"Peter R." wrote in message
...
Called Lockheed Martin FSS this AM for my flight briefing. Spent 20
minutes
in the "we are experiencing high call volume" queue waiting for a live
briefer to take my call.

When one finally did, he was servicing my upstate NY state flight from
Phoenix, Az. Nice enough briefer but so much for the local knowledge.

Wasn't there a promise by Lockheed Martin that wait times would be one
minute
or less? In the four years I have been commuting by aircraft the longest I
previously waited for a Buffalo FSS briefer was five minutes.

--
Peter

I waited 10 minutes for a briefer this afternoon and eventually spoke with
someone in Indiana (I'm in Atlanta). The amazing thing is that the weather
in the Southeast was great today, so 90% of pilot briefings should have been
short and simple - Great VFR, no TFR's, enjoy the ride. Logically, with a
day like today, you wouldn't think calls would need to be transferred
outside the region.

The guy I spoke with at the FSS indicated that calls from West of the
Mississippi are not supposed to be routed to FSS'es east of the Mississippi,
but every 3rd or 4th call he has been taking is from West of the
Mississippi, which really bogs things down here in the East.

If waits are going to be this long and longer, are there any other viable
options to A) Get a briefing and B) Have a record of the briefing? I can
satisfy "A" through the internet, but I'm not sure an online brief would
stand up very well in my defense if I busted a pop-up TFR or something,
especially since (presumably) there might not be a viable record of my
online brief.

KB