The recent expansion of the Washington DC Temporary Air Space Restrictions from 60 to 120 nautical miles in diameter is leaving many experienced pilots as well as many members of the general public puzzled as to reason why. What is more disturbing is there is not any reason stated for the expansion of the TFR leading many to speculate the worst is about to happen.
First of all, many are going to ask what is a Temporary Airspace Restrictions or TFR? A TFR is a FAA issued temporary flight restriction that bans any flight that does not require a filed flight plan that under normal circumstances that can be flown under uncontrolled visual flight rules or VFR. These flights include casual flights such as sightseeing, any flight training, skydiving, banner flying, and drone flights. Information about the size of the TFR, altitude block of the TFR, as well as duration is issued in a NOTAM which originally stood for notices to airmen with the word “airmen” changed to “air missions” due to the FAA’s current woke policies.
Most TFRs are relatively small, less than 5 nautical miles in diameter and have altitude blocks of only a few thousand feet such as flight Hazard and Stadium security TFRs, mainly to keep drones out. VIP TFRs are usually only reserved for the President of the United States and the Vice President. The Vice President usually having a TFR with only one ring roughly 15 nautical miles in diameter from the surface to 5,000 ft above the surface while the President has a TFR with an inner and outer ring both going from the surface to 17,999 Ft MSL which is right below Class A airspace with class A airspace requiring all aircraft to be under an instrument flight rules flight plan. All aircraft flying into a presidential TFR have to be under and assigned flight plan which includes in a assigned transponder code or “squawk number” with direct communications to air traffic control. The differences between the inner ring which which is 20 nautical miles in diameter versus the outer ring which is nautical 60 miles in diameter is the outer ring usually allows for Charter 135 operations to arrive and depart at airports within that area versus the inner rings requires all civilian/ non-governmental flights to be 121 airline operations only.
The previous Washington DC TFR had one ring roughly 60 nautical miles in diameter with the same restrictions as the outer ring of a presidential TFR which has stated in the NOTAM will be ” valid until further notice” essentially making it permanent. There are a couple TFRs over Disney properties which have the same until further notice listed in the NOTAMs and are documented in the aviation charts issued by the FAA.
In the middle of August of August 2024 an outer ring was added to the DC TFR which many pilots and members of the public noticed on a website called Skyvector.com which is free and available to anybody. This outer ring extended the size of the TFR to 120 nautical miles in diameter. This has been reflecting the charts as a permanent change. The charts depict these arcs as thin white circles and Skyvector depicts them as thin red circles. It should also be pointed out that Skyvector also reports forecasts of future TFRs when which are depicted in orange. Skyvector also tells when those TFRs are going to be implemented in hours a days as well as links to the NOTAMs issued by the FAA.
Why this is concerning that there is a new permanent outer ring to the DC TFR is that the that TFRs usually are put up only when there’s a dire need for restriction of access to the airspace for security reasons because they are very disruptive. So say you owned a flight school in the Baltimore Maryland area, well your SOL because this new essentially permanent extension just put your operation permanently out of business. Also it should be pointed out that in order to be cleared to have a flight plan for operations within the Washington DC TFR, you not only have to have special training but also submit to a background check so you could be pre-approved to file said flight plan and be issued a specific password in order to file said flight plan. So if you own a aircraft that is now in this new TFR, unless you have that security clearance good luck trying to get your plane out of the TFR and with the FAA being as punitive as it is, you can’t just use any private pilots to move your plane because this ferry operation will be considered commercial operations and the FAA would go after said private pilots who do so. You would have to have the planes ferried out with authorized commercial or airline transport pilots.
This begs the question why was the TFR extended from 60 to 120 nautical miles in diameter? The NOTAM does not explain the difference between the now inner and newly established outer rings of the DC TFR. Many speculate with the recent presidential race especially with Kamala Harris being selected as the nominee and not elected as the nominee, there is rampant speculation that they will still use Article 25 of the Constitution to remove Joe Biden, that there was the need to have a larger no fly zone around the White House. What is also strangers is there has been now redundant VIP TFRs over Camp David and the White House issued under the newly extended DC TFR. While the White House TFR was just a forecast and not actually activated, the Camp David TFR was activated over the weekend. It should also be pointed out that issuing VIP TFRs over the DC TFR is redundant and highly unusual. Another theory put out is that the no-fly zone over Washington DC was extended due to the potential start of a hot war between Iran and Israel which could be the kickoff to World War 3. Extending the diameter of the TFR will give the military more time to intercept and potential shoot down an unauthorized aircraft.
This is why many are speculating the worst could be potentially happening in a short order. The lack of any reasoning behind the diameter increase just adds fuel to the fire of that speculation. There has been no time since 9/11 has the DC TFR been extended, whether it was during the 2020 lockdowns, January 2021, nor was there any extension during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal in August of 2021. There has to be some National Security risk that is so serious that not only was the diameter extended but essentially made permanent according to the charts.
By Leland Freeman
