TFR Busts, funny story

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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!"
 
This story lost all credibility once you said they were playing monopoly. Who plays monopoly????
 
Maybe I am confused, but I thought that a presidential TFR is monitored by radar and not visual sightings. So, if this story is true, it would not be the secret service playing monopoly who are at fault, but the radar personnel. So someone, tell me why I should believe the story.:dunno:
 
I wondered the same thing. After I violated, both the Secret Service and FAA told me that if I had ventured deeper into the TFR or not landed when told I would have been intercepted. I was flying a small wood and fabric plane with no transponder but they could see me on radar just fine. I can think of no reason not to believe "Toms" story. He's as reliable as the hills and has been at this FBO for many years. He shrugged incredulously saying he had no explanation but that he saw it happen. It occurred to me that maybe the guy had clearance but just acted like he didn't as a practical joke on Tom.
 
Story lost credibility when he said SS, Army missile command has that gig, the used to set up in our hangar at ISZ. They come in ahead of time, set up, spend most of the time playing video games until POTUS actually shows up, then watch the radar like hawks.
 
Skylane81E said:
Story lost credibility when he said SS, Army missile command has that gig, the used to set up in our hangar at ISZ. They come in ahead of time, set up, spend most of the time playing video games until POTUS actually shows up, then watch the radar like hawks.
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When the POTUS was in Palm Springs last month, the Secret Service was responsible for a lot of the set up in coordination with the military. We had a Secret Service agent stop by and give us a copy of the NOTAM to distribute to our pilots. The Army guys watched the temporarily surveillance radar and the secret service guys went down to SoCal TRACON to watch the blips move on their scope.
 
Jim Logajan said:
If the radar pulse width is long enough, an airplane in the pattern of the airport where the mobile radar is located might fall inside the "blind range."

http://www.radartutorial.eu/01.basics/rb10.en.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envelope_(radar)#Blind_Range
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I guess, but according to the OP the radar was up and running for a while, and the pilot came in for a landing. That would suggest a pretty big blind range, and I cannot imagine that the feds would leave the security of the president to the foibles of one mobile radar unit and a couple of secret service guys playing monopoly. Then again, there is sequestration???
 
douglas393 said:
I guess, but according to the OP the radar was up and running for a while, and the pilot came in for a landing. That would suggest a pretty big blind range, and I cannot imagine that the feds would leave the security of the president to the foibles of one mobile radar unit and a couple of secret service guys playing monopoly. Then again, there is sequestration???
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My guess is that the President just wasn't in the area yet. They could have all that stuff set up and if the President needs to play another round of golf before departing everybody sits around for an extra hour.

I'm sure most radar systems have a blind area near the radar, but unless the guy took off from an airport a mile away I'm sure they'd have seen him coming in if they were monitoring it. If not, that radar seemed like a waste of money as anybody intentionally trying to evade radar would be coming in low/etc.
 
steingar said:
Nothing funny about a TFR bust. Nothing funny at all.
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Largely because, in nearly all instances, the TFRs we have now are useless wastes of resources.
 
SCCutler said:
Largely because, in nearly all instances, the TFRs we have now are useless wastes of resources.
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+1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
 
And, just so we're clear here, they were useless when 43 was in the WH, too; they're just no longer a real problem for me, because the current CinC does not come here often. His predecessor, much more often. Many lost flying days.
 
I liked the TFR the briefer threw at me last night:

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_3_7747.html

Artillery practice at the Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center. This one does not show up on Foreflight. Had I not called the briefer we may have busted this during our approach to POV (provided the approach controller was asleep).
 
SCCutler said:
And, just so we're clear here, they were useless when 43 was in the WH, too; they're just no longer a real problem for me, because the current CinC does not come here often. His predecessor, much more often. Many lost flying days.
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Always a problem here, every election season. Doesn't matter who's running against who. It was stupid under 43, it's even more stupid under 44, and will be even more stupid still under 45. And I bet it goes on ten years past the day that last GA pilot dies.
 
ChrisK said:
I liked the TFR the briefer threw at me last night:

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_3_7747.html

Artillery practice at the Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center. This one does not show up on Foreflight. Had I not called the briefer we may have busted this during our approach to POV (provided the approach controller was asleep).
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Shoot, seems like the worlds smallest TFR!
 
ChrisK said:
I liked the TFR the briefer threw at me last night:

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_3_7747.html

Artillery practice at the Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center. This one does not show up on Foreflight. Had I not called the briefer we may have busted this during our approach to POV (provided the approach controller was asleep).
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That's odd. I noticed it yesterday on the WSI terminal at the airport. But you're right, Foreflight doesn't seem to have it. I wonder why. :dunno:
 
I just hope the next Pres is from a state far far away. I live in the Chicago area and I dread when I hear he is coming to town. Screws up the airspace AND the expressways around here. They always seem to land during rush hour.....
 
azure said:
That's odd. I noticed it yesterday on the WSI terminal at the airport. But you're right, Foreflight doesn't seem to have it. I wonder why. :dunno:
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We had a local law enforcement TFR pop-up yesterday afternoon that didn't show up on ForeFlight here either. The WingX guys were seeing it while I wasn't. Don't they all use the same source?
 
A couple years ago POTUS was scheduled for Portland, ME. CFI and I were going to Concord, NH for avionics maintenance. No problem; we went direct Brunswick to Concord in the morning(avg. 42 minute flight time).. We'd have to be out of Concord by 1500 to escape the TFR which would go into effect at that time. Didn't happen; as a result we had to file a flight plan which would take us to Waterville, ME, then backtrack to Brunswick while remaining outside the TFR. On the return we got the breaks. We were told we could alter course and proceed direct to Brunswick. At about the same time two different ATP flight crews were told to "Call such & such number." Bad boys.

We were only going to Brunswick because that's where my CFI's vehicle was, my plane destined for my Wiscasset hangar, 10nm beyond Brunswick. Landed Brunswick, dispatched CFI to his vehicle; surprise: couldn't takeoff for the 10 min. flight to Wiscasset without filing an all-new flight plan because I was still in the TFR area, Wiscasset was not.
SNAFU! Left the plane at Brunswick; CFI drove ME to Wiscasset to get MY vehicle; went back the next day to retrieve the plane. Crazy two days!

HR
Photos: Concord, NH
 

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steingar said:
Always a problem here, every election season. Doesn't matter who's running against who. It was stupid under 43, it's even more stupid under 44, and will be even more stupid still under 45. And I bet it goes on ten years past the day that last GA pilot dies.
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What we need is a general law that requires compensation from the government for any consequences of VIP movement including TFRs, road closures, traffic jams, etc. Once the Feds start having to pay for the effects of TFRs they will be used a lot less often.
 
gismo said:
What we need is a general law that requires compensation from the government for any consequences of VIP movement including TFRs, road closures, traffic jams, etc. Once the Feds start having to pay for the effects of TFRs they will be used a lot less often.
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Or increase taxes!
 
If the president is all that damned important he should be sequestered in the White House for all those four years. Same goes for the V P. It would certainly make the reelection season easier to take.
 
Speaking of TFR busts, someone busted the TFR here yesterday when POTUS came to town. News said multiple (as in15 or so) calls to the plane went unanswered and the plane landed in north Georgia.

Idiot.
 
silver-eagle said:
If the president is all that damned important he should be sequestered in the White House for all those four years. Same goes for the V P. It would certainly make the reelection season easier to take.
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As a foriegner what amazes me is the actual cost involved in POTUS travel....not only the actual cost of the movements but the cost in lost business, delays in transportation of goods and services etc. It must be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't think any other country in the world spends anywhere near that kind of money on their leaders transport...well maybe Russia or China do.
And nobody in the U S seems to have a problem with it.
 
ChrisK said:
I liked the TFR the briefer threw at me last night:

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_3_7747.html

Artillery practice at the Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center. This one does not show up on Foreflight. Had I not called the briefer we may have busted this during our approach to POV (provided the approach controller was asleep).
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They just make R-6703 hot around here. Something about invisible hazards to aerial navigation (as in 105mm howitzer shells, mortars, etc.). Important to know as V204 cuts through the south end of R-6703C. SEA approach does a good job of keeping IFR traffic out when it is a bad idea to fly through there.

genetk44 said:
As a foriegner what amazes me is the actual cost involved in POTUS travel....not only the actual cost of the movements but the cost in lost business, delays in transportation of goods and services etc. It must be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't think any other country in the world spends anywhere near that kind of money on their leaders transport...well maybe Russia or China do.
And nobody in the U S seems to have a problem with it.
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Not "nobody". I think a number of us have a problem with the security circus around here.
 
SCCutler said:
And, just so we're clear here, they were useless when 43 was in the WH, too; they're just no longer a real problem for me, because the current CinC does not come here often. His predecessor, much more often. Many lost flying days.
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You can't even remotely compare the wasted use of Air Force One in this administration with any previous ones. That would be ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. But that selfish attitude about only what affected you that's so important says it all. Pretty much the problem with the country these days - what's in it for me....:nonod:

Many, many more have been damaged in their businesses by this clown and the unprecedented use and waste of very expensive resources that routinely shut down huge areas of aviation business.
 
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On a lighter note, we were gathering at an event in Santa Rosa one day and one of our group was called by Travis Approach to see if he could identify the Piper Cub that had just cruised through the middle of the Thunderbird airshow at 3000'....
Naturally he declined to have visual contact but that old boy was probably in for a serious lecture if they tracked him to a towered field..:redface:

Landing at Tahoe one morning at their open house with temp tower I looked up nearing touch down to see a plane coming straight at me from the other direction. I went around without notice but the temp tower got pretty excited in their directions but the dufus wasn't on the temp tower freq. Got a serious discussion going when he parked....:yesnod:

All in all TFR busts are not good, can be dangerous, but they can be funny. :yesnod:
 
thats why you call the briefer even for punching holes around your local airport and flight services every hour on route for tfr updates, no fun to deal, i know a guy that burst tfr when clinton was in town,was a long painful deal.
 
Fortunately my state did not vote for the current POS and given the republican governor and republican legislature:). I do not expect him to come around anytime soon. Did see him when he came to the base that I work at when it was first elected. They actually let us out of the building to see AF1 takeoff.

Your tax dollars at work

I do like the idea of locking them in the WH for the duration. Come and get me NSA
 
Morgan3820 said:
Fortunately my state did not vote for the current POS and given the republican governor and republican legislature:). I do not expect him to come around anytime soon. Did see him when he came to the base that I work at when it was first elected. They actually let us out of the building to see AF1 takeoff.

Your tax dollars at work

I do like the idea of locking them in the WH for the duration. Come and get me NSA
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Doesn't matter if you vote dem or rep, the problem is the same. Tossing politics into the mix as if your unliked party is to blame might make you feel better but it's nothing more than political masturbation.
 
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C182P said:
Doesn't matter if you vote dem or rep, the problem is the same. Tossing politics into the mix as if your unliked party is to blame might make you feel better but it's nothing more than political masturbation.
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+1. Just a waste of brain space.
 
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