TFR Busts On The Increase

-11 incursions near Bedminster Saturday and Sunday

-Head butt maneuver used on some

Despite repeated pleas from NORAD and increasingly aggressive tactics by its pilots, the number of incursions to presidential TFRs are on the rise. At least 11 general aviation aircraft violated the 30-nm ring of the two TFRs above and around President Donald Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort on Saturday and Sunday. That’s up from eight incursions reported two weeks ago when Trump last visited the club there. Some got a closer look at an F-16 than they probably wanted to. NORAD told Reuters that some of the weekend warriors were confronted by Vipers performing the “head butt maneuver” in which the fighter jocks accelerate past the target plane and then turn sharply in front of it using their wake turbulence to nudge the wayward pilots

Of course, all presidential TFRs are displayed on a dedicated Web site and NOTAMs are issued and NORAD is almost begging GA pilots to make sure they check for them. But if they’re going to ignore that request there is some other knowledge they would be wise to remember. “Should the pilot of an aircraft happen to find itself intercepted by either fighters or helicopters, they should immediately come up on frequency 121.5 or 243.0 and turn around to reverse course until receiving additional instructions on one of those frequencies,” NORAD Gen. Gregory Guillot said in a statement.