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...

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.

In a previous article, "Jay Beckman" said:
FSS has a new trick, calling the contact number on your flightplan at or
BEFORE your ETA...

That happened to me once about 8 years ago. I was on a VFR flight plan to
Saranac Lake, but since it was a calm day I decided to take a circuit
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.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Why is there only one Monopolies and Mergers Commission?
-- JNP

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, "Jay Beckman" said:

FSS has a new trick, calling the contact number on your flightplan at or
BEFORE your ETA...


That happened to me once about 8 years ago. I was on a VFR flight plan to
Saranac Lake, but since it was a calm day I decided to take a circuit
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.

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

"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.

Jay Beckman wrote:



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

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

"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

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
news:U6daf.590$bo.370@fed1read01...
"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?

Any of the three options you presented will work.

Please enlighten me...

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ

Please tell me you aren't idiot enough to not snip a hundred lines of
message for a insipid one line answer.

Jim



"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
...



Any of the three options you presented will work.