I have just finished reading J. Mac McClellan�s article in the November issue of Flying called "What to do about FSS." It is unfortunate that such a widely read and respected magazine as yours continues to perpetuate many of the misunderstandings about today�s AFSS system.

My name is Bill Moriarty. A 20 year Flight Service Station employee, I have spent the last 12 years as an Operations Supervisor at the Bangor AFSS. Since December 2002, I have been assigned to the FAA A-76 study developing the Performance Work Statement (PWS) that is an essential part of A-76 study. The PWS will form the basis of work that will be expected from the contract winner. As part of this project my team has been traveling to the 58 AFSS's in the lower 48 states that are included in this study. During our travel�s we have cataloged over 2,000 separate and distinct safety and national security functions that are conducted in today�s AFSS system.

Those who believe that all an AFSS does is provide weather briefings, file flight plans, and conduct search and rescue activities are severely mistaken. Those who divide the FSS operating budget by the number of phone calls received in an attempt to estimate the cost per service has absolutely no clue what goes on in a Flight Service Station. Of the 2,000 separate AFSS functions identified by the PWS team, fully 80 to 85% of those tasks are not tracked or counted by any method whatsoever. In other words, pilot weather briefings, flight plans and such, represent only about 15% of the tasks conducted by the AFSS specialist. The rest is conducted "behind-the-scenes." The "stuff" we do is in support of the rest of the NAS, only you will never hear about it. No way a briefing costs the taxpayer $27 a piece.

You will never hear about how a few years ago on a Friday evening before the Fourth of July weekend, I spent several hours on the telephone trying to locate a Flight Standards person in Oklahoma City, OK. It seems that they left for the weekend. Only problem was that they were the only ones authorized to cancel the FDC NOTAM which was restricting the instrument approach at Bar Harbor, Maine. The airport was fogged in, probably would be for the weekend. Late in the afternoon the construction that caused the increased minimums wrapped up, and there was no longer a need for the restriction. It was, as I said a holiday weekend, probably the busiest weekend of the airport�s year, only nobody could get in. My effort in tracking down the Flight Standards person at home got that airport opened. Fuel was sold, lobsters were eaten, and people were happy.

You will never hear about how George Gilligan, a specialist on my crew received a message from the Turkish authorities about a KR-135 tanker already over the Atlantic enroute to Turkey. Seems when the Air Force filed the tankers flight plan they left off some significant information that was going to lead the Turkish officials to deny landing rights to the crew. Only the crew was out of range and had no idea of the events unfolding at their destination. George was able to locate the proper diplomatic clearance information and forward that to Turkey. Crew landed all right, but nobody, even the United States Air Force, knows what occurred behind the scenes to make that happen.

You will never hear about how Darryl Ayers, another specialist on my crew, was able to ascertain that a particular aircraft was just stolen from an airport in Maine. You will not hear about how the VFR-only aircraft took off on an IFR day and disappeared in to the clouds. You won't know that Darryl's quick thinking had the approach controller look to find the primary target, tag it up, and then follow it, as the
driver, (he was not even a rated pilot), trying to avoid some legal problems in the States, headed for Canada. Because of Darryl�s actions, the cops found him and threw him in jail. But you won't hear about that, even Northeast Air Defense Command lost this one in the hills.

You will never hear how Joni Colt saved 8 lives one rainy night in central Massachusetts. You'll never hear how, working with a police department on one phone, and an AT&T operator on the other, she thought to have the emergency vehicles alternate the activation of their sirens as they drove back and forth until the survivors, on a cell phone in their crashed aircraft, were able to hear one of the rescue vehicles.

How about how the float plane operators, stranded outside the US following 9/11, were helped to return home by landing on the Canadian side of the lake, taxiing across the border, then resuming their flight home. (There were no restrictions on boats crossing the border.)

Or the student pilot I tracked down, that was unaware that they had left their nose-wheel on the runway at Lebanon, NH. The pilot, upon learning this, wisely opted to land not at Northampton, MA their intended destination, but at Barnes-Westfield, MA where there is a controlled field with CFR available. Funny thing here was the BAF controller got an award for this one. Nobody thought about FSS, and how the pilot was tracked down and notified of her impending doom.

Or how John MacLeod, another Bangor AFSS specialist, saved a pilot from a $5,000 dollar US Customs fine when he tracked down and diverted the VFR-not-talking-to-anybody-pilot traveling from Montreal to Lebanon, NH to a more appropriate Customs clearing point in Burlington, VT.

These stories go on and on. This stuff occurs each day, in every AFSS across the country. Any FSS person could entertain for hours with stories of lives saved, mishaps averted, bad weather data corrected. Not everyone can afford several hundred thousand dollars worth of weather avionics. Of those that can, fewer still understand what they are looking at.

Mr. MacClellan seems to lament a loss of local knowledge when the first round of FSS consolidation took place. Why then, would he think a "single big FSS with phone lines to the entire country would be more efficient...?" What would a briefer in McMinnville, Oregon know about the unforecast fog situation in Machias, ME? What do I know about mountain passes in Colorado? Why would a call center in India be more efficient? Be careful what you ask for Mr. MacClellan, you might just get it.

I hope the FAA/Mitre study actually is released. I have seen the early results. I have seen that 93.5% of Airline Transport Pilots responded that they get weather information from Flight Service Stations. I will be surprised if the data is actually released. I will be surprised if the FAA wants it advertised that we do more than "make coffee and brief general aviation pilots." (The FAA�s words, not mine.)

You see, there is far, far more to a Flight Service Station than the stereotypes perpetuated by the FAA and the rest of the uninformed. It is saddening to me to have our profession so widely misunderstood. It is appalling to me that the FAA appears to be on the verge of ignoring its own study that shows the real value of Flight Service to aviation. Change is necessary, no one disputes that. Modernization is necessary, no one disputes that either. But sell out to a private contractor, to lose control of where your facilities are located, to lose control of a responsive workforce, to dismantle portions of the nations safety and security infra-structure, that is dangerous and most unwise.

Fix the problems? Yes. Abdicate the responsibility and sell the capability? No. Pilot weather briefings that cost $27 a piece? Get a grip.



Sincerely,



William J. Moriarty