While the TSA haggles with that pesky due process, pilots are still trying to keep their noses clean and their tickets clear by staying away from the Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) warning areas. Those moving plots of no-pilot’s-airspace seem to be popping up all too frequently (and even more often as the presidential campaign wears on). According to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), more than 3,000 TFRs have been issued in the period from September 11, 2001, through March 2004. The NBAA puts the price tag of the TFRs and closure of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington to general aviation at $43 million per month in productivity, jobs and revenue. The restrictions are especially onerous to the NBAA, the organization that promotes the beauty of the business applications of GA, by essentially “defeating the purpose of having a business aircraft,” says the association’s director of air traffic services. NBAA is not (at all) alone in its concerns. Many wonder aloud at the usefulness of the restrictions. “The terrorist is not going to obey the no-fly zone,” president of the National Air Transportation Association, James Coyne, told the Newhouse News Service. “He is the last person on the planet to give a damn.”
