Just read my first VIP TFR - Wow...

[hopmedic]

So Obama is in Atlanta today (the TFR just started a bit ago), so I got the email from AOPA about the TFR. For the first time, I actually read it top to bottom.

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_2_1554.html

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_2_1554.html

THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS ARE NOT AUTHORIZED WITHIN THIS TFR: FLIGHT TRAINING, PRACTICE INSTRUMENT APPROACHES, AEROBATIC FLIGHT, GLIDER OPERATIONS, SEAPLANE OPERATIONS, PARACHUTE OPERATIONS, ULTRALIGHT, HANG GLIDING, BALLOON OPERATIONS, AGRICULTURE/CROP DUSTING, ANIMAL POPULATION CONTROL FLIGHT OPERATIONS, BANNER TOWING OPERATIONS, SIGHTSEEING OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE TEST FLIGHTS, RADIO CONTROLLED MODEL AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS, MODEL ROCKETRY, UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS), AND UTILITY AND PIPELINE SURVEY OPERATIONS.

Seriously? Model aircraft flyers are expected to check for TFRs before taking out their models? I mean I'm surprised about ultralight and hang gliding, because I never would have expected guys taking off from their field in a PPC for example, would be checking before they go up to take in the view, but model aircraft??

I'm sure the rest of you being pilots aren't surprised a bit by this, but not being a pilot and never having read a TFR, I am. Wow.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Model aircraft flyers are expected to check for TFRs before taking out their models? I mean I'm surprised about ultralight and hang gliding, because I never would have expected guys taking off from their field in a PPC for example, would be checking before they go up to take in the view, but model aircraft??

The FAA is almost certainly exceeding its authority when it issues such broad TFRs. If you go read the statute that creates the FAA, you'll find that its authority covers only navigable air space. While the definition of navigable air space is left in part to the FAA itself, in several past court cases that reached the U.S. supreme court there were fundamental limits placed on how inclusive the FAA could define that important term. I provided links to some of the court cases I found on this subject (hardly exhaustive) in this post:

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showpost.php?p=930433&postcount=31

Just speculating, but the FAA may be deliberately issuing TFRs containing threats of action that it knows cannot be upheld in court, but it may have no intention of actually carrying through with them since it is really relying on FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to accomplish its end goals.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Technically it's not the FAA issuing the TFRs, it's the security authorities (DHS, USSS, TSA). The FAA is merely the conduit by which the TFR is communicated.

Not according to the statutes as I understand them, or according to the AIM, which tries to explain the origin and authority behind TFRs in section 3-5-3 in which it states, in part:"Except for hijacking situations, when the provisions of 14 CFR Section 91.137(a)(1) or (a)(2) are necessary, a temporary flight restrictions area will only be established by or through the area manager at the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) having jurisdiction over the area concerned. A temporary flight restrictions NOTAM involving the conditions of 14 CFR Section 91.137(a)(3) will be issued at the direction of the service area office director having oversight of the airspace concerned. When hijacking situations are involved, a temporary flight restrictions area will be implemented through the TSA Aviation Command Center. The appropriate FAA air traffic element, upon receipt of such a request, will establish a temporary flight restrictions area under 14 CFR Section 91.137(a)(1)."
Otherwise the FAA accepts recommendations for TFRs from other agencies - and so far as I can tell none of the others have been delegated any direct authority over US airspace. Section 3-5-3 in the AIM has all the other details:

http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim/aim0305.html

The FAA's parents, the DOT or the president, could also presumably directly dictate TFRs, but DHS and its child TSA are a different cabinet than the DOT. The DHS and TSA are probably as welcome to mess in the FAA's or DOT's affairs as the FAA or DOT's is welcome to mess in the DHS or TSA affairs.

Agency turf is no doubt closely guarded by all involved, so I think it unlikely that the FAA acts as a simple conduit for TFRs in the way some here claim.