The President Will Be Touring The Region Affected By The
Deepwater Horizon Spill Monday And Tuesday
President Barack Obama is visiting beaches in Alabama,
Mississippi, and Florida Monday and Tuesday, and a complex series
of TFRs will accompany him along the northern Gulf Coast. The
westernmost TFR goes into effect at 1000 CDT Monday, and the
easternmost won't expire until 1415 EDT Tuesday.
Anyone wishing to fly along a region from the Louisiana border
to about 30NM west of Pensacola, FL Monday and Tuesday should
carefully check NOTAMS before attempting a flight, lest you have an
unexpected visit from some slow-flying F-16s.
In areas that are in the outer rings of the TFRs:
- Operations are limited to aircraft arriving or departing local
airfields.
- Workload permitting, ATC may authorize transit operations.
- Aircraft may not loiter.
- All aircraft must be on an active IFR or VFR flight plan with a
discrete code assigned by an Air Traffic Control (ATC)
facility.
- Aircraft must be squawking the discrete code prior to departure
and at all times while in the TFR.
- Must remain in two-way radio communications with ATC.
Not authorized are 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, sightseeing operations,
maintenance test flights, model aircraft operations, model
rocketry, and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).
In the inner rings of the TFR, only the following flights will
be approved:
- Approved law enforcement, military aircraft directly supporting
the United States Secret Service (USSS) and the Office Of The
President Of The United States.
- Approved air ambulance flights.
- Approved aircraft supporting the oil spill cleanup
operations.
Regularly scheduled commercial passenger and all-cargo carriers
operating under one of the following TSA-approved Standard Security
Programs/Procedures and are arriving into and/or departing from 14
CFR part 139 airports:
- Aircraft Operator Standard Security Program (AOSSP),
- Full All-Cargo Aircraft Operator Standard Security Program
(FACAOSSP),
- Model Security Program (MSP),
- Twelve Five Standard Security Program (TFSSP) all cargo
- All-Cargo International Security Procedure (ACISP)
All emergency/life saving flight (Medical/Law
Enforcement/Firefighting) operations must coordinate with ATC prior
to their departure at the following numbers:
- FDC 0/5589 -- 228-864-3760
- FDC 0/5590 -- 850-266-6921/6920
- FDC 0/5591 -- 850-266-6921/6920
- FDC 0/5592 -- 850-266-6921/6920
Aircraft supporting oil spill cleanup efforts must coordinate
approval with the incident commander at 985-493-7607/7804 prior to
departure.
Of course, it is all subject to change with little or no notice,
so reviewing the published NOTAM would be a really prudent
move.