Letter to the Editor: Respecting TFR Boundaries

Each year, starting on the first Saturday in October and running through the second Sunday, Albuquerque hosts the International Balloon Fiesta—about 600 hot air balloons from all over the world. A daily mass ascension (wind-willing) places this colorful display into the air at sunrise.

There are no grandstands for the tens of thousands of spectators—it's expected that you will walk among these inflating giants and observe how they are launched—in waves that take about 90 minutes for the 600 (they are limited to that number) to clear the field. If you intend to observe from the air, then you have other considerations.

Like all large outdoor assemblies of people, this event is assigned a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR). As noted in the accompanying illustration, this TFR (the orange circle in the center of the Garmin PILOT display) is three miles in radius (as are most) and extends from the surface to about 3,000 feet AGL. In this instance, the description of the date and time elements (on the right side of the illustration below) show its vertical limit as 8,000 feet MSL (as the elevation of the balloon field is about 5,200 feet).

Note that depending on the date (such as October 6th) there are two periods of time during the day—04:30 PDT to 11:00 PDT and 15:00 PDT to 19:00 PDT. What makes this display a bit tricky is that the local time in Albuquerque is Mountain time (MDT)—one hour later.

While the column of air depicted in the TFR is not to be infringed upon, the balloons themselves often drift miles beyond that boundary. Once a balloon has left the TFR, should you desire to move-in close to observe these aircraft that are defined as lighter-than-air (LTA), recall; FAR 91.111 (a) No person may operate an aircraft so close to another aircraft as to create a collision hazard and; (d)(1) A balloon has the right-of-way over any other category of aircraft. A respectful distance of 500 feet should be considered as the minimum.