The Federal Aviation Administration imposed temporary flight restrictions over Chillicothe and the Columbus area for Wednesday, October 28, as President Donald J. Trump visits the Shoemaker Center on the Ohio University Chillicothe campus. According to FAA NOTAM FDC 6/2268, issued October 26 and reported October 27 by J News Network, the restrictions are for “temporary flight restrictions for VIP movement” under 14 CFR 91.141.
The FAA notice creates six restriction areas, with windows Wednesday afternoon into late night and airspace restricted from the surface up to 17,999 feet, J News Network reported. The Chillicothe restriction runs 5:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday and is built in two rings: a 30-nautical-mile outer ring and a 10-nautical-mile inner core.
Inside the inner core, the FAA says all aircraft operations are prohibited, with only narrow exceptions: approved law enforcement flights, military flights supporting the U.S. Secret Service and the President, approved air ambulance flights, and scheduled commercial passenger and all-cargo flights under TSA programs into and out of Part 139 airports. Emergency and life-saving flights in the inner core must coordinate with air traffic control, per the FAA notice reported by J News Network.
In the outer ring, the FAA limits flights to aircraft arriving at or departing from local airfields. Pilots must be on an active IFR plan or a filed VFR plan, use a discrete transponder code and maintain two-way radio contact, and loitering is not permitted. The FAA says flight training, practice approaches, aerobatic flight, gliders, parachute operations, ultralights, hang gliding, balloons, agricultural and crop-dusting flights, banner towing, sightseeing flights, maintenance test flights, model aircraft and rocketry, and utility and pipeline survey flights are not authorized anywhere in the restricted areas. Drones and other unmanned aircraft are also not authorized, and the FAA warns the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice may take security action against a drone deemed a credible threat.
A pair of Columbus-area restrictions follows the same ring structure, J News Network reported. The first runs 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and the second 8:01 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, an overall window of 4:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.
President Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Shoemaker Center, with doors opening at 3:30 p.m., according to J News Network. The Chillicothe Gazette reported the venue as the Shoemaker Center at 101 University Drive in Chillicothe, with a capacity of about 2,400 and a program beginning at 5:30 p.m. J News Network also reported a parking ban and street and park closures in Chillicothe from noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday, and that the Ross County Job and Family Services office will close at noon Wednesday because of traffic.
The effect for pilots and drone operators is a near-total pause on general aviation flying near Chillicothe Wednesday evening unless a flight fits an FAA exception or the outer-ring rules. The FAA recommends checking NOTAMs frequently for updates, and the full notice is posted by the FAA at tfr.faa.gov.
Photo: OhioU, CC BY-SA 4.0