June 24, 2007

SAFETY AND THE FAA

While we are all waiting for the final decision on the FAA funding bill and the Immigration (Amnesty) bill, chew on these thoughts a while.

Dateline: Hobbs, NM, USA. KHOB is a tower controlled regional airport located in SE New Mexico. The airport is managed by Bill Gatchell, a personal friend of mine and one of the best airport managers I have ever known. A new terminal building is being built at KHOB necessitating the teardown of the existing structure on top of the present terminal building. Some sort of temporary structure was required to fulfill the function of radio antenna base and rotating beacon. It just happened that such a structure became available at Arlington, TX. It had operated on that airport for many years. Bill found out about its availability and bought it with county money for $8,000, had it loaded by crane onto a semi-trailer, trucked it to KHOB, and had it erected at the chosen site for the temporary tower. Enter the FAA. It seems that the individuals formerly stationed in Fort Worth were all transferred to Chicago. The new people said thumbs down on the Arlington tower. Instead they opted for a mobile home type building with antennas on the roof. Result, no ATIS and no communications beyond ten miles. Oh yes, they blocked an active taxiway with the temporary office for the tower personnel. Now let me see, Ms. Blakey. Isn't the FAA's designated job aviation safety.

Here is a firsthand comment on the job Lockheed Martin is doing with the Flight Service Stations. It Stinks!! Last weekend USPA held their annual meeting in Wichita, KS (ICT). After being shunted around the maypole from Dallas to Denver to Scottsdale to Columbia, MO, I was finally able to get a weather briefing and file a flight plan. Both flights the weather was worse, much worse than forecast. On the return flight on Sunday, I was told that tops were at 5,500 feet, and when I got up there, I was at 10,500 and still dodging higher towering Qs. I descended to 4,500 feet, under most of the cloud, and carefully picked my way around most of the precipitation they had so kindly forgotten to tell me about. Upon arrival at my destination, I deliberately did not close my flight plan, waiting to see if they would call me. I arrived at 18:00 local, and before retiring at 22:00 hrs called them to close. Guess what. They did not have my flight plan on file. I hung up and called back, this time indicating I was calling from Kansas. A Wichita FSS specialist got on and apologized for the fact my plan had not been activated. They "were having some problems." What if I had---------? You get the idea.

It is about time that Congress regain oversight of the FAA and its out of control Administrator. Somebody needs to do something before lives begin to be lost.

Steve Uslan, President
USPA

P.S. by Jan Hoynacki: The Missouri Pilots Association had its annual convention in St. Joseph, MO, (KSTJ) this weekend. Trying to get FSS to file to leave KSTJ this morning were four people, who were hanging on for over ten minutes, some on cell phones and some on land lines. Fortunately the weather was VFR, so some could take off and file in the air. How sad!

Posted by Jan at June 24, 2007 05:21 PM