Be careful! Not all closed airspace requires a TFR!

[ArVeeNiner]

So, you have your Foreflight up and running for a quick local breakfast flight. You don?t see any big red TFR circles depicted between you and your destination so life is good right? There is no chance that you can accidentally fly into something like firefighting operations, airshows, or Air Force 1 as long as you don?t fly into the red rings right? Well, I have found out that that is NOT the case!!! You CAN easily find yourself as the unexpected star of an aerial exhibition which can ruin your day in a hurry.

Thankfully, I didn?t fly into a TFR or closed airspace but I did come to realize that not all temporarily closed airspace requires a TFR, and if there is no TFR, Foreflight isn?t showing it on the chart.

During Memorial Day weekend, I flew down to the annual Hollister, CA (KCVH) airshow and fly-in. I noticed that nothing was depicted graphically on the Foreflight chart but you could read about it on the NOTAM tab on the airports page. Maybe this is something that I should have known but I really thought that if you?re going to close an airport for something like an airshow, a TFR would pop up.

So, I know that there is an airshow and fly-in up in Marysville, CA (KMYV) this weekend. I checked on Foreflight and once again, there isn?t a TFR depicted on the map for this event. There is a TFR for nearby Beale AFB however but that is not there for the airshow. The only indication you have regarding the closed airspace is to go to the airports page and click on the NOTAM tab.

Just for fun, I did a nationwide search for closed airspace due to an airshow and I found one in Maryland near KOXB this weekend. I quickly downloaded a Maryland chart to Foreflight and in this case, the closed airspace WAS shown on the chart.

I sent Foreflight an email regarding this and they confirmed that only if the airport operator requests a TFR from the FAA will it show graphically on the charts. Otherwise, it will be a NOTAM and will not show up graphically.
So, on a local flight when you are not likely to get a full briefing, you can be tooling along at 4500 feet and be smack dab in the middle of an airshow! On those longer trips when you will get a briefing, sure, NOTAMS are downloaded but with page after page of written NOTAMS to go through, a blurb about an airport that you might be flying near with closed airspace might be easily missed.

So, read your NOTAMS carefully and don't assume that staying outside of the TFR rings will keep you out of trouble. The Foreflight team will look into showing all airport closures graphically in a future version.

 

[Alan Carroll]

Good point. Of course the same was true before the whole TFR thing got invented. You've always had to check NOTAMS for your route. Fortunately this is a lot easier than it used to be due to various flight planning programs that will list out all NOTAMS within a certain distance of your route. I particularly like the Weathermeister presentation because it highlights important ones (like closed airports) in red.

Another "gotcha" is stadium TFRs, which normally are not graphically depicted. The stadiums aren't even shown on the VFR charts in most cases. You're somehow supposed to know where they all are and when there's going to be an event.

 

[Vlad]

Another "gotcha" is stadium TFRs, which normally are not graphically depicted. The stadiums aren't even shown on the VFR charts in most cases. You're somehow supposed to know where they all are and when there's going to be an event.

Couldn't agree more. Stadium TRFs pop up relatively regular and there is nothing online. You either call FSS (who does that on short local flight?) or ask ATC. The other weekend I had a guest who wanted a ride over NYC. We asked LGA controller for couple circles over Central Park and she told us not to deviate to the north. There was a TFR in effect over Yankee Stadium

 

[turbo]

I know at Hartford when there is a football game at the stadium the atis will mention that tfr. If you look close you will also see a banner being towed over head. Staying above 3,000' will keep you out of those sporting tfrs.

 

[BobTurner]

It is worse than you think

Got a briefing from FSS? Or DUAT? Think you got all the relevant NOTAMS?
Nope. There is a periodic publication of NOTAMs, just like the AF/D, and the FAA thinks that everyone subscribes to it! Once the publication comes out, the published NOTAMs may be taken off the internet/teletype circuit. If you talk to a real person for your briefing you can ask them to check for published notams, they have the book.
Wise airport managers re-submit their notams every 56 days to keep them "alive" on the DUAT circuit.

Historically, (prior to 9-11) TFRs were for unplanned airspace closures, like a forest fire. Planned airport/airspace closures were always by NOTAM.

 

[n5lp]

Weathermeister is your friend

For full disclosure, I pay full price for Weathermeister and it is well worth it. The yellow circles are the locations of the sports TFRs.

I subscribed after getting calls from Albuquerque Center and Lubbock FSDO regarding a flight I made over an officially nonexistent airport. Even though I broke no rules I became convinced that Weathermeister would have clued me into the situation better. There was a very general 1,000 square mile NOTAM attached to a VOR. I didn't find it in my briefing but it would have showed up under the clever Weathermeister algorithms. It might have made me decide to not poke the beast.

 

[dabney]

Sports TFR's

Weathermeister thankfully depicts the locations of stadiums with a yellow circle. The yellow circles DO NOT depict sport TFR's, only where there is a stadium where there MIGHT be a TFR. To know if the sport TFR is effective you have to check the sports page, I am not kidding. FSS does not know the dates and times of all the sporting events around the country that qualify for a TFR. If you have not checked it, stay 3 nm miles away and or 3000' AGL above the depicted yellow circle to be safe.

As many pilots here have already articulated, these TFR's are a complete waste of effort. Only certain delineated sporting events qualify for a TFR and they begin one hour before the event and end one hour after. How is a pilot supposed to know when a National League baseball game ends? Was it a perfect game that ended in two hours or a marathon 15 inning game that lasted four hours??? Really stupid idea. How can pilots get this changed??

 

[LAMPSguy]

CAN be VERY bad

Once the publication comes out, the published NOTAMs may be taken off the internet/teletype circuit.

This bit me potentially bad a couple years ago. Panama city moved airports. The TACAN station itself was moved closer to Eglin AFB, but the channel stayed the same. NOTAM was there, then went away as described above. So one day I was taking a student on an IFR training flight (luckily only under the hood) and noticed the needles pointing a little strange...yup, station was transmitting on the correct channel, but it was in the WRONG location!

Additionally, I teach my students to check Whitehouse.gov to see what the President/VP are planning to do that day. They will usually post his schedule...not fool proof, but if they say he is planning campaign stops in Florida tomorrow, I then expect pop-up TFR's to happen while I am inflight!

 

[turbo]

thanks for the reminder on wethermeister. i still think it is the best flight briefing presentation around.

found new meister trick- when you are on the first overall map, click on the little gold person figure above the zoom in and out device. drag it to a location and you have a google view of that area.

 

[airguy]

thanks for the reminder on wethermeister. i still think it is the best flight briefing presentation around.

found new meister trick- when you are on the first overall map, click on the little gold person figure above the zoom in and out device. drag it to a location and you have a google view of that area.

Another vote for Weathermeister here, I signed up for the paid service after AOPA went fully Tango-Uniform with their botched weather service upgrade, that was the only useful product I got from AOPA so I cancelled the membership and sent my dollars to Weathermeister. I've been using it a couple months now and find it much better and easier to use than the AOPA noise.

 

[Low Pass]

...Additionally, I teach my students to check Whitehouse.gov to see what the President/VP are planning to do that day. They will usually post his schedule...

Be careful!! whitehouse 'dot' com used to be a bad one!!! **File-exit, close, close, power off!!!! Delete browser history, temp files...** Doh!!