New FSS Policy

Jay Beckman wrote:



So, welcome to the new Lockheed/Martin world order...

You are complaining about this? You're a moron.

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
newsU8af.564$bo.388@fed1read01...
FSS has a new trick, calling the contact number on your flightplan at or
BEFORE your ETA...

Landed at Sedona this morning, called 800-WX-Brief to close VFR flight
plan, walked into the terminal building and the guy behind the FBO desk
says Prescott FSS just called looking for me. Huh!?!?! I filed for
0730MST departure with an ETE of 50 minutes. Opened the flight plan with
a wheels up time of 0755MST and landed at 0850MST...five minutes off
(probably because we stayed under the PHX Class Bravo longer than usual so
my buddy could see his house.)

So, I called Precott and the gentleman to whom I spoke said he had no idea
why they called looking for me so quick. Excused himself for a moment to
ask around, then came back on the line to explain that this is now their
policy and they will be calling pilots instead of waiting for pilots to
call them. They will be calling At or BEFORE your ETA (his words...)

Same thing on the return trip. Filed for an ETE of 1H05M and landed at
1H06M ... as I'm on the phone with ABQ (phone system shunted me there) my
call waiting beeps and it's Prescott calling me to check and see if I'm on
the ground.

So, welcome to the new Lockheed/Martin world order...

Interesting way of doing things.

here in the UK the way a VFR flight plan works is that the pilot nominates a
responsible person (family member, FBO etc) to make the call if they are
overdue rather than have the ATC make assumptions. The basis is that no news
is good news.

So the other week, coming back from France, there is no closing of the
flight plan, my wife had an idea when I was due back and she had
instructions to call the SAR if I had not checked in on time. As it was I
called her on landing as I always do (even when flying in the US) and there
was no need to bother those nice but very busy people at Heathrow. They
especially don't have the time or capacity to take loads of calls from
people saying I'm fine.

Jay Beckman wrote:

That's my take on this too. IMO, it's "uber efficient" when dealing with a
bug-smashing C172 just out for a breakfast run like I was this morning.

Do you file a VFR flight plan for all of your VFR flights (excluding
pattern work, of course)?

After a few calls from FSS when I forgot to close my VFR flight plan, I
sided with many in this group who advocated only filing a VFR FP when
flying out of radar coverage which, in my case, only applied when I was
flying up to the Adirondack mountains of NY state.

In all other cases, I rationalized that flying with flight following in
radar coverage negated the value of a VFR flight plan.

--
Peter
























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In all other cases, I rationalized that flying with flight following in
radar coverage negated the value of a VFR flight plan.

Agree 100%.

When flying in areas that have radar coverage -- and controllers who are
actually willing to provide Flight Following, which is virtually everywhere
in the Midwest outside of Chicago -- VFR flight plans are simply not worth
the bother.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Peter R." wrote in message
...
Jay Beckman wrote:

That's my take on this too. IMO, it's "uber efficient" when dealing with
a
bug-smashing C172 just out for a breakfast run like I was this morning.

Do you file a VFR flight plan for all of your VFR flights (excluding
pattern work, of course)?

I do whenever I intend to go off over the mountains (which is just about any
flight that takes me out of the Phoenix valley area.)

Also, the flying club to which I belong requires that a flight plan be filed
for trips over 75nm.

After a few calls from FSS when I forgot to close my VFR flight plan, I
sided with many in this group who advocated only filing a VFR FP when
flying out of radar coverage which, in my case, only applied when I was
flying up to the Adirondack mountains of NY state.

I haven't brain cramped and forgotten to call (yet) so dunno what to say
there.

In all other cases, I rationalized that flying with flight following in
radar coverage negated the value of a VFR flight plan.

Since it's on a workload permitting basis, what happens if "center" can't or
won't take you for flight following?

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ

In article t,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"Guy Elden Jr" wrote in message
oups.com...

Sounds good to me. Much easier for them to make a phone call than to
scramble a CAP flight for a pilot who simply forgot to close a VFR
flight plan. Seems like this private industry thing might actually be
able to control costs - who woulda thunk it!


The new policy isn't making a phone call instead of scrambling a CAP flight,
it's calling at or before the ETA instead of beginning a search after the
ETA. The first step in the search was always a phone call.

Calling before scrambling makes sense, but calling before the ETA does
not. One would *expect* that before the ETA the plane would not yet
have arrived, so calling before the ETA and learning that it has in fact
not yet arrived seems like a waste of effort to me.

rg

Jay Beckman wrote:

Since it's on a workload permitting basis, what happens if "center" can't or
won't take you for flight following?

I suspected you might toss out that scenario.

Again, in an area of radar coverage without FF (due to workload), it would
be 121.50 and 7700 on the transponder if I didn't know the nearest ATC
facility, or "Mayday" on a familiar frequency.

In the interest of full disclosure, I also carry a GPS-equipped personal
locator beacon. Given what you fly over, you might want to consider this
purchase, too, if you haven't already.

--
Peter
























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In a previous article, "Steven P. McNicoll" said:
"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
around Whiteface Mountain before landing. I was about 10 minutes over ETA
when somebody called on Saranac Lake Unicom asking if I was on the
frequency, because Flight Service had called them to see if I'd arrived
yet.

If you were ten minutes over your ETA it didn't happen to you.

Except my understanding at the time was that FSS didn't start searching
until 30 minutes or an hour after your ETA.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
If I have pinged farther than others, it is because I routed upon
the T3s of giants.
-- Greg Andrews

"Newps" wrote in message
. ..


Jay Beckman wrote:



So, welcome to the new Lockheed/Martin world order...

You are complaining about this? You're a moron.


All I meant is that there is a new sheriff in town. (And I really don't
apprecieate the insult because the last thing I am is a moron....I can
assure you of that...)

But...

In all seriousness, tell me how you handle this knowing that FSS is going to
be "standing on the porch" waiting:

My home base is under the Phoenix Sky Harbor Class Bravo. To fly to
Prescott, Sedona or other points north, the usual drill is to take off and
get a little space to the south, contact FSS on the Phoenix RCO when clear
of the immediate home airport environs, then turn west to the usual
reporting point to request a transition of the Class Bravo from south to
north.

Now I've had instances where the Phoenix controlers are busy and I've had to
do a couple of 360s before I get a squawk and I'm cleared in. The rest is
fairly simple: Fly the assigned transition at the assigned altitidue, climb
when instructed/allowed and then contact ZAB center when handed off. Not a
big deal, but not really your run of the mill take off, turn immediately on
course and just proceed as planned.

Under this new scenario, I'm late before I've even started so I'm going to
have FBOs everywhere north of Phoenix telling me that FSS is looking for me?
Even if it's only a couple of minutes? Today I might have been all of one
minute over ETE coming home.

So should I now always request a momentary frequency change from center to
call FSS and amend my ETE / ETA or should I just pad my ETE right from the
start?

Or, should I just risk it and fly without filing a flight plan at all?

Please enlighten me...

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ

"Peter R." wrote in message
...
Jay Beckman wrote:

Since it's on a workload permitting basis, what happens if "center" can't
or
won't take you for flight following?

I suspected you might toss out that scenario.

Again, in an area of radar coverage without FF (due to workload), it would
be 121.50 and 7700 on the transponder if I didn't know the nearest ATC
facility, or "Mayday" on a familiar frequency.

In the interest of full disclosure, I also carry a GPS-equipped personal
locator beacon. Given what you fly over, you might want to consider this
purchase, too, if you haven't already.

--
Peter

A personal ELT-esque device would probably be a very wise addition. Thank
you for the suggestion.

Jay