New FSS Policy

"Steve Foley" wrote in
news:uH9af.3016$5F3.2542@trndny03:

My wife got one of those calls once.

Younger brother arranged a 'training' flight from Pensacola to
Schenectady. He was in the navy, and a group of guys wanted to go to a
wedding. His training flight was their transportation. He took a bus
to Central Massachusetts, and I flew him back in a rented Cessna. The
senior officer of the group mis-understood the directions, and was
waiting in the wrong place at the airport. He ended up calling my
house asking why we were an hour late. I had already dropped off
little brother and was on my way back home.

Wife was not happy.


I'm guessing that Senior Officer was probably almost as unhappy...

What about pilots who have no friends or family?

"Chris" wrote in
:

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.

and with the cell phone number... I'm still in the air and will not hear it
ring.. and then I'm talking to tower anyway.. so after I'm tied down and
parked.. I'll dig out the phone turn it on and see the "missed call" notice,
maybe they left a message, maybe not.

BT

"Marco Leon" mmleon(at)yahoo.com wrote in message
...
So now you know--give them your cell phone number!


"Gig 601XL Builder" wr.giacona@coxDOTnet wrote in message
news:ly9af.2056$5N1.1831@dukeread08...
This is not a good thing. If the contact number is your home number I can
just here the phone call.

MY WIFE: Hello
FSS: Yes has Mr Giacona arrived yet?
MY WIFE: No
FSS: OK Thanks

My wife then begins to think I've crashed & burned, meanwhile I'm taxiing
into my hanger 5 minutes behind schedule.



"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...

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
AZ Cloudbusters
Chandler, AZ
(Now adding 10 minutes to all ETE calculations!)

"Marco Leon" mmleon(at)yahoo.com wrote in message ...
So now you know--give them your cell phone number!



So who has a cell phone?

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...

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


Correct, so what Jay Beckman described didn't happen to you eight years ago.

..Blueskies. wrote:

So who has a cell phone?

Thank you! I was beginning to think I'm the only one without one.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Peter R. wrote:

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.

It's a good idea. The ELT in my Maule could be removed and carried along, so I
never bothered with one of the personal beacons. With the new GPS-equipped
models, I think I would have to change that.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Judah wrote:

I'm guessing that Senior Officer was probably almost as unhappy...

I'm guessing that little brother wound up being the most unhappy of them all.
That's usually the way the military works.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Chris wrote:

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.

That's the way most of us who don't file flight plans do things over here.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Judah wrote:
What about pilots who have no friends or family?

Then who cares if you crash? :-)

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.