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“ RAIN : I wasn ’ t going to say it , but we can see the hairs kind of receding there . I got grays , so I can ’ t say too much . But what I wanted to highlight here is I don ’ t think a lot of people know , hopefully , if they ’ ve got at least their private pilots licensure , that there are Air Force units all across the country where they are sitting alert , able to scramble and go intercept a target . And you might be that target if you violate a TFR , that temporary flight restriction or you do something you ’ re not supposed to and it ’ s the police of the sky . Not where you want to be in life .
BOAT : Not ideally , no , not ideally .
RAIN : So I actually remember when I was first learning , my first flight , September 10th , 2001 . This was something that really wasn ’ t around at that point . Can you talk a little bit about the history of air interception and what ’ s going on and how that kind of transitioned around 2001 ?
BOAT : Yeah , actually that ’ s a pretty big time in America ’ s history . NORAD actually began , North American Aerospace Defense Command began in 1947 , right as the Air Force itself became an entity . And we were tasked with the defense of North America with our partners to the North and Canada . And so we cover the continental United States , Canada , Alaska , and some of the Caribbean territories like Puerto Rico . And we are responsible for defending that airspace all across the entirety of the domain . That being said , primarily prior to 9 / 11 , we were focused on looking outward , worrying about the Cold War-era threats . So you ’ re talking about Russia sending bombers up and down the coast , that kind of thing .
And so that ’ s kind of what everybody knows about us prior to 9 / 11 . After 9 / 11 , we realized this isn ’ t just an exterior threat . We ’ ve got to look inside as well . And so that ’ s changed our focus a little bit from solely being looking out to looking in . And that means that now we ’ re working more with our FAA partners and our Canadian airspace partners to use their radars to both look out and inside the airspace . And that ’ s basically that change of philosophy . But overarching the
mission has not changed , still defending North America .
RAIN : And there ’ s a lot going on from whenever the president is moving around , can be a mobile TFR to where they ’ re going to speak at a campaign rally , things that pop up . So step one , what would you recommend to a pilot to avoid finding themselves in the situation ? What are some of the tools they have available to make sure they can go out there and not get in trouble ?
BOAT : So for all those aviators out there that are doing it the right way , the first thing they ’ re always doing is checking the weather and you ’ re checking the NOTAMs . So looking at all the NOTAMs , looking for anything that might be out of the ordinary by calling flight service stations , checking the websites that are all there . And if you want to go to our website , we can get you links to everything , www . norad . mill / general-aviation . And you ’ ve got this card that I ’ ll talk about here in a second as well . But all of this information is on here . You can go to that website , download this card and take that with you while you go fly . But yeah , basic flight planning . Check in the NOTAMs , it ’ s the easiest thing you do . And now with the [ inaudible 00:04:39 ] four flight and all the digital aids that you have , there ’ s almost no excuse realistically speaking , there ’ s almost no excuse . Now we know accidents happen or mistakes happen , I should say . But really you should be aware of what you ’ re doing . And as an aviator , the expectation is that you are .
RAIN : I always went back and I know you ’ re going to echo this , like your habit patterns . The minute you break the habit pattern , that ’ s when something bad happens . For me , anytime I go fly , I do the WANTs check . So weather , activate , NOTAMs , toll . And I ’ m looking at that . The minute you skip that or you get busy , that ’ s when you ’ re going to find yourself in trouble . But as you mentioned coming from the F16 , I know you get a test like seeing some of the technology that ’ s out there today , it ’ s incredible . The realtime weather radar , the ADSB that ’ s getting pumped in . So hopefully you go out there , don ’ t break your habit patterns ,
E3AVIATION . COM