Specific NOTAMs Will Follow For The Event

OK, OK, we know it's early. We're all thinking about summer in Wisconsin, and Washington (DC) is thinking about winter in Washington (state). But forewarned is forearmed, right? And it'll be winter before you know it. So, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense, FAA will implement airspace security measures for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Games in February and March 2010. These flight restrictions in northwest Washington State will complement Canadian restrictions and procedures on the other side of the border.

The restrictions will coincide with the opening and closing of the Athlete Villages in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, scheduled for January 29, 2010, and March 24, 2010.

The FAA will publish a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) with the specific restrictions and may issue additional NOTAMs. Pilots should check NOTAMs frequently for this area.

The 17 page document deals largely with Canadian airspace. For pilots in the U.S. the following preliminary restrictions were published Friday:

All aircraft flight operations are prohibited from the surface to but not including 18,000 MSL, within (the bounded area) except as specified below.

• All aircraft operating with this TFR are limited to aircraft arriving or departing local airfields. Aircraft may not loiter.
• All aircraft entering or exiting the TFR must be on an active IFR or VFR flight plan and must be assigned a discrete beacon code by an Air Traffic Control (ATC) facility and be squawking that code prior to departing within or entering the TFR.
• Approved emergency/life saving flight (air ambulance/law enforcement/firefighting), military operations and other approved operations must call a phone number provided in the published NOTAM prior to operating within the TFR.
• Aircraft must remain in two-way communications with ATC at all times within the TFR.

All waivers are temporarily suspended during the time of this NOTAM except for ELO, GOV and SPO waivers.

The following operations are not authorized within this TFR: flight training, practice instrument approaches, aerobatic flight, glider operations, parachute operations, ultralight, hang gliding, balloon operations, agriculture/crop dusting, animal population control flight operations, banner towing operations, model aircraft operations, model rocketry, and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).

FMI: http://www.faa.gov/news/media/vancouvertfr.pdf