Jerry Costello |
AOPA members continue to report flight service problems — long hold times, lost flight plans, and more. And all those reports are getting the attention of Congress, specifically aviation subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) who has spoken several times with AOPA President Phil Boyer about the difficulties pilots are experiencing.
In its FAA funding bill (H.R.2881) the House included a requirement that the FAA "develop and implement a monitoring system for flight service specialist staffing and training." The House didn't leave any guesses as to what that monitoring program should check for: "system outages, excessive hold times, dropped calls, poor quality briefings, and any other safety or customer service issues under a contract for flight service station services."
[See also AOPA's FSS blog entry from June 29.]