Flight Service Station Weather Briefers to Loose Jobs
As part of the government’s plan to save money a significant number of flight service stations around the country will be closed and consolidated into three flight service hubs across the country. An article in the Portland Press Herald (link below) discusses the future of the 30 employees of the FSS in Bangor, Maine.
Bangor FSS employees were notified last week that as of October 4 they will loose their jobs. Some of them have been offered jobs by Lockheed Martin who will take over FSS responsibilities and consolidate the services into locations in Leesburg, Virginia., Fort Worth, Texas, and Prescott, Arizona.
Frankly, this scares me. I live in Maine and certainly appreciate the ability of the Bangor FSS briefers to provide me with local knowledge that I’m not sure can be duplicated by someone in Virginia. The Bangor FSS briefers can take a look at a TAF and say “Well, here is what the TAF says, but I disagree. I’ve seen this scenario before and here is what I think is going to happen.”
Maine has some pretty unique terrain. We have costal areas that are often blanketed with early morning fog. We also have the Appalachian Mountains that extend through Western Maine. The weather can change rapidly here and just a few miles distance can yield significantly different weather.
But the point isn’t Maine’s unique weather. All locations have unique weather and pilots rely on local knowledge from weather briefers to make informed decisions.
Granted, Lockheed Martin is suggesting they will be able to offer more services than FSS stations can currently provide. I’ve heard that some of the suggested technology would allow me to sit in front of a computer and call for a weather brief. During the brief I could be viewing the same maps the briefer is looking at as she points out certain specific weather features. That would be cool and would allow a better “weather picture”. They are also promising faster response times when calling for a weather brief.
Personally, I’ll wait on hold for two minutes and forgo computer hookups in exchange for local knowledge. What do you think? Comment below!
Job Cuts at Bangor Raise Concerns
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