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A couple years ago I busted a TFR when the president was visiting the big city in my local area. I was so clueless I took off right into it just to go fly around for fun on a Sunday morning. That's what you get for not checking, or reading the newspaper, or turning on the radio on the drive to the airport. I was doing touch and goes at a little airport about 20 miles away when the attendant Tom (not his real name) there called me on unicom to tell me that the Secret Service was on the phone and that they wanted to talk to me, NOW. It was very embarrassing and all the authorities were very kind and apologetic about everything including suspending me for 45 days.
Fast forward to a couple days ago when I landed at the same airport again and introduced myself to Tom the attendant as that idiot who'd busted the TFR. After a laugh he said he had an even better story about busting a TFR.
The president was in town. Not the big town nearby but at the same town his airport was in. The local National Guard was on alert at the field. A portable surveillance radar truck was brought in and set up at the airport. The Secret Service set up a command post at the airport. Nothing was moving. Quiet hours passed.
Then, as Tom tells it, a small single engine plane landed and taxied up. It was a local pilot based at this airport. He was on his day off from his job as a 747 pilot. He didn't know about the TFR and "turned white as a sheet" when informed. They both looked around and realized that apparently no one had yet noticed the little plane. So, they quickly and nonchalantly pushed it into a hanger and went about their business.
Tom ended his story with this, "The best part is that when that plane landed the Secret Service guys were in the pilots lounge playing Monopoly! They never noticed a thing!"
Fast forward to a couple days ago when I landed at the same airport again and introduced myself to Tom the attendant as that idiot who'd busted the TFR. After a laugh he said he had an even better story about busting a TFR.
The president was in town. Not the big town nearby but at the same town his airport was in. The local National Guard was on alert at the field. A portable surveillance radar truck was brought in and set up at the airport. The Secret Service set up a command post at the airport. Nothing was moving. Quiet hours passed.
Then, as Tom tells it, a small single engine plane landed and taxied up. It was a local pilot based at this airport. He was on his day off from his job as a 747 pilot. He didn't know about the TFR and "turned white as a sheet" when informed. They both looked around and realized that apparently no one had yet noticed the little plane. So, they quickly and nonchalantly pushed it into a hanger and went about their business.
Tom ended his story with this, "The best part is that when that plane landed the Secret Service guys were in the pilots lounge playing Monopoly! They never noticed a thing!"
