AFSS response time

The weekend after they closed the FSS at IPT my local airport, I called to
file a VFR to HMZ. I spent twenty minutes on hold with a recording
repeatedly saying " please hold your call is important to us", I thought if
that was true they would be on the line by now. Anyway I gave up, went to
the plane and after firing up in front of the hanger I called on the radio
and filed. With the relay radio at IPT that worked great, then on return
did the same thing once high enough to call Altoona FSS (also closed) on the
radio.

I thought about it and later called and filed an official complaint. In a
few days I had a call from the Lockheed manager out at Nashville. Nice guy,
but only really said they are on a learning and training curve and they will
improve very shortly and he was sorry for the inconvenience.

On top of that it appears now you need to call one toll free number to file
and then a different number to close. That seems to be not only odd, but I
don't remember seeing that advertised prior. My be my CRS

Ron Gardner

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 22:56:48 GMT, "
wrote in
. net:

Has anyone else noticed that the time you're on hold to talk to a briefer
is
getting longer and longer? I noticed this about a year ago when I still
lived in Florida and thought it was just a local problem. Now I live in
Virginia and they have the same problem here. It used to be you could get
a
human on the phone in a minute or so. Now it is taking about 5 to 10.

Is this how the FAA is trying to kill the FSS system? They have made no
bones about wanting to reduce the coast of the FSS system.




LOCKHEED MARTIN: AFSS PERFORMANCE IS IMPROVING
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#196306)
Right up front, we'll say we've heard the same complaints about
Lockheed Martin's handling of the Flight Service Station contract as
everyone else: Long wait times, dropped calls, lost flight plans and
briefers lacking local knowledge of the areas they cover. Lockheed
Martin's Dan Courain, the company's VP of aviation services, says he
has gotten a similar earful and at AOPA Expo on Thursday, Courain told
AVweb that LockMart is doing something about. Specifically, it has
rewired the call waiting system to delay bumping of calls from their
origination area to other parts of the system, where briefers may be
umfamiliar with local landmarks, airspace and conditions.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#196306