On The Air: September 2017

A few years after the big red Do Not Enter circle was drawn over Washington, DC, I needed to attend a meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland. In spite of advice against it, I decided to fly my 182 into College Park Airport (KCGS), which would, of course, take me directly into the forbidden zones around DC (ADIZ and Flight Restricted Zone). A couple days before departing my southern Illinois home I called ATC and got the detailed entry instructions.

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, August 01, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A pilot attempting to enter the Washington D.C. Flight Restricted Zone experienced significant communication breakdowns and contradictory instructions from ATC, despite having pre-authorization.
The pilot was initially denied entry due to his authorization number not being in the system, but was eventually cleared to proceed after circling the restricted zone.
A separate anecdote describes a pilot getting hopelessly lost in West Texas and receiving a comically unhelpful answer ("Sir, you're in Texas!") from a store clerk when asking for his location.

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A few years after the big red “Do Not Enter” circle was drawn over Washington, DC, I needed to attend a meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland. In spite of advice against it, I decided to fly my 182 into College Park Airport (KCGS), which would, of course, take me directly into the forbidden zones around DC (ADIZ and Flight Restricted Zone). A couple days before departing my southern Illinois home I called ATC and got the detailed entry instructions.

En route, following the instructions, I landed an hour outside of DC in West Virginia. Using the FBO’s landline I called the designated ATC number, received my Entry Authorization Number, ETA, reporting frequency, etc., refueled and headed east again.