"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
newsU8af.564$bo.388@fed1read01...
FSS has a new trick, calling the contact number on your flightplan at or
BEFORE your ETA...

Landed at Sedona this morning, called 800-WX-Brief to close VFR flight
plan, walked into the terminal building and the guy behind the FBO desk
says Prescott FSS just called looking for me. Huh!?!?! I filed for
0730MST departure with an ETE of 50 minutes. Opened the flight plan with
a wheels up time of 0755MST and landed at 0850MST...five minutes off
(probably because we stayed under the PHX Class Bravo longer than usual so
my buddy could see his house.)

So, I called Precott and the gentleman to whom I spoke said he had no idea
why they called looking for me so quick. Excused himself for a moment to
ask around, then came back on the line to explain that this is now their
policy and they will be calling pilots instead of waiting for pilots to
call them. They will be calling At or BEFORE your ETA (his words...)

Same thing on the return trip. Filed for an ETE of 1H05M and landed at
1H06M ... as I'm on the phone with ABQ (phone system shunted me there) my
call waiting beeps and it's Prescott calling me to check and see if I'm on
the ground.

So, welcome to the new Lockheed/Martin world order...

Interesting way of doing things.

here in the UK the way a VFR flight plan works is that the pilot nominates a
responsible person (family member, FBO etc) to make the call if they are
overdue rather than have the ATC make assumptions. The basis is that no news
is good news.

So the other week, coming back from France, there is no closing of the
flight plan, my wife had an idea when I was due back and she had
instructions to call the SAR if I had not checked in on time. As it was I
called her on landing as I always do (even when flying in the US) and there
was no need to bother those nice but very busy people at Heathrow. They
especially don't have the time or capacity to take loads of calls from
people saying I'm fine.