FAA Administrator Blakey Reduces Safety In The Name Of Procedural Conformance

FAA Administrator Blakey Reduces Safety In The Name Of Procedural
Conformance

ADS-B was removed from radar screens after 7 years of successful
operation "because it appeared controllers were operating outside the
scope of their authorization to separate the traffic."

And we're supposed to believe this Bush appointee has safety at the
forefront of her agenda?

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AVwebFlash Volume 12, Number 19b -- May 11, 2006
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Capstone, Here Then Gone

ADS-B, "THE FUTURE OF ATC," TAKEN OFFLINE IN ALASKA
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192213)
In Alaska, where the risks
(http://www.avweb.com/news/features/188284-1.html) of flying in
all that empty space and bad weather are well-known, the Capstone
(http://www.alaska.faa.gov/capstone/) program has been soundly
successful, reducing accidents by up to 47 percent. Yet a vital
part of that program, the Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) surveillance technology, has been
taken offline by the FAA at the Anchorage radar center.
Controllers now provide separation for IFR flights outside radar
coverage zones "procedurally," meaning they have no actual blips
on the screen to indicate position. The option is less efficient
and less safe than ADS-B. So why was ADS-B, which is due for
statewide implementation later this year, and which was recently
lauded by the FAA as "the future of air traffic control
(http://faa.gov/news/news_story.cfm?newsKey=4172)," taken offline?
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192213
SAFETY CONCERNS CITED ABOUT SAFETY SYSTEM
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192214)
Sue Gardner, manager of the FAA Capstone program in Alaska, told
AVweb on Tuesday that ADS-B was removed from radar screens as of
March 24, "because it appeared controllers were operating outside
the scope of their authorization to separate the traffic." Why
that became a concern at this point, when the system has been in
operation since 1999, she wouldn't say. The decision was made
after a team from Washington conducted a "safety assessement" in
Alaska and "took [ADS-B] off the glass," Gardner said. Geoffrey
Basye, FAA spokesman in Washington, D.C., told AVweb last night
that "this is a case of growing pains." The project is continuing
to expand, and has had temporary bumps in the road before, he
said. "The issue remaining has to do with the provision of ATC
services in a mixed environment of ADS-B and radar returns. We
want to include this as part of the program's authorization but
have some short-term (two months) analysis to do. In the interim,
we have to limit temporarily the information available on the
controllers' scopes."
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192214
USERS PROTEST, BLAKEY DEFENDS ACTION
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192215)
The Alaska Aviation Coordination Council (AACC), an industry
group, expressed immediate dismay to the FAA when the system went
off the scopes, calling the action "a most serious threat to
Alaska aviation safety." Even worse, the loss occurred just as the
state was gearing up for its busiest -- and riskiest -- spring and
summer season, when long hours of daylight and the tourist influx
drive operations. FAA Administrator Marion Blakey responded to
their concerns in a letter on Monday. She defended the suspension
of ADS-B from radar scopes as "appropriate," pending a review of
separation standards. Although Gardner (and the FAA Web site) said
there is "no timeline" for the return of service, Blakey said she
is "confident" that the issues can be resolved by July. But for
Alaskan aviators, the delay has caused problems beyond the
immediate operational ones.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192215
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Administrator Blakey reduces FAA budget citing a need for a change in
FAA funding practices (user fees).

BLAKEY DEFENDS FAA BUDGET BEFORE CONGRESS
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192220)
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey testified
(http://faa.gov/news/news_story.cfm?newsKey=4191) before the U.S.
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation last week, to
justify her FAA fiscal year 2007 budget. Blakey reiterated her
request for a change in FAA funding practices, saying the agency
needs "a stable and predictable funding system that provides
appropriate incentives to users and to the FAA to operate more
efficiently." The future presents many challenges, she said,
requiring an upgraded airspace system that can handle the giant
Airbus A380, fleets of microjets and everything in between. Blakey
asked overall for a lower budget than last year, but would add $8
million for 101 new aviation safety inspectors and 32 new
staffers for the Air Traffic Safety Oversight office.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192220
(Don't bother trying to access the faa.gov link above; it's no longer
there.)

How can anyone believe Ms. Blakey after her illogical actions?

Larry Dighera wrote:

FAA Administrator Blakey Reduces Safety In The Name Of Procedural
Conformance

ADS-B was removed from radar screens after 7 years of successful
operation "because it appeared controllers were operating outside the
scope of their authorization to separate the traffic."

And we're supposed to believe this Bush appointee has safety at the
forefront of her agenda?

What that governmentspeak really means is that the procedures for using
ADS-B were found to be lacking. This happens from time to time with any
piece of equipment. For example we are going to open a new tower
here in Billings the second week of August. We are getting this god
awful piece of equipment called an electronic drop tube. We don't have
one now, we use the low tech version, a hole in the console where we
drop a strip holder from the tower controller to the radar controller.
This new piece of equipment has necessitated a total rewrite of our
procedures, several hundred man hours have already been expended. If at
some future point after the tower opens we discover something we didn't
think of that makes this new piece of equipment unreliable or
potentially unsafe we will stop using it until the problem is fixed.
That's what happened with ADS-B. Something got discovered and they are
fixing it.

Ok, Newps... you're killing me with curiosity... how does the electronic
"hole in the floor" work?
Jim

Jim Burns wrote:
Ok, Newps... you're killing me with curiosity... how does the electronic
"hole in the floor" work?

Simple. We've eliminated the hole. Yep, we've replaced the notoriously
unreliable gravity with tens of thousands of dollars worth of electronic
equipment. At the new place all strips will be printed with a bar code,
just like at the grocery store. When the ground controller reads a
clearance he scans the strip and that loads it into the tower
controllers computer. When the tower controller launches an IFR
airplane he holds the strip under a bar code reader mounted at his
position and that causes a strip to be printed out for the radar
controller with the heading that the tower controller entered on his
keypad. An unbelievable waste of money when a simple hole in the
console has worked perfectly well for the last 30 or 40 years.

On Thu, 11 May 2006 17:28:29 -0600, Newps wrote
in ::

An unbelievable waste of money when a simple hole in the
console has worked perfectly well for the last 30 or 40 years.

And you still can't get rid of the hole, as it will be necessary for
operations when the computers go down?

In article ,
Larry Dighera wrote:

An unbelievable waste of money when a simple hole in the
console has worked perfectly well for the last 30 or 40 years.

And you still can't get rid of the hole, as it will be necessary for
operations when the computers go down?

Landline/intercom

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Larry Dighera wrote:

On Thu, 11 May 2006 17:28:29 -0600, Newps wrote
in ::


An unbelievable waste of money when a simple hole in the
console has worked perfectly well for the last 30 or 40 years.


And you still can't get rid of the hole, as it will be necessary for
operations when the computers go down?

Nope, no hole in the console. And that's because the tower shaft sits
on the end of the building, not directly over the TRACON. The plastic
tube would have to run outside the building.

"Price check on isle 4, price check on isle 4. Ground controller to a white
courtesy telephone for a price check on isle 4."

Jim


"Newps" wrote in message
...


Jim Burns wrote:
Ok, Newps... you're killing me with curiosity... how does the electronic
"hole in the floor" work?

Simple. We've eliminated the hole. Yep, we've replaced the notoriously
unreliable gravity with tens of thousands of dollars worth of electronic
equipment. At the new place all strips will be printed with a bar code,
just like at the grocery store. When the ground controller reads a
clearance he scans the strip and that loads it into the tower
controllers computer. When the tower controller launches an IFR
airplane he holds the strip under a bar code reader mounted at his
position and that causes a strip to be printed out for the radar
controller with the heading that the tower controller entered on his
keypad. An unbelievable waste of money when a simple hole in the
console has worked perfectly well for the last 30 or 40 years.

("Jim Burns" wrote)
Simple. We've eliminated the hole. Yep, we've replaced the notoriously
unreliable gravity with tens of thousands of dollars worth of electronic
equipment. At the new place all strips will be printed with a bar code,
just like at the grocery store.

"Price check on isle 4, price check on isle 4. Ground controller to a
white courtesy telephone for a price check on isle 4."


[Cut from the web]
Have you seen the Ford TV commercial where the guy's checking out at the
self-check with the voice, and it gets stuck on "Wart Remover, Wart Remover,
Wart Remover", so he whacks it, and it starts rapid-firing "wart, wart,
wart, wart, wart, wart..." Very funny!

I'd name the new system...
(W)ide (A)rea (R)adar (T)racking ????

And if W.A.R.T. goes down? Someone suggested "Landline/intercom" as a
solution.

I'm going one factor of simplicity better: What are those brass tubes on
ships called (that you talk through) from the bridge to the engine room?
Sort of like a hole in the floor but more expensive.


Montblack
Hate to be the ATC employee returning from a two week vacation, learning the
hard way that they've replaced the brass [ship's] speaking tubes with
pneumatic 'drive thru bank' deposit tubes.

....that's gonna hurt!

On Thu, 11 May 2006 15:54:36 -0600, Newps wrote
in ::

Something got discovered and they are fixing it.

Thanks for the information.

One would think the problem would have been discovered long before
seven years had past.