More stories of long FSS hold times and another issue

On May 11, 1:56 pm, "Peter R." wrote:
This past week I spoke with a CFII out of Michigan who lamented that his and
his students hold times awaiting a live FSS briefer had significantly
increased to between 30 minutes to one hour. Coincidentally both AOPA and
Avweb had articles this week discussing the frustration of long hold times
many are experiencing.

For those rather myopic pilots whose knee-jerk response is to say to use a
computer for all briefings and flight plan filings, consider this: Those of
us who volunteer for Lifeguard flights now have a real concern about being
able to file an IFR flight plan and receive a briefing over the phone, if
away from home/office when the call for the flight comes in.

For example, I am on the call list for a heart transplant patient who only
has a two hour window to arrive into his transplant city's airport. I live
and base my aircraft in the city where the patient will be departing. With 30
minutes allotted to drive to the airport and prepare the aircraft for flight
and another 1 hr and 15 minutes to perform the flight, this leaves very
little extra time.

Logically if the call comes in while I am away from a computer (restaurant,
shopping, etc), it makes the most sense to file over the phone and receive a
briefing while driving to the airport, given that this time is built into the
narrow window needed. If these hold times are not reduced, this time savings
step will not be an option.

Additionally, in my case there is a real possibility that a computer will not
be available at the airport since both my class C airport's FBOs lock up for
the night between midnight and 5:00 am. I guess filing with clearance
delivery and receiving a flight briefing from FSS when in the air will be the
fallback here.

In addition to filling out Lockheed Martin's survey and complaint form, I
have also emailed AOPA with my concerns about the above scenario. These
problems with FSS cannot continue.

--
Peter

I always require my private and instrument students to call the FSS in
addition to using the computer. For new pilots, its very important to
have a human point out significant issues that may have missed (like a
giant icing AIRMET). I've had student pilots miss the fact that the
destination was reporting 2 SM even though every place inroute was
CAVU or instrument students miss a giant icing AIRMET.

-robert, CFII

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...
snip

I always require my private and instrument students to call the FSS in
addition to using the computer. For new pilots, its very important to
have a human point out significant issues that may have missed (like a
giant icing AIRMET). I've had student pilots miss the fact that the
destination was reporting 2 SM even though every place inroute was
CAVU or instrument students miss a giant icing AIRMET.


Your student would have found out soon or later :-)

Having put down some tounge and cheek humor I agree. A trained human
weather briefer is better than using the computer yourself. Having had
said, see my new thread on briefers that give bad briefings in an effort to
keep you on the ground -- especially for a few thunderstorms.

Danny Deger
-robert, CFII