[This doesn't belong in -tech, replying in -flyin] The AOPA seminar info is correct. I busted a VIP TFR a year and a half ago and ultimately incurred a 35 day license suspension. No F-16 flybys, since it just Vice on a stealth fund-raising visit to town. Don't count on AOPA's email service to alert you either. They do get most TFRs, but not the one I flew through. Fire TFRs are easy enough to spot: don't fly near lots of smoke! Unlike Wayne below, I didn't learn my lesson like a good boy. I still rarely get a pre-flight briefing for local flights. I never liked CYA-type efforts and won't start now, not for TFRs for politicians. I do check the FAA TFR website, but that's not proof. Of course the current administration is now talking about criminalizing TFR busts (http://www.aopa.org/flightplanning/articles/2007/071016tfr.html): use a plane, go to jail! VIP TFRs are a joke, a facade, like everthing Bush does. The only way they could increase security for the protected VIP would be to have an active shoot-down policy, something I won't be surprised to see in a few years. Perhaps by that time I'll be done with flying anyway.
_____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 8:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Off Topic - Preflight Briefings and TFR's . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=19286938/grpspId=1705340085/msgI d=2027/stime=1193369458/nc1=4767085/nc2=3848621/nc3=4507179> Just thought I'd pass this along - I went to an AOPA air safety seminar a few weeks ago. The topic of the seminar was FAR's. Not an exciting subject, but I figured it was free and I always learn something new when I go to one of these. One of the main points that the speaker stressed was that it is absolutely imperative that every pilot get an official preflight weather briefing before every flight - either over the phone from the FSS or via some approved computerized briefing service like DUATS. This is because the TFR's pop up and move around every time the president and certain other officials decide to go somewhere, and if you fly into a TFR, he said that the FAA will pull your license. TFR's can pop up anywhere with virtually no notice at all. All it takes is for some politician to decide that he wants to go visit someone. He said the only way that you will be able to avoid losing your license is if there is a record (their record, not yours) that you got a briefing before that particular flight and that you were told that there were no TFR's on your route. He said that the powers that be are deadly serious about this. He even went so far as to say t hat if you fly somewhere and land for fuel and then get ready to take off again, you should call again and check to see if any TFR's have popped up while you were flying. I always call and get a preflight briefing anyhow (I'm on dial up, so I can't do it over the computer), but now I've started treating this TFR thing like getting a Class B airspace clearance. If the briefer doesn't specifically say "There are no TFR's" during the briefing, then I ask him to "Confirm that there are no TFR's". If all I am going to do is go up and fly around the pattern at my home field for 20 minutes, I still call the FSS, give him my info and tell him that I don't need a weather briefing, and that all I need is to confirm that there are no TFR's in the area. They don't seem to have any problem with this request, although they will usually give me a brief weather report anyhow. Hopefully the need to get a briefing before every flight is old news for everyone on the list, but I decided to pass it on anyhow, since one of my pilot friends told me the other day that he usually doesn't bother getting a preflight briefing when the weather is good because "it takes too long". I'm waiting to hear about him and an F-16 on the evening news. When that happens, he's going to spend a lot more than 3 minutes talking to the FAA, and some politician will start working on passing new legislation to further restrict all those little airplanes that can't follow the rules..... Best Regards, Wayne DelRossi Alon N5618F Hours logged since restoration: 334.5
