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Old May 19th 07, 03:32 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Gene Seibel
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Posts: 223
Default Twenty minutes in the queue awaiting the new and improved FSS

On Apr 30, 10:48 am, "Peter R." wrote:
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 guess everyone has different priorities. I am a VFR only pilot who
uses DUATS along with other online sources. I usually check the day
before to get a handle on trends. It was quite interesting today on
the scanner today to hear a pilot contact several sources for weather
info, each time relating his story of waiting on hold for 40 minutes
and still not getting a briefing. Then he adds that this is the first
time in seven years that he has flown VFR, as if it's some kind of a
traumatic event. I look out the window and there's not a cloud in the
sky. I check the weather and there's not a cloud in 300 miles. Do some
really need a nanny holding their hand all the time?
--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.