A bit more on this.
We have a lot of airspace incursion violations in the northeast, especially VIP TFRs. I work with the FAA when the violation falls under the Compliance Philosophy and the investigating inspector chooses to pass the incident off to the applicable FSDO's FPM. When the pilot shows up to the meeting with a compliant attitude the FPM may choose to assign RT (Remedial Training). RT is neither an enforcement or administrative action, so nothing ever appears on the pilot's record -- that's a good thing.
My lead rep and I conduct RTs and most of them are TFR-related. Because this is such a big issue at present it's a FAASTeam area of emphasis. We have conducted safety seminars on this topic and I co-wrote a "decoder" document for the Bedminster TFR in mid-2017. We deal with this topic weekly if not daily, with the involvement of the FSDO on a regular basis.
The problem we see time and time again in these RTs is basic lack of awareness of the TFR on the part of the pilot. The two most common problems are:
- No briefing, no awareness of the TFR.
- An electronic self-briefing only, which for one reason or another ends up incomplete or misinterpreted.
It's fairly uncommon to run across an incursion which resulted from a true navigational error. In the vast majority of the cases, the pilot was unaware of the TFR, or believed it to be inactive (or in a different place.) To be fair to the incident pilots, some of the POTUS TFRs have been quite complex, with last-minute changes to dates/times and locations. That adds to the challenge of staying up to date.
We have identified, and heavily recommend, one virtually sure-fire solution to avoid an inadvertent TFR incursion:
Call Flight Service within 30 minutes of your departure time.
That is to say,
don't use tfr.faa.gov;
don't use Foreflight/WingX/Garmin Pilot/etc.;
don't use your in-panel avionics which receive TFR alerts via ADS-B In;
call Flight Service. Further, call as close to your departure time as possible to get the latest possible information.
If one calls and ask for an abbreviated briefing, TFRs and adverse conditions only (Leidos is required to always provide adverse conditions), the typical length of call is under two minutes. I tend to call right after I pull my plane out of the hangar and am doing a leisurely walk-around. I call every single time I fly, even if it's just for a flight in the pattern, even if I've called two hours prior for an earlier flight. It's the cheapest insurance imaginable.
This is an article which appeared on my facebook page, GA Safety Briefing:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/ga-safety-briefing/i-flew-into-a-presidential-tfr/338556203223703/
It's a great analysis of what went wrong for a pilot who thought he could trust his EFB weather briefing to keep him appraised of TFRs. He's a convert for the "always call FSS" philosophy. Incidentally the FAA picked up and shared this article along with a number of FSDO's FAASTeam pages. The pilot involved has been asked to speak at a number of clubs and safety seminars. It's a pretty interesting read, and a good example of why it's so important to call rather than trust a self-briefing, when it comes to TFR incursions.
Good luck to all!
