Temporary Flight Restrictions

Temporary Flight Restrictions are notices which restrict flight activity due activity on the surface or in the air. TFRs can be issued at any time.

Section 3-5-3 of the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) lists the most common purposes for establishing a TFR are as:

Protect persons and property in the air or on the surface from an existing or imminent hazard associated with an incident on the surface.
Provide a safe environment for the operation of disaster relief aircraft
Prevent unsafe congestion of sightseeing aircraft above an incident or event which may generate a high degree of public interest.
Protect declared national disasters for humanitarian reasons in the State of Hawaii
Protect the President, Vice President or other public figures (aka "Presidential TFR")
Provide a safe environment for space agency operations

A particular TFR may cover multiple areas, and have different restrictions, based on area or altitude for each area. AvnWx.com attempts to display each area (as provided by the FAA) and lists these restrictions in the details for the selected TFR. As a pilot, you are responsible for obtaining current flight restrictions from your weather briefer. This website should be used only for pre-briefing, so that you are better prepared for briefing.

Data is obtained from FAA's Graphic TFRs list. If that site is not available, a warning symbol () is displayed in the menu. The most recent data will be used, but you must be doubly sure to get the latest information from your briefer.

On the map, TFRs are displayed as dark grey boundaries. As you move the mouse inside of an area, the boundary will turn red, and the TFR information will be displayed. If you click within a TFR boundary, the details window will display more information about the TFR(s) in the area, and the TFR number (in the window) will link to the FAA's page with full information about the TFR.

Stadium TFR 9/5151:
TFR 9/5151, the Stadium TFR indicates it covers

any stadium having seating capacity of 30,000 or more people where either a regular or post season Major League Baseball, National Football League, or NCAA Division One football game is occurring. This NOTAM also applies to NASCAR Sprint Cup, Indy Car, and Champ Series races excluding qualifying and pre-race events.

The FAA does not indicate if NCAA Division ONE football includes only the major division IA, or if includes IAA (or what happens when a division IA team plays an away game at a non-division IA school). Therefore, it may be prudent to stay 3000 AGL above all stadiums in lieu of better knowledge.

This website provides real-time guidance for active:

Major League Baseball games, based on published schedules from www.mlb.com.
National Football League games, (including pre-season) based on published schedules from www.nfl.com.
NASCAR Sprint Series, based on published schedules from www.nascar.com and MySportsCal.com. (Champ racing was merged with Indy in 2008.)
IndyCar Series, based on published schedule from www.indycar.com and MySportsCal.com
NCAA Division I Football Schools are obtained from NCAA IA (Bowl Subdivision). NCAA schedules change frequently due to television conflicts, so be sure to check local listing. This site does not track IAA (Championship Subdivision) which are generally smaller schools. Between you and me, NCAA games are a real hastle to keep up to date: I spend Sunday watching pro-football while updating the following week's NCAA games.

Known limitations:

Some TFRs are sufficiently general that they don't lend themselves to graphical depictions on the AvnWx.com maps. For example, TFR 7/8072 cautions US Airmen against operating in or adjacent to Iranian airspace.
Stadium TFR (see above) includes information based on published schedules, but these may change without notice. Rain delays happen, baseball/football games can run longer than three hours. Check local listings and ask your Pre-flight Briefer.

For further information, see:

FAA's Notices to Airmen Publication. Published every 28 days, contains "Published" TFRs, as well as notices of major events. Perhaps this document can be used as a guide to which speedway events are considered major.
FAA's Graphic TFRs website
FAA's FAR/AIM 2007: Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual (FAR/AIM series). Especially Section 3-5-3 Temporary Flight Restrictions and FAR 91.137 - 91.145.

More information is available on the map's Forms and Controls, on the map's icons, and on the data sources.