Election Day Drone TFRs: No VIP Zones Posted Yet, Plus Santa Rosa Island Defense Airspace and a Safford Air Show

If you were expecting Election Day to bring a wave of VIP no-fly zones, the FAA’s list was quiet as of early Tuesday morning, November 3. We found no VIP TFRs posted for today when we checked tfr.faa.gov at about 5:20 a.m. Mountain time. What did show up overnight were two new national defense airspace closures on Florida’s Santa Rosa Island, an Arizona air show and a short-notice hazard TFR in Georgia.

VIP TFRs can be issued with only hours of notice, especially around election-night events, so check again before you fly today.

Today: hazard TFR near Monticello, Georgia (NOTAM 6/4857)

A 1 nautical mile circle about 8 NM southwest of Monticello, Georgia, is closed from the surface to 2,000 feet MSL from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST today. The TFR was issued under 14 CFR 91.137(a)(1), which protects people and property on the ground or in the air from a hazard tied to an incident on the surface. Only relief aircraft working under the Georgia Interagency Dispatch Center are allowed inside. The NOTAM does not describe the incident, so don’t assume what it is. Just stay out.

Tuesday through Friday, then Nov. 8-9: Santa Rosa Island, Florida (6/4688 and 6/4687)

Two new NOTAMs, filed under Eglin Air Force Base’s name, set up national defense airspace over two areas on and just off Santa Rosa Island in the Florida Panhandle. Each area runs from the surface up to FL250, or about 25,000 feet. The restrictions are active daily from 5 a.m. to noon CST:

• NOTAM 6/4688: Tuesday, November 3, through Friday, November 6.
• NOTAM 6/4687: Sunday, November 8, and Monday, November 9.

Aircraft can enter only on a flight plan with an ATC-assigned discrete transponder code and two-way radio contact. Those are conditions a drone can’t meet, so treat both boxes as no-drone zones during those hours. The NOTAMs carry the full national defense airspace warning. Violators can be intercepted and detained, face FAA enforcement and criminal charges, and, as a last resort, face deadly force if an aircraft is judged an imminent threat. The FAA does not say what activity the closures protect.

Friday and Saturday: Safford, Arizona air show (6/4390)

A standard air show TFR covers a 5 NM radius around Safford Regional Airport from the surface to 12,500 feet MSL. It runs from [12:30] to 3:30 p.m. MST on Friday, November 6, and from noon to 3 p.m. MST on Saturday, November 7. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so those are local times year-round. Drones are prohibited inside the ring during the demonstration windows unless the air boss or ATC authorizes the flight.

Still on the board this week

The restrictions we covered Monday remain in place. Naval Station Mayport’s security zone in Jacksonville runs through 1 a.m. Saturday. This weekend also brings air shows at Pensacola, Titusville, Punta Gorda, San Marcos, Texas, and Somerset, Kentucky. Drone-only crowd zones cover Orlando’s EDC festival, an Ed Sheeran concert in Tampa and the NC State vs. Duke tailgate in Raleigh. Seasonal military TFRs that took effect November 1, including the surface-level area at Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota, run into March.

What this means for drone pilots

Election week is a good test of your preflight habit. VIP and security TFRs can appear late and change often. A TFR check from yesterday, or even this morning, might not match the sky this afternoon. Before every flight, check tfr.faa.gov or an FAA-approved B4UFLY or LAANC app, and recheck if your plans shift by a few hours. Remember that most of these restrictions cover recreational and Part 107 flights alike. Operators with an urgent public safety or critical infrastructure need can ask the FAA for a Special Governmental Interest (SGI) waiver.

Reading a NOTAM, converting UTC to local time and understanding the difference between a 91.137 hazard TFR and 99.7 national defense airspace are all fair game on the FAA knowledge test. Drone U’s Part 107 course breaks those topics down, and students have been known to complete the online course in three days and pass.

Sources: FAA TFR NOTAMs 6/4857, 6/4688, 6/4687, 6/4390, 6/4313, 6/4116; FAA TFR list

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