The U.S. military intercepted a small aircraft that flew into restricted airspace in Delaware last weekend, grounding the pilot at a nearby airport as President Biden visited his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

When President Biden visits his Delaware home, a 30-nautical-mile presidential temporary flight restriction (TFR) ring is in effect. Mid-Atlantic agricultural aviation operators working in this vicinity expressed concern to NAAA earlier in the year about whether they would be allowed to treat cropland within the TFR.

NAAA worked to identify certain protocols to allow for such operations, as did Justin Hoffman, NAAA operator-member with Air Enterprises LLC, out of Dover, Delaware. Then the United States Secret Service came to Hoffman and other ag aviation and banner towing operations in the vicinity informing them of procedures to follow if they wanted to access the TFR to conduct official aerial application or banner towing operations. These procedures include submitting a TFR Flight Request Form no later than 12 hours before a scheduled flight into the TFR. A separate form must be completed each day for each aircraft that enters the TFR and must reference a grid map that indicates where the flight operations will occur. That information should be emailed to 9-PHL-ATCT-MGRS@faa.gov and also to Secret Service agents in charge within this jurisdiction. All pilots must adhere to the following guidelines:

• Operations are authorized within the airspace between the 12 NMR and 30 NMR area known as the outer ring. No flight operations are authorized inside the 12 NM inner ring.
• All aircraft must be on an active VFR or filed IFR flight plan with a discrete code assigned by the Philadelphia TRACON. Aircraft must be squawking the assigned beacon code prior to departure and at all times while inside the TFR. Aircraft must remain in two-way radio communication with ATC.
• Pilots cannot deviate from their planned route unless directed to do so by ATC.
• Prior to departing from the originating airport, the pilot or flight operations shall contact the Philadelphia TRACON at 215-492-4122 to obtain a discrete code.