On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:28:50 -0400, john smith
wrote in :

Some have posted here that we no longer need FSS and all the bungling
associated with the Loc-KMart transition. I disagree.

Thank you.

While DUAT/DUATS, AWOS/ASOS and aviationweather.gov provide excellent
graphics, text and aural reports, we still need trained, live briefers
to interpret the local conditions.

It is the experienced trained, live briefers that have left that we
desperately need to be replaced.

It is unfortunate that so much experienced FSS labor was replaced with
green recruits by Lockheed Martin. To lose that expertise without
remorse reveals a cavalier and uncaring attitude, as well as a
fundamental lack of insight into the historical function of Flight
Service Stations.

[Story of metrological inept FSS personnel snipped.]

The consolidation has truely deteriorated the quality of the briefings
we now receive, but I look forward to the improvements to come. The fact
that we get shuffled around to far off place when we place a telephone
call is not good, but the air-to-ground calls should be answered by
briefers who will quickly learn their new local patterns.

While I agree with your lament of the poor knowledge level of the
personnel employed in the new privatized FSS system now, there is
another fundamental argument that opposes the notion of
decommissioning Flight Service Stations.

When you find yourself at a small rural airport, how are you to use
DUATS to receive a preflight briefing?