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Post by Little Miss Sunshine on Jul 6, 2016 15:23:14 GMT -5
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Post by TCU 2U2 on Jul 7, 2016 6:23:50 GMT -5
Funding extension for FAA to September 2017, approx 15 months. Nothing program related in the summary that was published or for that matter the joint statement. Union may have some additional information? |
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Post by toofarnorth on Jul 7, 2016 13:42:39 GMT -5
Talked to PATCO (Mark): It is only a temporary reprieve - until after the election. The war ain't over folks... We just get to take a breath before it gets dirty again. Privatizing towers seems to be off the table though. Another big danger is nexgen ASOS - which will be used as an excuse to try to close us all. Agencies want to spend billions to deploy another goofy piece of junk that is hardly an improvement over what we have now. No funding appears in the FAA bill that is specific to nexgen ASLOP, just "improvements to safety and technology".
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Post by coldlover on Jul 7, 2016 14:44:59 GMT -5
legislative text in the above posted by Miss Sunshine--
SEC. 2306. CONTRACT WEATHER OBSERVERS. 16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 17 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 18 Federal Aviation Administration shall submit to the ap-19 propriate committees of Congress a report, which includes 20 public and stakeholder input—21 (1) examining the safety risks, hazard effects, 22 and efficiency and operational effects for airports, 23 airlines, and other stakeholders that could result 24
68 from a loss of contract weather observer service at 1 the 57 airports targeted for the loss of the service; 2 (2) detailing how the Federal Aviation Adminis-3 tration will accurately report rapidly changing severe 4 weather conditions at the airports, including thun-5 derstorms, lightning, fog, visibility, smoke, dust, 6 haze, cloud layers and ceilings, ice pellets, and freez-7 ing rain or drizzle, without contract weather observ-8 ers; 9 (3) indicating how airports can comply with ap-10 plicable Federal Aviation Administration orders gov-11 erning weather observations given the current docu-12 mented limitations of automated surface observing 13 systems; and 14 (4) identifying the process through which the 15 Federal Aviation Administration analyzed the safety 16 hazards associated with the elimination of the con-17 tract weather observer program. 18 (b) CONTINUED USE OF CONTRACT WEATHER OB-19 SERVERS.—The Administrator may not discontinue the 20 contract weather observer program at any airport until 21 October 1, 2017.
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Post by Little Miss Sunshine on Jul 7, 2016 15:21:54 GMT -5
Talked to PATCO (Mark): It is only a temporary reprieve - until after the election. The war ain't over folks... We just get to take a breath before it gets dirty again. Privatizing towers seems to be off the table though. Another big danger is nexgen ASOS - which will be used as an excuse to try to close us all. Agencies want to spend billions to deploy another goofy piece of junk that is hardly an improvement over what we have now. No funding appears in the FAA bill that is specific to nexgen ASLOP, just "improvements to safety and technology". October 1 2017 is the earliest any of the 57 sites can be closed, are we reading this right? What is this NEXGEN ASOS the union is talking about, or is this from you? First I have heard of it. Any thoughts on when this will be voted on, if it has not been already? BIG Thank you to all that have worked on this latest battle, you know who you are.  |
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Post by swifterz on Jul 7, 2016 16:00:52 GMT -5
Talked to PATCO (Mark): It is only a temporary reprieve - until after the election. The war ain't over folks... We just get to take a breath before it gets dirty again. Privatizing towers seems to be off the table though. Another big danger is nexgen ASOS - which will be used as an excuse to try to close us all. Agencies want to spend billions to deploy another goofy piece of junk that is hardly an improvement over what we have now. No funding appears in the FAA bill that is specific to nexgen ASLOP, just "improvements to safety and technology". October 1 2017 is the earliest any of the 57 sites can be closed, are we reading this right? What is this NEXGEN ASOS the union is talking about, or is this from you? First I have heard of it. Any thoughts on when this will be voted on, if it has not been already? BIG Thank you to all that have worked on this latest battle, you know who you are. I haven't heard of a NEXGEN ASOS, but have heard of FAA's NEXGEN. Its a complete overhaul and introduction of a New National Airspace System. Basically what they have been trying to accomplish is to switch from radar based system of controlling aircraft to more precise GPS controlling aircraft. The program has been plagued with delays and severe cost overruns. It was supposed to be finished by 2025, but has been pushed back to at least 2030 before its completed. This article talks about the nextgen and the issues it has. Basically its running way over budget so the FAA has been trying to cut as much from their budget as they can to try and keep the NEXGEN program going. |
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Post by hlsto2 on Jul 7, 2016 16:38:51 GMT -5
the FAA is looking to replace the current ASOS. If this is true...a replacement system is years down the road.
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Post by toofarnorth on Jul 8, 2016 13:24:01 GMT -5
I summarized my discussion with Mark... Nexgen ASOS is part of FAA, NWS, & DOD plans and is being developed in the research building next door to AOMC on Fenton Street in Silver Spring, MD. Lobbying by AAI, Belfort Instrument, & Vaisala Corp to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)(former mayor of Baltimore) are driving it. This info direct from AOMC in conversation last winter. Development is in progress - and is at least 2 years before possible deployment, funding dependent. Mark was aware of nexgen ASOS, but not all the details. Big business profits are not our friend here. What will save us is the same problems the current goofy ASLOP has will continue - statistical models are not the same as the human eye.
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Post by tornado on Jul 8, 2016 14:28:16 GMT -5
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Post by toofarnorth on Jul 9, 2016 12:33:19 GMT -5
Thanks for digging that out Tornado - AOMC thought that it would be much faster - in time for the planned obsolescence of ASOS in 2017 or 18... of course, dependent on funding.
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Post by skobie on Jul 9, 2016 22:59:45 GMT -5
So here's the "big picture" problem rearing its ugly head again. The Dept of Transportation (includes the FAA) has no idea what the Dept of Commerce (includes NOAA/NWS) is doing or seems to want to work with or educate itself on. In other words, the FAA has no freaking clue that ASOS won't even work much past 2017 without some obviously major upgrades and fortunately for us (I think), those updates aren't even scheduled for completion until 2024! What the hell is the FAA doing handling or having ANY responsibility with an ASOS system it doesn't even fully comprehend? Shame on the FAA for trying to take on this beast and shame on NOAA for transferring responsibility of "manning" ASOS to the clueless FAA, even though NOAA clearly still has some major financial responsibility towards keeping the ASOS upright until it can someday be replaced (though I don't foresee that happening anytime soon and I wouldn't believe anything that AOMC says). This is just govt bureaucracy bullshit at its finest.
skobie
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Post by hlsto2 on Jul 10, 2016 7:53:08 GMT -5
present ASOS reliable at temp/dewpoint/wind/altimeter most of the time. sky/vis/present wx only reliable in 10SM CLR. so, it is only a user aid for the CWO, that will augment/backup as necessary. obvious the ATCT ignores ASOS much of the time. they don't have the training/experience to make much use of it. they are turning ALDARS off and ignoring TS approaching or occurring at the AP. and even worse, some are turning off ALDARS and going AUTO TSNO during tstms. ATCT doesn't change HZ to BLDU as necessary. allows ASOS to xmit UP in winter weather events. fail to back up missing sensors. most attempts at manual remarks are a total failure. they don't know the order of remarks or proper contractions. FAA has probably given the green light on this, if there is wx and traffic at the same time, ASOS sucks hind tit. whether the FAA realizes it or not, they need us. sadly, the NWS does not give a flip.
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