Yes
Virginia, this could happen to you
It was a beautiful day and promised to be an
even better holiday weekend in the upper Midwest. My wife asked to
go on a trip to Michigan to see her aging aunts and uncle. How much
better does it get, an opportunity to go flying and your wife is
encouraging the trip? By watching the weather for a few days prior
to the trip I knew that the weather was more than going to
cooperate, it was going to be great. All of our flying together has
been in a “Spam can” and we file IFR. This day I was
going to take my new RV on its first long cross country; we could
skirt the Class B airspace around Chicago and get a glimpse of the
skyline as we came up the south side around Gary, Indiana. I was
running late leaving work, and my wife was already at the hangar
waiting. Wanting to start this trip on a positive note, I quickly
packed things up and did a last minute check of the weather on the
AOPA web site before leaving the office. PERFECT. I rushed out to
the airport, pre-flighted the airplane and took off to points east.
The flight was wonderful. The air was smooth and clear. My new
fancy equipment performed as intended. Three and a half hours
later, I called approach in Michigan I was informed that I should
call Chicago Approach when I landed. “What did I do”? I
landed, called and was informed that I had violated the
Presidential TFR!
VIP TFR - Memorial Day Weekend 2010
How
could this happen? I am a conscientious pilot and did not think
that I was becoming complacent. Trust me, the rest of the weekend
was pure torture as I racked my brain thinking of all the
opportunities I had had to avoid this mistake.
The
ill-fated route
Let’s look at what went wrong. Even though I was going VFR, I
did not get a full briefing from the services that are available.
That saved me about 5 minutes and cost me three subsequent
sleepless nights. I had numerous other opportunities to familiarize
myself with the TFR. They are listed on the AOPA, EAA and DUATS web
sites. As I was talking to Rockford approach I could have told them
of my ultimate destination and they would have warned me. As I was
listening to the radio I heard chatter about a TFR and wrongly
assumed it was referring to a Blue Angels air show that weekend.
How long would it have taken to ask a controller for the details as
opposed to my “assuming” I knew what they were talking
about?
I was lucky. “Thunder One” and friends did not
intercept me as the President was not yet in town, although the TFR
was active. Over the weekend, there were three other planes that
wandered into the restricted airspace and were escorted to a safe
field for debriefing.
So what did I learn? First, there is no such thing as a routine
flight. Every flight should be planned and pilots should take
advantage of all the information that is made available to them to
make sure they are familiar with the current environment into which
they will be flying. With the proliferation of smart phones, cell
phones, and locally available computers, how long does it really
take to prepare yourself? We would not think of taking off without
a preflight. Why would we not prepare ourselves for the navigation
portion of the flight? GPS is great, moving maps do a great job of
outlining controlled airspace, but only by familiarizing ourselves
with all available information do we know all the issues that we
might encounter.
I have had over 2300 hours of flying over 20 plus years, and I
considered myself a very safe, aware and prepared pilot. I would
never do anything to jeopardize my own or my passenger’s
safety. Yet by not preparing as thoroughly as possible, I will lose
the privilege of flying for up to 90 days. The FAA is very firm in
its punishment; I respect that, but it does not make it any easier
to accept.
Let my error be a warning to all of you out there. Take nothing for
granted and treat every flight with the same care you would in
planning a 1000 mile cross country in IFR conditions.
Anonymous and Remorseful