Temporary Flight Restrictions of Manned and Unmanned Aircraft Announced

From a modest 1972 debut during which 13 balloons launched from a shopping mall parking lot, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has grown to the world’s premier ballooning event.

Rendered uncannily ideal for ballooning by a climatological phenomenon known as the "Albuquerque Box," (a combination of weather patterns and geography that affords balloonists superb control of their lighter-than-air-craft) the fiesta occasions the largest assemblage of hot-air-balloons on Earth, and is generally acknowledged as both the world’s most photographed event.

Held annually over the first nine-days of October, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a kaleidoscopic extravaganza characterized by the roar of hundreds of fiery burners and the spectacular beauty of more than five-hundred hot air balloons rising with unhurried resplendency into New Mexico’s azure autumn skies.

2022’s marks the Balloon Fiesta’s fiftieth-year... The business of populating a 365-acre purpose-built park with a few-hundred-thousand awestruck people, hundreds of vendors, five-hundred hot air balloons, and 1,500-pounds of liquid-propane is a complex and unforgiving one, however, and a few well-thought-out safety-measures are insisted upon. Ergo, the FAA has established a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) area within a four-mile radius of the center of the Balloon Fiesta Park.

Control of aircraft within the TFR is at the sole discretion of the FAA and the Balloon Fiesta stewards. Unauthorized aircraft—to include drones—are prohibited from operating within the boundaries without the expressed permission of the aforementioned entities. Enforcement of Balloon Fiesta Temporary Flight Restrictions falls within the joint purview of the FAA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Albuquerque Police Department.

Drone operators endeavoring to power-up their UAVs/UASs within the TFR will be alerted via a red screen Using a number of different airspace safety apps) indicating the illegality of their ostensible intention to conduct flight operations within restricted airspace. What’s more, the FAA, FBI, Albuquerque Police Department will be alerted of the potentially illegal flight activity and respond appropriately.

FMI: www.balloonfiesta.com