-11 incursions near Bedminster Saturday and Sunday
-Head butt maneuver used on some
Despite repeated pleas from NORAD and increasingly aggressive tactics by its pilots, the number of incursions to presidential TFRs are on the rise. At least 11 general aviation aircraft violated the 30-nm ring of the two TFRs above and around President Donald Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort on Saturday and Sunday. That’s up from eight incursions reported two weeks ago when Trump last visited the club there. Some got a closer look at an F-16 than they probably wanted to. NORAD told Reuters that some of the weekend warriors were confronted by Vipers performing the “head butt maneuver” in which the fighter jocks accelerate past the target plane and then turn sharply in front of it using their wake turbulence to nudge the wayward pilots
Of course, all presidential TFRs are displayed on a dedicated website and NOTAMs are issued and NORAD is almost begging GA pilots to make sure they check for them. But if they’re going to ignore that request there is some other knowledge they would be wise to remember. “Should the pilot of an aircraft happen to find itself intercepted by either fighters or helicopters, they should immediately come up on frequency 121.5 or 243.0 and turn around to reverse course until receiving additional instructions on one of those frequencies,” NORAD Gen. Gregory Guillot said in a statement.
I bought a program, installed it on my cellular telephone, and won’t fly without it. It shows the TFR, airspace, and my position to it.
This also helps in skirting other airspace as well. Well worth the costs.
Would that be Fourflight?
I subscribe to email notifications from AOPA that inform me of the establishment of a TFR, and it’s activation.
I also use Fourflight and the show up prior to and at activation.
ForeFlight works well as do other EFB products. I really don’t have much sympathy for pilots who bust presidential TFRs. I suppose there are pop-up TFRs that might catch someone by surprise, but if you are flying cross-country, read all applicable NOTAMS, and use flight following, your chances of busting a TFR are minimized.
We once had a presidential TFR near our airport and we had a certificated pilot who asked if it would be OK to fly through a small chord of the TFR circle to get to his destination. This was not one of my former students, so I sarcastically (my mistake) said “Hey, sounds like a good plan. Let me know what an F-16 looks like from the air.” Then a more rational CFI asked if the pilot knew the proper actions when confronted by armed fighters and if he had a good attorney for the follow-up interrogations. A much better response than mine… and the pilot decided to significantly change his plans.
And whatever else you do, monitor 121.5. They start calling you well before you’re in the TFR, and if you turn away before you enter it, nobody really cares that you got close.
LOL,
I keep hearing about “eVTOL air taxis” and “Walmart delivery drones”.
What the hell good are they if you live in the area displayed on the picture to this article?
I fly efb dot com. Fore flight doesn’t work with android.
You know, in the offending pilots defense, the latest one was posted and had short order or something to that effect.
And thumping a 172 with their jet wash? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Wait till one falls out of the sky and then they’ll have to rethink that move.
Gotta be a better way other than setting up a tfr every time a President moved. They have SAM, etc so why even have to post or make a tfr active, just do away with them. Case closed.
IIRC this is the “nice” version. Switching to guns is another option. I for one believe, that the first fired upon GA aircraft will solve for X.
That would be perfectly legal. The TFR is not one, big, no-fly zone. It consists of an inner 10-nm circle where pretty much nothing but military can fly. And an outer, 30-nm circle. In this outer circle regular pilots can fly but have to be “squawking and talking”.
The details are in the NOTAM. Although you can’t do flight training and many other ops within the outer circle, you can fly into and out of an airport within that space. You can even transit the space “chordwise” if ATC has the time. You just have to be on an IFR or VFR flight plan, talking to ATC, and squawking a discrete transponder code.
The TFRs are a pain in the whatsis, and severely curtail activity for those airports trapped under its umbrella. But any competent pilot that is “English Proficient” should be able to read, understand, and follow the NOTAM and still visit those airports if necessary.
NORAD is getting frustrated at the numerous violations.
Pilots are getting frustrated at the numerous TFR’s.
Monitoring 121.5 is a wonderful idea, right up until the meows start and I have to switch it off for a while. When are some of these morons going to be prosecuted for this behavior?
I am aware of the rules and appreciate the reminder. However, it’s uncertain that this particular pilot in that particular aircraft would have qualified… you would have to have been there.
It’s a shame that so many pilots are unaware, though!
Since 9/11 the number of TFRs has risen dramatically. The only reasonably simple way to avoid them is by using an EFB. Having said that, shutting down the airspace over the most densely traveled airspace in the world so someone can play a round of golf shows that we have a problem. We are overreacting, I think, in our goal of protecting VIPs, and I think it’s a result of ego: both the VIP and the agency protecting them. I had to do a go-around in a 737 years ago below 500 feet because an airplane carrying the Vice President had called for taxi. Two experienced airline pilots executing a go-around isn’t a life or death situation but it introduces unnecessary risk. (And in our system virtually anything the VP does is unimportant, anyway. Learned that in the first semester of college.)
Easy solution: stop issuing these ridiculous “VIP” TFRs. They are the very definition of “security theater” (but with very real financial consequences).
Which is all well and good if you’re simply transiting or going to/from one of the outer airports, but not so great if you’re a flight school trapped within the TFR.
TFR’s are going NOWHERE.
Quite the contrary. They will increase as the travel schedule of our Super VIP gets more and more erratic. All the barking and huffing and puffing won’t help. Nobody cares. POTUS Safety is #1
I never thought that I’d be saying anything positive to you but your question about air taxis and delivery drones is spot on. With this one question, you’ve flummoxed the entire FAA, TSA and Secret Service. Within 10 years, this is going to be a huge problem and they ought to start the hearings now. Bravo.
And the Darwin Candidate who was intercepted at the exclusion zone over the big G-7 palavar in Kananakis Country west of Calgary AB - a prime target for suicidal terrorists.
Intercepting CF-18 had to use flares and more to get the idiot’s attention.
Forced the airplane to land at an airport south of Calgary that was clear of zones, to have a chat with police.
(‘more’ wasn’t detailed in media articles I read.)
With Iran angry at POTUS Trump, and a history in the US and Canada of persons committing violent acts in the name of Allah.
(A sample case: Upgrade to charge against man with al-Qaida ties as punishment for alleged terrorism - Victoria Times Colonist
Several cases in Canada a few years ago of young males turned by preachers in mosques in Canada, some of them born in Canada.
And of older people in the US.)
There are ways to defend against UAVs, including taking control of them and either returning to launch point or at least getting data from them.
Trained eagles were messy. (Yes, someone in Scandinavia tried that.)
RCAF uses flares and something more dramatic it hasn’t revealed, in the case of a fool heading into the exclusion zone for the big G-7 palaver west of Calgary AB.
Forced the pilot to land at an airport outside the exclusion zones in the region, for police to ‘have words’ with the pilot.