Anyone heard if the LA area TFR was busted this afternoon (about 5-15 to 5-30pm) Saw and heard lots of unusual F18 activity over Calabasas, Agoura Hills and out towards Camarillo airport. Wouldn't be the first time some unsuspecting pilot got his collar felt by the feds while going into KCMA while his Lordship is in town ?
How is this Air Force One use of airspace different from that of any previous President's use of airspace?
I heard the F-15 go over my house in West Hills, but by the time I heard it the plane was long gone, didn't get to see it, but it sounded like it was low and fast. Saw on the news later last night that a guy from BKF in a Cessna 340 strayed into the TFR and then was chased out by the F-15. He must not have seen all of the warning that AOPA, etc. were putting out. My Baron was secure in the hangar!
Normally they are patrolling around the out skirts of the city, high up you can catch site of them every now and then just cruising. This guys was on the deck and hauling the mail, heard him over head twice, caught him the second time turning out towards the west, directly into the sun from my vantage point couldn't really tell if it was a 15 or an 18, but he had the burners on !. That's the one, saw it later on the news, think there might have been another one around 6 am this morning, whole house (also West Hills) was woken up by what sounded like a sonic boom...No reports yet.
From POA- Yesterday in the LA basin, Obama was in town. The TFR was around LA for the majority of his stay, but there was about an hour long TFR around Pomona. I was flying home from Vegas and aware of the TFR - the airport I was flying to was under the outer ring. I filed IFR out of KLAS to head to KSNA. As I was over San Bernardino, I had an interesting encounter. The controller asked me if I had time to do him a favor - he then proceeded to have me call the Corona CTAF and tell the pilot in the vicinity to contact the approach control on x frequency and to land immediately. I switched over and transmitted that, while also listening to another person telling him that he had busted the presidential TFR and to land IMMEDIATELY. [she was VERY stern - another male voice went on and said the same.] As I continued to fly the controller began vectoring me for traffic which happened to be two F-16's circling right next to me over Corona airport. Presidential TFR bust - Pilots of America Message Board
So would that F15 have shot the intruder down over a crowded city like LA,or is it all about the "show" ?
Nope,, they get 10k from the guy though. And he'll have to go back to school to keep his license. I left Van Nuys yesterday at 1:30, never heard anything. if you use flight foloowing or IFR they keep you out of those areas. Art
So if they aren't going to shoot him down, why chase him with an F15 ? why not just follow him on radar and then show up with a bunch of guys in sunglasses and dark suits when he does land. Or is there a point where he is to close to the president and not responsive on the radio that they do "take him out" ??
I would think these events make good training exercises. How often does a fighter pilot get a chance to scramble? I recall the 2 fighter pilots who were scrambled to take out Flight 93. One of them had never scrambled that quickly. There's an article somewhere about her. Neat story. I'm not saying we need to waste resources to train fighter pilots to chase Cessnas, but like the state trooper who pulled me over last said, while I sat in his front seat talking about motorcycles... "Some of us applied for this job because we wanted help people, make a difference. But ALL OF US applied for this job because we wanted to drive fast and shoot guns." Let the fighter pilots do their job, after all, the yahoo did break a published TFR. And it should help them be prepared and rehersed for "the real thing".
Neither plane was armed. They were going to ram 93, one the tail and the other the cockpit. 93 went down before they got to Shanksville though. I read the story of one of them, a female (the other was a male). She's still in the AF.
Right, the detail I remember is that she paused to do a preflight inspection and her combat experienced superior officer said "what the heck are you doing, we've got to go NOW." I use that anecdote as an illustration that it's not a bad idea for pilots to be trained and practiced in a scramble situation. That was a pre 9/11 environment. An airliner was just an airplane and a fighter jet on US soil was just an airplane back then too. The same article said that today, there are always pilots yards from their cocked and locked fighters.
They were ANG - Air National Guard. They had just flown in from training. The guns were still loaded with blanks. Penney's father was a fighter pilot also. http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/p/heather-penney.htm#.VD78UbDF9Yo
