Sensitive Presidential Visit, Pilots Need To Exercise Extreme Care

Pilots operating in the Mid-Atlantic region will need to pay extra attention to the area around Camp David on Monday and Tuesday, June 23 and 24. The FAA has published a notam expanding the P-40 prohibited area to a 10-nm radius. It extends up to but not including 18,000 feet. The TFR will be in effect from 2155 local on Monday, June 23, until 1440 local on Tuesday, June 24.

While complying with temporary flight restrictions is always important, this one is especially so. Security officials have informed AOPA that this visit to Camp David is highly sensitive and that enforcement actions for violations will be severe in the extreme. Military patrol aircraft have shoot-down authority.

All aircraft operations within a 0-5 nm radius below 12,500 feet are prohibited, except as described in the notam.

Aircraft operating within a 5-10 nm radius must be on an active IFR or VFR flight plan, must be in constant radio contact with air traffic control (ATC), and must be transmitting a discrete ATC-assigned transponder code. All aircraft operations are limited to aircraft arriving or departing local airfields. Aircraft may not loiter.

Flight training, practice instrument approaches, aerobatic flight, glider operations, parachute operation, ultralight, hang gliding, balloon operations, agriculture/crop dusting, animal population control flight operations, and commercial cargo carrier operations that fail to meet or exceed the FAA's domestic security inspection program standards are not authorized. All aircraft departing from private airports/airfields must be on a heading away from the center of the P-40 airspace.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.dhs.gov