FAA Hearing quotes and overall thoughts

I agree swifterz. Boeing 787 gonna be a bigger thing.

Opening line from administrator of FAA summarized. "Saftey is the number one priority of the FAA. it is our mission, 24/7". Riiiiighhht.. B/c eliminating CWO wouldn't compromise that at all.

First mention of weather monitoring comes from Hersman from the NTSB relating to HEMS (helicopter med flights). She may be a good person to contact if we don't get mentioned, if noboday has already.

Seems like Senator Bunt at least follows the weather, and understands weather affects aviation safety! He mentioned (in relation to furloughed employees), that there is no fairness on bad weather days. This was at about the 1:13:00 mark for those that rewind or re-watch the broadcast.

I didn't care for all the ego-stroking during the first 30 minutes or so, but overall I found the hearing to be somewhat informative and entertaining. Sadly, the contract weather program never seemed to come up, but it did seem as if Senator Bunt was sympathetic to our cause, given his concern for both aviation safety and the prioritization of essential bad-weather personnel. I don't recall the lady's name, but I particularly enjoyed the discussion regarding the requirement to turn off electronics in the cabin during take off and landing, as she made a number of good points in a rather straight-forward manner. I didn't know anything about Michael Huerta going into this hearing, but I found his answers to be somewhat satisfactory given the questions presented to him. I really wish the cwo program would have been addressed directly, but regardless as to whatever the final outcome ends up being, I am somewhat comforted by the lip-service offered regarding the commitment to aviation safety and human resources.

And really, that lip service is what more or less sums up this entire hearing. Their words say one thing, but will their actions say another? That remains to be seen. The cwo program has been under threat of elimination for many years now, but honestly I don't think any of this would have come to pass so quickly if not for sequestration. By exempting significant portions of the DOT and FAA budgets, a disproportionate amount of the required cuts are coming at the expense of the overall operational budget, which itself consists mostly of human resources, whether FAA or contract employees. I am a bit more optimistic that most of the cwo program will survive the remainder of this fiscal year, but unless congress gives the FAA more budgetary discretion in future budgets, I don't see us going very much forward into future fiscal years. Or at least that is more or less what I got out of the hearing.

Please turn off your device while the plane is landing and taking off. It's more of a distraction more than anything else. If they plane goes down do you want to get out quickly or wait for someone to finish their text then open the emergency exit. Please you can live without if for 20 minutes

I paid close attention to the top three budget categories as well. IF we are not in the top three, that means if they save the tower program they are going to be looking elsewhere and we can't be that far down the list, which would be problematic for us.

Overall, I thought the three that seem to be on our side somewhat, or at least knew that weather is related and important to aviation safety were Senator Bunt and Cantwell. The NTSB lady also had a few remarks that led me to believe she was on our side a bit.

Huerta, to me, sounded like he was dodging the tough questions and gave the typical "safety is our top priority" BS response, when we all know they are conidering jeopardizing aviation safety.