Last week, three small airplanes were intercepted by F-16s in the Los Angeles area as a result of busting temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) during President Obama’s visit to the area. These types of incidents remind me of why it’s so important to get the latest information available for each flight. I always call flight service for a preflight briefing in addition to getting a briefing online.
While TFR information is available online, the information is in many cases found separate from other information you should collect as part of your preflight briefing, such as weather and notams. It is unlikely that there will be any TFRs in the area, so after clicking on the TFR link 253 times with no TFRs reported, chances are that you’re occasionally tempted to omit this very important step. With a telephone briefing, this won’t happen since the briefer will tell you about any TFRs in the area.
