More stories of long FSS hold times and another issue

On Fri, 11 May 2007 16:11:47 -0500, "Viperdoc"
wrote:


So far the privatization has been a great success.


I have to admit that I do most of my weather and filing via computer,
only calling FSS for changes and last minute updates.

I can't complain, yet...

"kontiki" wrote in message
...
Matt Barrow wrote:


That never happened under the old system?

Actually, no. I always have had very good service
under the old system, to be perfectly honest.

I've had long waits, rude service, poor information.

Maybe my luck was different, or maybe my standards are higher than yours.

Or maybe I just would rather pay my own way and not have taxpayers hold my
hand.

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...


AOPA appears to be our best ally at this point. They continue to compile
a
database of specific instances and will continue to present them to
Lockheed
Martin and government officials. The goal being to hold Lockheed to the
standards set forth in their (LM) contract with FAA.

So here is what we (this means you) need to do: When you experience
problems with flight service, and you can expect to at this point, please
use about five minutes of your time to call AOPA and let them know about
it.
They will want your N-number, approximate time you called/contacted Flight
Service, and the specific issues you experienced. 1-800-USA-AOPA is their
number; push 1 at the menu. I have never had to hold for more than about
1
minute with AOPA, including today. Hopefully your experiences are no
different--because telling someone about these issues is the only way to
get
them fixed.

Please! Take the time to tell AOPA about the problems we are having with
Flight Service. We need to keep the current "crisis" situation from
becoming the norm and ultimately losing this valuable and necessary
resource.

Did anyone do this reporting under the old system?

"Jim Burns" wrote

Please! Take the time to tell AOPA about the problems we are having with
Flight Service. We need to keep the current "crisis" situation from
becoming the norm and ultimately losing this valuable and necessary
resource.

Wow. All of this from the FAA, who is now solidly in bed (so it would seem)
with the airlines.

All of this is spinning (rapidly) out of control, I fear. Is it too late to
save it?

I would say that the next year, or possibly six months, may decide if
general aviation will survive in any manner that is close to as good as what
we have now.

Is that overly pessimistic?

Wow!
--
Jim in NC

Lol yep... but... I guess he could do that now if he wanted. Sorry, no
flight plan on file.

Maybe press 1 to cancel the oldest flight plan on file, press 9 to shoot
yourself in the head. Thank you for calling?
Jim

"Jose" wrote in message
t...
Press 1 now to cancel all flight plans on file for the N number that you
have entered

Great. Now a fellow club member can cancel my flight plan when he
cancels his? At least it gives FSS an excuse for lost flight plans.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no
universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

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

Exactly. My post was meant to be tongue in cheek. This is how I
pessimistically envision their "fix" to the situation.
Or they'll sub contract with Dell's PC techs in New Delhi to answer Flight
Plan Only questions. or maybe the XM Radio tech department, ever deal with
those geniuses? Airplane? no, we don't offer any XM services on commercial
flights, I think that's illegal, would you like to talk to our legal
department? Weather? Oh you have to call another number. (by the way, I
won't tell you that office is closed)
Jim

"kontiki" wrote in message
news
Jim Burns wrote:

Hmm... How hard would it be for them to configure 1800WXBRIEF to:
"Useing the touch tone phone enter your N number followed by the #
sign."
Press 1 now to cancel all flight plans on file for the N number that you
have entered (verify with are you sure you want to cancel all flight
plans
currently on file for "insert electronic voice".) Press 1 for yes, 2
for
no, 3 to go back to the main menu.
Press 2 to speak to a briefer

Sheesh... more menus... how about just a separate number.

Another idea would be to add a cancellation function to DUATS.

On Fri, 11 May 2007 16:56:58 -0400, "Peter R."
wrote in :

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.

[...]

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.


I sent the following e-mail message on May 5, 2007 to the AFSS
Director at LocMart, but haven't received a reply to date:




Dear Mr. Dan Courain, Director, Lockheed Martin FS21 Team:

Below is a report by a frustrated airman:

From: "Peter R."
Subject: Twenty minutes in the queue awaiting the new and improved
FSS
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:48:46 -0400
Message-ID:

Called Lockheed Martin FSS this AM for my flight briefing. Spent
20 minutes in the "we are experiencing high call volume" queue
waiting for a live briefer to take my call.

When one finally did, he was servicing my upstate NY state flight
from Phoenix, Az. Nice enough briefer but so much for the local
knowledge.

Wasn't there a promise by Lockheed Martin that wait times would be
one minute or less? In the four years I have been commuting by
aircraft the longest I previously waited for a Buffalo FSS briefer
was five minutes.

--
Peter

He was further frustrated by the error on the FSS feedback website.

Attempting to log into this link http://www.afss.com/feedback/
(which I have already created a user ID a few months ago) resulted in
this error message:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e23'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Cursor operation conflict
C:\INETPUB\WWWROOT\WWW.AFSS.COM\MEMBER\../include/logon_form.inc,
line 54

Please notify me when it is again possible to provide feedback about
Lockheed Martin's AFSS operations. Thank you.

Best regards,
Larry Dighera

The last 5 times I've called for a brief, the queue has been at least 10-15
minutes long and I had the privilege of speaking to someone 1/4 way across
the continent.

The current situation is pitiful. I can't figure out how they screwed it up
this badly. I mean, it isn't that hard to write a simulation model to tell
you how many briefers you need to have on staff to have a queue of "x"
minutes 90% of the time.

My guess is that some beancounter at Lockmart wanted to be a hero and cut
back the number of briefers to below the figure the engineers deemed
necessary.

KB


"Peter R." wrote in message
...
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.


--
Peter

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..
The last 5 times I've called for a brief, the queue has been at least
10-15 minutes long and I had the privilege of speaking to someone 1/4 way
across the continent.

The current situation is pitiful. I can't figure out how they screwed it
up this badly. I mean, it isn't that hard to write a simulation model to
tell you how many briefers you need to have on staff to have a queue of
"x" minutes 90% of the time.

My guess is that some beancounter at Lockmart wanted to be a hero and cut
back the number of briefers to below the figure the engineers deemed
necessary.

Didn't they give some guarantees to get the business, something along "time
on hold", or some such?

And it may be the same problem my business insurance people (in NJ) have had
with bad phone connections since March; sending a FAX took two or three or
even four attempts.