Weekend Reading

Don’t even pause to read anything below this post. I’d rather you go read this:

AN OPERATIONAL CRITIQUE OF NEXTGEN

Go there now. We’ll talk about how brilliant it is later.

Don Brown
July 4, 2009

We Told You So

I really don’t have to say anything else, do I ?

FAA whistle-blower safety warnings found to have merit

”A federal investigation into Federal Aviation Administration employee whistle-blower safety complaints has found more than two dozen to be on the mark, “

”The federal Office of Special Counsel, which investigates allegations of reprisal against whistle-blowers, tells CNN it has made a “positive determination” that the FAA improperly responded to 27 current cases of FAA employee whistle-blowers warning of safety violations ranging from airline maintenance concerns to runway and air traffic control issues. “

”“It means that FAA is a very sick agency,” said Tom Devine, legal director of the non-profit Government Accountability Project. “There’s never been an agency that’s had that large of a surge of whistle-blowers whose concerns were vindicated by the government’s official whistle-blower protection office.”“

Be sure to watch the video at the link above.

It’s Friday and a holiday weekend so traffic at this site and most others will be low. Regardless, here’s a “heads up”. After a 2-3 week drought in ATC-related news, several interesting items came to my attention yesterday. Have fun and be sure to catch up next week when you have the time.

Don Brown
July 3, 2009

An Unhealthy Dependancy

I found myself lecturing my daughter last night on healthcare and insurance as I was watching the evening news. She returned the favor by lecturing me -- telling me (in effect) that she’s a big girl now and she had given a presentation on the very same subject in college. In other words, “Dad, I love you. Now shut up.” Unlike her, y’all can’t give me “the look”.

Just in case all this isn’t painfully obvious to the next generation, there is a great opportunity for this country to have universal healthcare and/or insurance. You know, just like every other advanced country in the world. You can tell that the climate has changed by yesterday’s news.

Wal-Mart Says It Backs a Mandate on Insurance

”Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, joined hands with a major labor union Tuesday to endorse the idea of requiring large companies to provide health insurance to their workers, a move that gives a boost to President Obama as he is pushing for health legislation on Capitol Hill. “

Don’t worry -- Wal-Mart hasn’t gone all soft on busting unions and whatnot. They just see the writing on the wall like a lot of other companies.

”But as health legislation moves through Congress, representatives of industry are becoming increasingly convinced that they must join forces with the administration to have a seat at the negotiating table.“

Wal-Mart and the rest of the corporations will do whatever they think is in their best corporate interests. That’s what companies do. Those interests don’t always coincide with your interests, your country’s or the world’s.

To make my point, think back to “The New York 11”. They got fired on a flimsy excuse. They got rehired (of course.) But while they were “fired” they -- and their families -- didn’t have any health insurance. It would be better that everyone is assured access to health insurance. Employed, unemployed or “fired”.

If you’re an air traffic controller, a fledgling artist or a Wal-Mart employee, it really isn’t in your best interest to let your employer have a death grip on your health insurance. They’ll just use it to control your behavior.

On a less personal but still important level, corporations will even use your health as a competitive tool. There are all sorts of options available to an entity that puts its profits ahead of your well being. And we all know companies aren’t in business to promote your well being.

Corporate America will make sure that their voice is heard in this debate. Make sure your voice is heard. Write somebody.

Don Brown
July 2, 2009

Enough !

I’ve been good. I haven’t said a word about Michael Jackson’s death. But I’ve had enough of the news coverage. It will have been a week, tomorrow, and I’ve hardly unmuted the TV since it happened. Seriously, I haven’t listened to a word of it. Which means I’ve hardly heard any news at all in the last week. Thankfully there is the BBC. I record BBC World News America every evening and I’ve fast-forwarded through anything to do with Michael Jackson. Which has been blessedly little compared to CNN, et al.

I don’t like him. I don’t dislike him. I don’t even think about him. I simply don’t care. I do care about keeping up with what is going on so I would appreciate it if the TV media would move on. Enough !

In other news, NATCA is in the middle of an election. If they survive that long. Most of the contract negotiations are done with some of the biggest articles going to mediation. I’m not really staying up on either one but The FAA Follies and The Main Bang are if you want details. You would need a scorecard to keep up with all the games that are being played. While entertaining, what matters is results. There haven’t been any winners in this war between the FAA and controllers. Just lots of casualties.

In a sign that things aren’t going to get any better anytime soon, the FAA announced that Rick Ducharme was being made Vice President of En Route and Oceanic Services. He’s been “acting” VP for some time. The selection is now being made permanent. I don’t know a thing about the guy -- except that he seems to be universally despised by the Terminal controllers. That and the fact that he doesn’t have any Enroute experience. Sounds like a perfect candidate for FAA management.

I know that the subtlety will escape some of the non-controllers out there so let me use another of my imperfect analogies: A bone doctor is running the brain surgery unit.

Mr. Ducharme’s “thank you” in the press release is telling:

”“I appreciate Hank and Rick giving me the opportunity." “

That would be Hank Krakowski -- Chief Operation Officer, Air Traffic Organization and Rick Day -- Senior VP, Operations, Air Traffic Organization. That would be the same guys that were in charge during Marion Blakey’s reign. (BTW, check out what she’s up to today.) Mr. Ducharme left the new FAA Administrator, Randy Babbitt, off the thank you list. Again, I don’t know what kind of games might have been played but I do know the result. It’s Mr. Babbitt’s watch and this move will be about as popular as a NMAC (Near Mid Air Collision) is with controllers. We’ve all heard the terms “pilot error” and “controller error”. It’s time for a new one: Administrator error. Welcome to the new FAA, Mr. Babbitt. It’s the same as the old FAA.

Don Brown
July 1, 2009

Kathryn is Clueless Too

I am really starting to wonder how all this works. How does someone that is obviously smart (like Kathryn Wylde) become so misinformed ? Who is she talking to ? What are they telling her ? And how do they convince her to embarrass herself so publicly ?

Kathryn Wylde is President & CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for New York City, the city’s business leadership organization....

An internationally known expert in housing, economic development and urban policy, Wylde serves on a number of boards and advisory groups, ...

From her bio it’s obvious she has no aviation experience -- much less air traffic control experience. So where does she get the conviction to write such a forceful (if clueless) opinion piece ? If someone asked me to write an opinion piece on housing for The Huffington Post I’d have to pass. I don’t know anything about it. Why does Ms. Wylde write one about aviation transportation -- when it’s obvious she doesn’t know anything about it ?

”NextGen is the solution. Using it, pilots will no longer have to fly indirect routes in order to remain within an airport's radar range.”

That’s wrong on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start. We don’t use airport radars (they are known as Airport Surveillance Radars) to track aircraft enroute -- we use Air Route Surveillance Radars. And the placement of those radars has virtually nothing to do with “indirect routes”.

”The problem is that the FAA plans to slowly roll-out this technology at small, low-capacity airports to make sure the technology works properly, even though it has existed for a decade and is being used around the world...

But we need a Broadway debut. NextGen, which will replace old-fashioned air traffic control radar systems with a satellite-based technology similar to a car's GPS, should be implemented as soon as possible at America's busiest airports - those in the New York Tri-state metropolitan area.“

Oh yeah. We don’t need to turn Frankenstein loose in the country to see if he’s going to go berserk. Let’s turn him loose in Times Square and see how that works out.

Lord help. I’m going back to tending my flowers.

Don Brown
June 30, 2009

I’m Weak Too

It’s nice to know even the smartest of people have the same weaknesses as we mere mortals. Krugman had this to say in a particularly pointed blog entry:

...the people who were Building Red America are looking incredibly absurd.

But I try to limit the potshots, especially in the print column. It’s a limited resource, and the point is to shape policy, not go for entertainment value.

That said, these people did run the country not long ago — and they might again.

I don’t have to limit the potshots -- I have unlimited space -- but I try not to bore you. I don’t find it particularly productive to take the shots (others evidently do) and I have no illusions about my ability to shape policy.

All this is just to say that I passed on making a comment about Robert Poole’s latest fantasy in his ATC Reform News this morning. It’s just too easy -- Pot calls Kettle black. But then I read Krugman. Too bad for Robert Poole.

”At the behest of controllers union NATCA, the non-expert legislators repeated NATCA assertions about the “stability of the system,”—as if any of them knew what that meant. But to serve their constituent labor union, they tried to insert themselves into a process they knew essentially nothing about. “

Mr. Poole is talking about ERAM and the Congressional request to delay its testing. As if Robert Poole knows anything about air traffic control. Talk about a non-expert. At least when compared to me...or about 20-30,000 controllers and ex-controllers. Gee, the next thing you know, legislators will be writing letters and making decisions about economics. Maybe they should listen to the non-controllers and non-economists before they take action. Or not.

By the way, as a writer (non-expert), notice the nice little bit of ambiguity in that sentence -- “as if any of them knew what that meant “. Would “them” be the controllers or the legislators ? But that doesn’t hide the truth. Legislators aren’t experts on air traffic control. Neither is Robert Poole. Air traffic controllers -- ambiguity notwithstanding -- are. It’s hard to believe legislators would listen to -- and act upon -- the advice of the experts. Mr. Poole wants them to listen to the non-experts. After all, look what it did for the economy. Ahem.

Oh, and another thing. Robert Poole is wrong about the National Weather Service meteorologists too. Once again he tries to portray it as the evildoings of the unions. But my readers already know the truth. Too bad truth doesn’t shape policy. Just think-tanks.

Don Brown
June 25, 2009

Escape From New York

I made it out alive. I would tell you the route I took, but somebody would just tell me what I did wrong. I wonder if the GPS in airplanes is as bad as the GPS in cars ? Ours kept trying to send us through Manhattan and the Holland Tunnel. It reminds me of those guys that used to file a direct route right through the final at CLT (Charlotte, NC). It guess that answers my question.

A quick look through the air traffic control news reveals pretty much the same old same-old. Radar is antiquated (evidently airplanes are not) and NextGen/GPS will save us all. If you want to get to the truth of the matter, head on over to The Main Bang and read the document John Carr has posted from 1997. It’s long and complicated but the truth usually is.

1.     Cost Saving Ideas for the FAA
 
1.1     Rapid Navigation System and En Route Radars Transition:
 
The transition to a global positioning system (GPS)-based navigation system will significantly reduce the FAA’s maintenance costs after the existing navigation systems are decommissioned.  For decommissioning to occur, however, the FAA and user community must transition to new equipment. Under current planning, the FAA will develop and deploy the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) to replace long range radars, VORs, non-directional beacons (NDBs), and  Category I (CAT I) Integrated Landing Systems (ILSs). Until full transition occurs, the FAA must operate and maintain the old and new equipment.  This section explores potential opportunities to both reduce the cost and implementation schedule of the WAAS system and reduce the time required to decommission.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. It isn’t about saving the users money. It’s about saving the FAA money and creating profits for private businesses.

Pay particular attention to the parts about Long Range Radars (LRRs). Note that this was written well before the 9/11 attacks -- where the FAA and the world learned the importance of those same radars.

Me ? I’ve got to get on the road. See you soon.

Don Brown
June 23, 2009