IS the CWO program is over?

That is the way I am taking it. Our PATCO knows of nothing yet.

www.faa.gov/news/contact_information/ 404-305-5100 it is time to put the heat on Ms Bergen as well. She is listed as the FAA info officer for the southern region. I called and left a message. Flood her voicemail!!!

My email to Ms. Bergen.......Ms. Bergen I left you a voicemail message regarding whether the CWO program will be shut down. Enough is enough. The FAA needs to tell us what is going on already. If we are going to be out of a job in a few months we need to know. I am a person with very real bills, a mortgage to pay, car payments and a wife to support. The proposed closure of the CWO program is shameful bordering on the criminal for it's complete disregard to air safety. To suggest that Tower personnel can safely and adequately do our jobs is shockingly myopic and downright dangerous. I am ALSO a pilot so I take offense at the FAA's disregard for my safety. I am posting you this link to the Weather Observers forum so you can see for yourself the turmoil and trauma the FAA is causing within the Observer community. I ask you to take a look at this site and read the comments and understand that we are REAL PEOPLE and the FAA's thoughtless decisions have real consequences on air safety, weather forecasts and human lives.http://wxobservers.freeforums.net/index.cgi?board=faa

You know that and we all know that but we are talking about number crunchers in DC that will be making these decisions. For them if they see that the core airports handle about 70% of the commercial passenger traffic they might be tempted to keep them open.

This came from a post by chachiman about Obama's budget proposal:

"The budget again contains a proposal for a $100 per-flight fee “to more equitably distribute the cost of air traffic services across the aviation user community,” beginning after Sept. 30. The fee has become a perennial request in Obama's budgets, but Congress has yet to show any desire to enact such a fee. A letter spearheaded by House of Representatives GA Caucus co-chairmen Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) to President Obama in opposition of the fee garnered 223 congressional signatures, above the 218 needed to pass a bill, indicating the provision stands little chance of becoming law."

I don't know the details of that plan and Obama probably doesn't either but here is an article from USA Today that says their were 732 million commercial passengers in the US last year and it is projected to increase to 1.2 billion by 2032 travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/03/passenger-numbers-to-nearly-double-by-2032-faa-predicts/643228/1

If they charged a $1.00 surcharge on each commercial ticket sold the FAA could put CWO's at every A B C D and dirt landing strip in the country.
If they put an $0.08 surcharge on every commercial ticket sold they could fund the CWO program as it currently exists.

ATTN EVERYONE!

It is the end of another week and "new sources" and "damning evidence" is being leaked. Seriously? Have we not heard the boy who cried wolf the last 4 weeks running? Is it April Fools Groundhog Day again!?

Please, has anyone noticed that all the news articles being posted, it states the program is funded through the end of the FY and these "supposed closings" begin and end BEFORE the end of the FY? Something seem fishy to anyone?



I have complete faith in Atlwxguy and Chachiman, I personally know them and believe me, they have the connections. BOTTOM LINE IS THIS: We are funded and will continue to operate as normal until at least the new FY. Then we will see, but as stated above, it will be site by site determination if anything. It will NOT get the guillotine as the end all be all. Please stop.


ADMIN: Can we please lock this thread? It seems the infectious spread of rumor and speculation is too rampant and is seriously getting out of control. It is not healthy nor constructive.