Requesting TFRs, part 2 of 2

 Tyler: Can you give me an idea of the factors that might determine when it is necessary to have a TFR over a fire?

Ben:

• Numbers of aircraft
• Military airspace
• MTR (military training routes)
• Local air traffic
• Navigation aids
• High probability of aircraft transiting the area etc…
• Regrettably most IC’s will order a TFR on any fire; I don’t believe this to be a good idea. We impact the National Airspace System to the point where in any given year we have been 40 percent of all the TFR’s in the nation. Quite an impact. Here are some numbers (as of 10/1/09 at 3 PM EDT):

|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| Year  | Fire | Other  | Total | Percent Fire  |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2009  | 433  |  3549  | 3982  |     10.9%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2008  | 631  |  3367  | 3998  |     15.8%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2007  | 865  |  2440  | 3305  |     26.2%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2006  | 929  |  2797  | 3726  |     24.9%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2005  | 493  |  2048  | 2541  |     19.4%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2004  | 500  |  2031  | 2531  |     19.8%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2003  | 781  |  1372  | 2153  |     36.3%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|
| 2002  | 927  |  1508  | 2435  |     38.1%     |
|-------+------+--------+-------+---------------|

Tyler: Navigational aids (naivaids) may mean lots of air traffic flying to the navaid. I understand that military aircrafts travel at very high speeds, so they need areas in which to maneuver. Fires might be located near a large airport. Can you elaborate a little on these types of situations.

Ben: We have excellent communication with the Military and dispatch should and will deconflict the mtr (military training route), i.e. tell them what we have and they will most often work with us. TFR's are issued up and around Navaids, but take an airport like Denver and you have a large fire (as we did) on the arrival gate and the FAA and ATC fought the TFR. The column was so large a lot of the airliners did not appreciate going thru it though, so we ended up getting it.

Tyler: In an "ideal situation", will dispatch call the ATC at a nearby airport, for example a fire near Boise, to give them a heads up that a fire TFR is being requested?

Ben: Boise ID, Missoula MT , Grand Junction CO and other airports that are used to fire pick that up right away as allot of the fire aircraft orginate from them. Towers in the area would get the notam and notify pilots either via ATIS if it is their vicinity.

I'd like to thank Ben for taking the time for our e-mail correspondence, and making this two-part article possible. Thank-you Ben. I will be writing about fire traffic areas in my next couple of posts.