While Holding for a Briefing Today...

On May 15, 6:42 pm, "Kyle Boatright" wrote:
I was on the phone for the now-traditional 15 minute pre-brief hold today
and they had a new voice on the "hold line". Instead of an announcement
every 45 seconds about how busy they are and calls are taken on a first come
first served basis, and we'll take your call ASAP, there was a message from
the LockMart guy in charge of the FSS project.

Essentially "Sorry about the bad service. Increased seasonal volume has
swamped us. We're half way through the transition. It'll be better once we
complete the transition. We have about 3 more months of work to go to
reduce from 58 to 19 FSS's.

Of course, my cynical side thinks.. If we're halfway through the process
now, I guess we'll be really screwed when these guys complete the process.
Also, didn't LockMart anticipate that flight briefing requests go up in the
summer? Hello, McFly....

Well, looks like I am going to be doing all my pre-flight via the
internet from now on, and only use the FSS in flight to activate and
close flight plans...

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...


If it's sooooo important to you, why not suscribe to WxWorx, Jeppesen, or
Meteorix, or any of the similar services?

Do all of those services have a trained person on the line who looks at
weather several hours a day and can relate the trends they are seeing?

Yes.

Do you think corporate flight departments would rely on a "talking head"?

That's the big thing that a briefer offers.... "The forecast calls for
"X", but we're seeing rapid improvement (or worsening), and based on that,
I think the forecast may be pessimistic (or optimistic)...

Do FAA briefers have data updated constantly, or just the periodic hour
reports?

WXWork, WSI, Jepp, all are usng data in as close to real-time as one can
get.

What does FSS use?


Also, do all of those services record the briefing, just in case I need a
witness that I got a briefing?

Yup! Probably better records than the FAA.

Say I get a full FSS briefing and no TFR's are mentioned, despite my
request for that info. Then, due to whatever circumstance, I bust a TFR and
get a F-16 escort. My opinion is that having a bona fide record of an FSS
briefing would be a very good piece of evidence on my behalf...

Think of why corporate and commercial aviation DOES NOT use the FAA
services, but private firms.

Here's ananalogy: think of the difference between, say, Honda, Toyota, Ford
and, oh, Yugo, or Lara.

Matt Barrow wrote:
WXWork, WSI, Jepp, all are usng data in as close to real-time as one can
get.

They all get the same information from the same source.
It's what they do with it that differentiates the service.

On 17 May 2007 19:52:45 -0700, wrote in
. com:

looks like I am going to be doing all my pre-flight via the
internet from now on, and only use the FSS in flight to activate and
close flight plans...

Those airman who feel as you do as a result of LocMart's failure to
meet their performance standards are probably what they are banking on
to break even.

On Sun, 20 May 2007 11:39:08 +0000, Larry Dighera wrote:

Those airman who feel as you do as a result of LocMart's failure to meet
their performance standards are probably what they are banking on to break
even.

I'm thinking about bank tellers and ATM machines. The ATM machines
permitted the number of tellers to drop. Then the ATM fees started. The
number of tellers didn't go [back] up.

- Andrew

Andrew Gideon wrote in
news
On Sun, 20 May 2007 11:39:08 +0000, Larry Dighera wrote:

Those airman who feel as you do as a result of LocMart's failure to
meet their performance standards are probably what they are banking
on to break even.

I'm thinking about bank tellers and ATM machines. The ATM machines
permitted the number of tellers to drop. Then the ATM fees started.
The number of tellers didn't go [back] up.

- Andrew



Prior to the introduction of ATMs, banks kept "banker's hours". They
were open from 10 AM to 3 PM Monday through Thursday and until 5 PM on
Friday. Lines at lunch hour were much longer then than now.

Shortly after the introduction of ATM's, there was at least one bank
that for a while actually imposed a 50 cent fee on its own customers for
using a teller rather than the ATM if their account was below some limit.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

I'm thinking about bank tellers and ATM machines. The ATM machines
permitted the number of tellers to drop. Then the ATM fees started. The
number of tellers didn't go [back] up.

Not only that, but for a while Citibank was charging people to see a
teller if an ATM could have performed the transaction. That caused a
ruckus, and they more than withdrew that position.

Jose
--
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those that just want to
know what button to push, and those that want to know what happens when
they push the button.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Sun, 20 May 2007 17:21:35 -0400, Jose
wrote in :

Not only that, but for a while Citibank was charging people to see a
teller if an ATM could have performed the transaction.

I canceled all my Citi credit cards. I don't do business with
CitiBank.

Not only that, but for a while Citibank was charging people to see a
teller if an ATM could have performed the transaction.
I canceled all my Citi credit cards. I don't do business with
CitiBank.

To their credit, once they got the backlash, they withdrew their charge
for teller transactions, and started featuring their customer service,
which became excellent. That counts a lot for me.

Jose
--
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those that just want to
know what button to push, and those that want to know what happens when
they push the button.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.