular Hudson River area for sightseeing the city skyline. The FAA Notam is effective immediately through Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017. The TFR has a 2-nautical-mile radius from the surface to 2,999 feet AGL. It still allows arrivals and departures from five locations including heliports and the New York Skyports Inc. Seaplane Base, as well as medical, law enforcement, firefighting and other emergency operations. All aircraft operating in the TFR must be in two-way radio communications with ATC and squawk an assigned transponder code.
AOPA said Wednesday itplans to look for options to provide more open access to the area. “AOPA respects the need to provide increased security for President-elect Donald Trump, but we will work to see if there is a way to balance the restrictions while maintaining GA access to the airspace,” said Nobuyo Sakata, the association’s director of aviation security. It remains to be seen how the TFRs will look when President Trump is in Manhattan, and the permanent flight restrictions to 18,000 feet surrounding the White House and Washington area remain in place.
