The Leading Edge

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Newsletter of the Flying Aces............................. March 2002 Volume 33, Number 3

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March Meeting Schedule:

CFI Meeting: Tuesday March 5 19:00 Squadron 2 at Reid-Hillview.

General Meeting: In lieu of the usual General Meeting, Aces members are encouraged to attend the 99's sponsored Spaghetti Feed Benefit for the San Jose State University Precision Flight Team on Friday, March 8, 18:30 at San Jose State Aero Building, located at the corner of Coleman Ave and Airport Blvd (near GA West). Bring money, because there will be an entrance fee of $15, but Aces will rebate $10 of this in the next billing cycle. Attendees will tour the Aero department's facilities, and there will be raffle. The Spaghetti Feed will be served from 18:30 through 19:15, so be on time!

Board Meeting: Sunday March 24, 18:00 at Nogatch's in Boulder Creek (RSVP).

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February Meeting:

Three members of the San Jose State Precision Flying team described their preparations and participation in competition aviation events. In addition to precise pattern work, E6B computations, and cross-country rally racing, the description of the preflight competition was particularly interesting; could you find 150 things wrong with a C-152 in 10 minutes?

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March Birthdays:

9th: Tom McNamara

14th: Rick Tarrell

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NOTAM:

Instead of the usual Aces meeting, same night, nearby, 1 hour earlier, bring $15 for entrance fee:

Please join the Santa Clara Valley Chapter 99s for their annual fundraiser to help support the prestigious San Jose State University Precision Flight Team. This is an evening of fun with the goal to raise money for the flight team from donated raffle items. Dinner includes two pasta entrees, salad and garlic bread. No host bar. Desserts provided by SCV 99s.

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Introduction: Being a freshly minted CFI it irks me even more, that I got trapped on one of those recent NOTAMs. I thought that I did it "by the book", but that wasn't enough; so read for yourself what I had to file with ASRS, and now, with the FAA as well...

Summary: On 1-Nov-2001 at around 16:00 on the second leg of my trip from San Jose to San Diego, I inadvertently violated the Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) around San Onofre Power Plant in southern California.

Preflight: As pilot of a rented Piper Arrow N7526J, I filed two VFR flight plans for the two legs from San Jose Reid-Hillview (RHV) to Santa Paula
(SZP) and from there to San Diego Montgomery (MYF). Both flight plans included detailed information about my flight path; specifically for the
second leg "joining V23 at HERMO intersection leading to Seal Beach VOR (SLI) and Oceanside VOR (OCN) to Mission Bay VOR (MZB)". I received a standard briefing for both flight plans. The briefing included weather and flight restriction zones (generally around any nuclear power plant and specifically the TFRs around Livermore (LVK) and Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant close to San Luis Obispo). The briefing included the unavailability of the Los Angeles Special Flight Rule Area, the Gorman VOR signal coverage or lack thereof and the active status of R-2503A among other information. The briefing lasted about 25 minutes with no haste or time pressure and I perceived it as very thorough and complete. The briefing did not mention the TFR around San Onofre (Nuclear) Power Plant - or if it did, it dropped from my attention. This fact is insofar noteworthy as that my flight path (V23) leads right over the San Onofre Power Plant.

Living in San Jose for three years, I do know some of the nuclear installations, e.g. around Livermore and San Luis Obispo. San Onofre was, until this incident, not known to me as nuclear power plant. Furthermore, neither the current Los Angeles Sectional (69th Edition) nor the current San Diego Terminal (42nd Edition) charts indicate San Onofre as a nuclear power plant.

After the preflight briefing I was ready to go; ready to go right over San Onofre Power Plant and violate the TFR without knowing it.

In flight: The first leg from San Jose to Santa Paula was uneventful. I opened my flight plan after takeoff and closed it via phone after landing. The call was transferred to Oakland FSS. I received an updated weather briefing. After refueling, I departed from Santa Paula for the second leg, opened my flight plan with Hawthorne Radio and navigated the Los Angeles Basin under VFR. During the transition of the Los Angeles Basin, I
tried several times on a couple of frequencies, unsuccessfully, to establish flight following with SOCAL approach. Once established on V23
southeast-bound from SLI on a cruising descent from 11500 MSL to 5500 MSL at about 135 knots groundspeed, I left Santa Ana Class C airspace underneath and behind. I started preparing my approach to San Diego. At about 25 DME northwest from OCN, I switched from monitoring 121.5 to San Diego, Montgomery ATIS, which is some 30nm away from OCN. It was the garbled ATIS through which I started learning about a "TFR and the unavailability of VOR approaches into Oceanside and Palomar". Already listening to the first three or four times to the constantly breaking-up ATIS, I sensed the unusual and turned 30 degrees right towards open water. At this time I must have been close over Dana Point. I chose right because a left turn would have led me straight into R-2503B, C. I chose 30 degrees because 20+ DME from OCN would put me at 10+ distance abeam the VOR (by rule of thumb). After a few more times listening to the ATIS, I deciphered the TFR being the San Onofre TFR. By the time I located San Onofre Power Plant on the Terminal chart andcross-checked it with my current position, I found myself about 5 nm right abeam the power plant I just was determined to avoid. I realized right then being in violation with a TFR; a TFR I didn't know about previously. I realized that my suspicions about the first garbled ATIS words were justified, but my mitigation strategy (the 30-degree right turn) was insufficient and didn't save me. I felt let down by the otherwise excellent services I received from the FSS so many times.

Climb, Confess, Communicate, Comply - As almost any direction would lead me out of the TFR from this point on, I decided to let ATC know that I did NOT intend to crash into a power plant. I continued the approach preparation by calling SOCAL Approach for flight following into San Diego Montgomery. This identified me (N7526J) on their radar, being somewhere abeam OCN, and maybe even still inside the TFR. So the subsequent announcement of ATC that a phone number to call will await me after landing didn't come as too much a surprise. The rest of the flight was luckily normal. The up-welling thoughts and doubts were very distractive.

Post flight: I called the number as given by Montgomery ground, and talked to the SOCAL ATC Area Manager, who now has the above story, as well as my name and address for the FAA.

Analysis: Of course, ever since I ask myself, "Why did it happen?" Obviously the main reason is that the complete content of the NOTAM didn't make it to my attention (at least not in time). Especially flying under single pilot VFR, I assumed sole responsibility to make myself aware of any
information pertaining the flight. Of course, it is impossible to learn something without ever seeing or hearing about it. So the most obvious reason is that I wasn't told or didn't listen to the one and most critical part of the Nuclear Power Plant NOTAM: San Onofre. Humans do err. I err and so might a FSS specialist. So let me focus for the remainder of this analysis on contributing factors and mitigation strategies for the future.

Contributing factors, listed in no particular order, were:

• San Onofre isn't charted as nuclear power plant. This didn't allow me to apply my knowledge of the general intent of the Nuclear Power Plant NOTAM. A simple "Stay away!" would have helped.
• I lacked common knowledge of San Onofre being a nuclear power plant - See previous item.
• The nuclear power plant NOTAM specified TFRs only by location name reference, not by "10nm radius around xx.x DME on the OCN yyy radial" unlike other TFR NOTAMs do - This made it difficult, if not impossible for a flight briefer (or computer) to match with my given flight path. Even if the briefer mentioned San Onofre, I might have tuned it out because it wasn't a checkpoint on my flight plan. The coastline and VOR/DME provided enough checkpoints - I thought.
• I didn't logon to the internet cross-checking with DUATs - A few days later after the flight I found a red-dotted map at AOPA's website with San Onofre TFR being the one prominent southern California dot.
• The TFRs weren't charted - I guess this is an unrealistic expectation given the nature of a TFR by NOTAM on short notice.
• I didn't try harder to establish flight following earlier on (over LA) - Using the help of ATC definitely would have helped me.
• Once I got suspicious, I could have altered my course by circling or turning around - This of course could also lead to aggravate a given situation. Imaging circling over the power plant or flying over it back and forth.

Mitigation strategies are simple and proven:

• Use all resources at hand (internet, DUATs, ...) - not only the FSS.
• Fly IFR, or at least use flight following.

Summary: I'm a visual person and I didn't visualize the TFR. I didn't "see" it in time, not in a briefing nor on a map, not as a memory, not on a
website nor as blue-hatched lines in the sky - not until an ATIS talked to me.

Keep the skies safe!

Christoph

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