If you don’t know
already or haven’t
had the fortune
(yet) of receiving
a temporary
restriction
pertaining to our
model flying fields,
you will stand
a better chance as we get further
into the presidential election. Since
January of 2009, our beloved hobby
has been affected by flight restrictions
for “very important person” (VIP)
movements in and around the
contiguous United States, specifically
the president of the United States.
These have to do with the
presidential entourage as it
moves from city to city for visits
and functions. These temporary
restrictions are announced in the
form of an FAA NOTAM (notice to
airmen.)
Being a full-scale pilot, you are
made aware of these because they
restrict your freedom as a pilot and
must be adhered to religiously or
consequences could be waiting.
Often, breaking restricted airspace can
lead to being escorted to the nearest
airport by a pair of F-16s followed
closely by answering many questions
or worse.
I’m not indicating that these
consequences are destined for us as
modelers, but you should know that
the FAA and Homeland Security takes
NOTAMs seriously and we should,
too. Realize also, that we aren’t
being singled out on this, because
nearly every aviation-related activity,
including free ballooning, skydiving,
and so on are also prohibited in the
restrictions.
We were recently given a
clarification on whether or not FF
and CL activities were included in
the restrictions, and they are not, so
those segments of the hobby are not
required to stand down during the
times and dates of the NOTAMs.
Here at AMA Headquarters, we
have developed a procedure to get
the pertinent information out to
our affected members and clubs
in as timely a manner as possible.
Sometimes that can be a challenge
considering we only receive 48 to
72 hours notice of the restriction.
Normally, the NOTAMS are sent to
Rich Hanson and me directly from the
FAA, so getting the information out
has to be done immediately.
We will take the latitude and
longitude from the NOTAM and plug
them into a formula we developed
to query our AMA database for
the clubs and members affected in
that specific area. We prepare the
appropriate statements and links to
the FAA and post this information on
the AMA website and also send push
emails to the district vice presidents,
district associate vice presidents,
club presidents, and on down to the
members.
We’re trying to provide enough
overlap so that few, if any, do not
have access to the information
needed. If you experience a problem
getting the notices from AMA
Headquarters, your spam filter may
be stopping the email because of
a content issue. By changing the
parameters of your spam filter you can
easily overcome this issue.
So far, the membership response
we’ve received from our efforts
has been positive and we hope you
understand that, as users of the
airspace, we now are recognized as
a pertinent player, which is a good
thing. This also plays along with our
being recognized as an integral part of
the FAA rulemaking process that has
received much press lately within our
ranks.
It’s all a part of staying ahead of the
game and abreast of issues, presenting
ourselves (modelers) as responsible
users of the airspace, and making
safety our first priority. For easy
access I’ve included links to the two
pertinent pages on our website where
you can get the latest updates: www.
modelaircraft.org/membership/clubs/
notams.aspx and http://tfr.faa.gov/
tfr2/list.html.
To clear up many questions, I’m
including a list of the most-used
acronyms that you see in the email
notices we send out to you:
• TFR: Temporary Flight
Restriction
• FAA: Federal Aviation
Administration
• NOTAM: Notices to Airmen
(that included model airmen)
• VORTAC: Very High Frequency
Omni directional Radio beacon
with Tacan
• ATC: Air Traffic Control
• FDC: Federal Document Center
• EST: Eastern Standard Time
• CST: Central Standard Time
• MST: Mountain Standard Time
• PST: Pacific Standard Time
If you have questions or want to
know more, feel free to email me.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/08
Page Numbers: 162