Says TFRs Preventing Training Flights ‘Frustrating’

ANN April 1 Special Coverage

It’s a classic government Catch-22. First Lady Michelle Obama said recently that she has long had a desire to learn to fly, but strict TFR regulations are frustrating her efforts.

In a conversation captured by an open microphone, the First Lady said recently that the hectic travel schedule she and President Obama keep mean that nearly everywhere they go, there is a TFR in place. Since training flights are not allowed in a TFR area, she is not able to get enough hours to qualify for a pilot certificate. “And,” she said, “most training airplanes have only two seats. I’d have to find a flight instructor that is also a Secret Service agent because of the rules protecting us. It’s very frustrating. I mean, we’re part of the one percent. We’re paying all those additional taxes, I should be able to learn to fly a corporate jet if I want to. We’re entitled, right?”

But FAA and Secret Service officials said that there are no plans to loosen the TFR rules simply to accommodate the First Lady. “If we let her take instruction, then we have to open it up to every jackleg flight instructor who wants to operate his or her business while the President and his wife are in town,” said an FAA official on condition of anonymity. “They’ll be out of office in three and a half years, and they’ll still be one-percenters. She’s just going to have to wait. It’s part of what she signed up for when he got elected.”

In the recorded conversation, the First Lady is overheard saying “Do the rules really apply to us? How much more fun would Hawaii be if we could just go island hopping in our own airplane and get away from everything. Not to mention how much easier it would be for Barack to go play golf.”

Senate Democrats quickly rammed through a bill that would exempt the First Lady’s flight instruction from the TFR rules, but the measure was expected to be “dead on arrival” in the Republican controlled house. “One more reason we have to take the House in 2014,” FLOTUS said.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.whitehouse.gov