SUPER BOWL 49

SUPER BOWL 49

In 11 days the Valley of the Sun will be hosting the Super Bowl again.

I served on the Aviation Committee for Super Bowl 42, and even though we thought we had everything covered, ATC turned out to be a disaster. Due to weather, planes at Scottsdale, SDL, had to depart southbound into Phoenix Sky Harbor, PHX, traffic. In addition only one plane was allowed to depart at a time from Phoenix Deer Valley, DVT, and SDL as they both used the same IFR departure. It also did not help that there was a major thunderstorm that closed the airports at noon. Departures the Monday after the Super Bowl were running 6-8 hours wait time. Albuquerque Center would not provide squak codes to those waiting to depart. It was a mess.

This year high five’s go to the FAA. We were able to create new departures so that DVT and SDL now have a different departure. These departure stay out of conflict with PHX. So everything should be great, that is until yesterday.

I received a NOTAM from the FAA issued by the military outside of Las Vegas that they decided to degrade GPS signals during the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament and the Super Bowl. This covers Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. We expect over 600 private aircraft for these events, and the airlines have added numerous flights. In todays world these airplanes navigate primarily with GPS. Their signal can go out completely or be so degraded that GPS is not usable.

I emailed AOPA, called the local NBAA rep and have not had a response yet. I then called Senator John McCain’s office who was rude and blew me off. Next call was to Senator Jeff Flake’s office who was receptive, took all the information and will meet with their military liaison.

I do not know what the military was thinking when they issued this NOTAM. I can only hope that someone can get the ball rolling to rescind this test period.