Flight Service Sigmet

As the clock is ticking down to the end of federally run Flight Service stations, AOPA President Phil Boyer has continued his uncritical cheerleading of the contract. His last missive is dated September 22 and is not surprising; he repeats the same old misleading information as well as presenting some new contradictions.

We’ve decided to break with our blogging tradition and respond to Mr. Boyer point-by-point on the highlights of his article. New readers might want to peruse the following earlier posts, since much of Mr. Boyer’s flawed observations are dealt with there first:

- With a Tangled Skein (parts 1 and 2) – 7/26, 28
- A Damning Report – 8/3
- Mythical Metrics – 8/11
- The Breaking Dawn – 8/13
- The Coming Lockheed-AOPA Conflict – 8/15
- Rude Awakening – 10/1

The ‘Marion’s Poodles’ series makes for good background as well.

"AOPA has been in virtually constant discussions with Lockheed Martin as it
moves toward the initial FSS transition on October 4," said AOPA President
Phil Boyer.

It’s too bad neither AOPA or Lockheed ever spoke to the controllers, and we never understood why not. Mr. Boyer constantly said that the FAA had mismanaged Flight Service into the ground while praising the professionalism of the controllers. We could have given them lots of useful assistance if only they would have consented to talk, but for some reason they didn’t want to…

"We want to ensure that there will be no service glitches for pilots."

About 1,900 of the current 2,000 FSS employees have accepted job offers from Lockheed Martin...

Here Mr. Boyer departs from his previous orthodoxy. He last stated that 600 AFSS employees would be gone by the changeover date, leaving only 1,400 controllers in the service (1600 by our count, using a base of 2200). This new position places him at odds with Lockheed, whose call offloading plan bemoans the “decimated” staffing of Flight Service. We can’t help wondering about the effectiveness (or even existence) of those “constant discussions with Lockheed” that Mr. Boyer keeps bragging about.

... which means that even the familiar voices giving your preflight weather briefings will stay the same.

If you obtain a preflight briefing on October 3 and another one the next day,
there will be no difference. The same specialists, at the same locations, at the
same phone numbers and radio frequencies will be providing the same services as
today — only as Lockheed employees.

Lockheed’s call offloading contingency plan (mentioned Friday) that will be implemented on Tuesday tells a different story. Calls from many area codes will be transferred partially or totally to other stations. If a pilot’s ‘home’ station has longer hold times, they will find themselves talking to controllers at other facilities. Some pilots are already facing this situation. Again, if Mr. Boyer is in constant contact and discussion with Lockheed, why doesn't he already have this information?

But the consolidation of these facilities should not impact the level of service pilots receive.

Mr. Boyer has no possible way of knowing this.

Lockheed has a 60-day transition plan in place, which includes a 30-day gradual transition of some employees to the new facilities and 30 days of overlapping services from the new and previous locations.

The Lockheed Contingency plan is based on the conclusion that staffing is already too thin, and doesn’t even account for a number of retirement-eligible controllers that have signed up with Lockheed but have stated that they simply will not show up on October 4th. These two factors leave no room for overlap.

"AOPA asked for aggressive performance requirements to ensure that your telephone and radio calls to FSS would be answered quickly," Boyer said. "Lockheed must meet these customer service standards, so you should notice improved service as the FS21 technology is integrated."

As we’ve pointed out before, this was a pre-determined part and of the original A-76 concept. AOPA’s “asking” was a non-sequitor, akin to a witch doctor asking the sun to rise.

After the 18-month transition is complete, pilots' telephone calls must be answered within 20 seconds and radio calls within 15 seconds . Flight plans must be processed in three minutes, and pireps must be processed within 30 seconds of receipt, 15 seconds if they are urgent.

We wonder if there’s a typo in there…we were under the impression that the contract called for radio calls to be answered in 5 seconds. But then, no one who has written about the contract has actually seen it.

As to the rest, see our posts ‘Mythical Metrics’ and ‘With a Tangled Skein: Part 2’ for a dissection of this claim.

And an annual customer satisfaction survey will be conducted so that Lockheed can make sure you are getting the best service possible.

Pilots, depending on group and survey, are already 80-90% satisfied with current services (see our post ‘With a Tangled Skein: Part 2'. We have no doubt that Mr. Boyer will crow loudly as some evidence of success any subsequent survey showing 75% or more satisfaction.

It is estimated that Lockheed's 10-year contract will actually save the government about $2.2 billion.

Calculated savings are already down to a maximum of $1.7 billion, and as low as $1.2 billion according to the GAO (see ‘A Damning Report’). These revised numbers were public knowledge long before his article was written. Mr. Boyer has no excuse for not knowing about this.

Count on costs to go higher as well. Lockheed’s contingency plan calls for the possibility of additional controllers, exceeding the original target of 1000. The FAA continues to ask Lockheed for contract additions. These are always much more expensive than if they are contained in the initial contract and will reduce projected savings further and faster.

Another GAO report shows that these savings do nothing to allay the possibility of user fees or other privatization that AOPA opposes (see ‘The Breaking Dawn’).

To allow briefers to devote even more time to serving you, whether you are on the ground or in the air, Lockheed has discontinued some services that do not pertain to GA briefings. For example, FSS will no longer have to respond to media requests for historic weather data; it will no longer coordinate the military's ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) flight information; and it will no longer provide information from aviation publications to nonpilots.

"Lockheed discontinued only the nonpilot services that FSS had been providing," Boyer said. "Pilot services, like distributing notams, will continue as before."

These are meaningless statements. How many of the 2200 controllers affected by this contract have actually done any of the discontinued services in Mr. Boyer's list, let alone on a daily basis? We’ve never done any of these things, although a few controllers may very well have on occasion. But to assert that the above activities, even when done, constitute any reason for long hold times is absurd. Quite frankly, Mr. Boyer is making it up; he has no idea how much time is actually spent doing these things.

NOTAMs are part of a standard brief, part of the 7110.10 rules that any contractor would have had to comply with. Of course they will continue.

And let’s be honest; aviation information can still be received by non-pilots; all they have to do is make the pretense of being a pilot, something very easy to do (for example, make up a call sign or claim ‘rental’ status).

Mr. Boyer does, however, gloss over the fact that some services, while not time consuming, will be missed. Instructors calling to check up on the progress of their students will be turned away. Real pilots may be surprised to learn that they as well will be denied some published information.

Our position remains unchanged since our posts listed at the top of this one; that pilot contacts are likely to be longer due to 'cover your rear' concerns, and with a slashed workforce of diluted expertise and promised metrics (not yet fully revealed), Mr. Boyer’s dream of cheap, fast, personal, local, expert service is not likely to be realized. One or more of those will have to give.