Originally published at: NJ And Florida TFR Busts Mar GA Public Image - AVweb
Pilots urged to consult NOTAMs to avoid violations.
Eight TFR busts in one weekend? Sorry Mark but eight TFR busts in one weekend indict the TFR program infinitely more than than they indict GA! How about a headline which reads “NJ and Florida TFR Busts Expose Need to Rethink Airspace Ownership”.
Frankly it’s time for AvWeb and other aviation rags to grow some balls and start advocating for reclamation of airspace which belongs to GA rather than accuse GA of marring its own public image because TFRs have gotten out of hand. By remaining silent we can choose Chinese style total government ownership of airspace, or by our vocal advocacy we can choose to retain ownership of US airspace by the people. Which will it be AvWeb editorial staff?
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So, they’re not actually TEMPORARY. They permanently follow VIP politicians around using up way more of the national airspace than really necessary and they protect…somebody I guess… from the threat of tiny aircraft because on 9/11 airliners were used as weapons. The airliners don’t need to modify their procedures. And this somehow makes sense to some…
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An Air Force spokesman meant to say “Our layered defense network, which includes radar, satellites, fighter aircraft, tankers, and helicopters, allows us to quickly identify and respond to old guys who learned to fly long before GPS flying planes built long before I was born who didn’t read the NOTAM despite AOPA’s diligent spamming of their email inbox about it.”
AOPA and others need to be aggressively fighting TFRs. The TFRs tend to be overly broad and disruptive to GA. Lee
Is that what those BULLSEYE maps are? I thought they were supposed to help threat agents locate the VIPs. That’s what it looks like, anyway.
We are in the outer circle for the Bedminster one. I totally sucks. While some people say it’s not that bad, just file a flight plan and get a code. It’s totally BS. It completely shuts down a few airports. I won’t be surprised if they go out of business. It has been almost every weekend with another one this weekend. He just doesn’t give two craps about any of this or anyone.
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VIP TFRs are not going away. However, the sanctions against violating pilots will increase with all these busts. I haven’t read recently of airline or business aviation TFR busts.
This, exactly.
To my knowledge, there has never been a single credible threat from these post-9/11 TFR busts. All they really do is announce where and when the “VIP” will be. Especially with things escalating across the globe, I’d be more concerned about announcing the when and where to our adversaries who may take the opportunity some day to launch a military strike at the center of one of these TFRs. The next terrorist or military threat will not come from where it last came from and where we are still looking; it will come from where we aren’t looking.
So maybe an even better headline would be “NJ and Florida TFR Busts Expose Strategic Danger of VIP TFRs”.
It’s impossible to bust one on an IFR flight plan, which I recommend, but even that traffic, not to mention ATC, have a huge headache every time one pops up. And it’s not efficient. Maybe someone who knows more about efficiency could take a look at it.
It’s just the aircraft that pose no actual threat that need to worry about busting it…
It’s not about actual threats, like terrorism. It’s obviously just theater. Helping the masses, and reps in congress, feel better by distracting them from more important stuff.
We had to complain about how broken the NOTAM system is for 30 years before anyone took us seriously. Skip AOPA. They are part of the problem.
Complain directly to your reps in congress.
When is the aviation community going to start pushing back against the excessive number of TFRs that have become commonplace and in some cases perpetual, and that infringe on our ability and right to use public airspace? There is no legal justification for busting a TFR (ignorance of the law, and all that), but when they pop up without warning there is plenty of moral excuse. The legal and political pushback against the excessive number of TFRs has been minimal at best. AOPA and EAA, I’m looking at you. The constitutional basis and justification for each of these needs to be evaluated, and there needs to be a more robust checks and balances system that prevents unnecessary and inordinately intrusive TFRs from being issued in the first place.
Absolutely. THIS. The airspace belongs to the people, and there needs to be a more substantial reason for shutting it down besides “a VIP wants to go play some golf”.
And what about us sailplane (glider) pilots? We don’t file flight plans for circling in thermals where ever they may exist. We’re just wiped off the map and out of the sky. This ruins our sport financially and flight wise, every single weekend of the soaring season for the next four years.
Maybe it’s time for Trump to take up tennis.
Does Trump really feel for the little guy when the TFR around Bedminster basically chokes off the vital weekend revenue for Van Sant airport?
It’s not just presidential TFRs, they pop up over every sporting event, forest fire, Vice President travel, Super Bowl, etc. Ever since 911, the government can form a TFR at the drop of a hat. The threat is overstated and the local economic impact isn’t worth the squeeze. AOPA is not your friend, and it’s not going to solve this problem.
Another reason one should think about whom they vote for .
“When is the aviation community starting to push…”
I rarely ever laugh out loud while reading. The so-called aviation community can currently not remotely agree on wheter its daylight or dark outside. Instead, we are a greatly (nearly irreparably) damaged and divided bunch of first world luxury people attacking each other over which clown currently occupies the White House…
This community is barely a shade of its former self. Contracting the issue of TFR’s out to any of the three or 4 letter advocacy groups (in essence voting by proxy) hasn’t worked for several decades and its not going to start working now, by some miraculous wonder.
Two attempts on currently sitting president. Threats everywhere. I bet my bum the SS is on red alert and preventing another attack on Trump is dead front center with those, tasked to protect him.
Trump himself gives no rats behind about which flight school, business or charter outfit has to go down the drain, most of these people have no remote concept or interest in who has his privileges revoked based on their need for recreation and relaxing.
The best you can expect is that the current dick-swinging contest doesn’t further escalate, causing a total meltdown.
Read the damn NOTAM, file the damn flightplan or do what you have to, but don’t count on surviving a direct attack by a FA18.