What FSS Doesn’t Know about Sporting-Event TFRs

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 08:55 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

During peak sports seasons, pilots face increased risk of inadvertently entering sporting-event-related Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs).
Flight Service Specialists (FSS) cannot reliably provide real-time information on dynamic, game-day TFRs, making it challenging for them to warn pilots.
It is the pilot's sole responsibility to independently check for sports-related TFRs using specialized resources like AOPA's TFR locator, even after contacting FSS.

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This is the best time of the whole year if you’re a sports fan. Baseball pennant races are coming down to the wire, the NFL season is just getting under way, Division I college football has already had its share of big matchups, and drama in the NASCAR Chase for the Cup is ratcheting up.

For pilots, this is one of the toughest times of the year to avoid an inadvertent encounter with a sporting-event-related TFR. The reason? Your flight service specialist doesn’t have a schedule to the game – and he assumes you already know that.