Sat, Jul 07, 2007
Follow-Up Survey Shows Marginal Improvement
At least the steep spiral has
stopped, says the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association... but
things are far from getting better for Lockheed Martin's handling
of the flight service station (FSS) system.
A recent survey among pilots shows there were no significant
changes in briefer professionalism, knowledge of local geography,
and familiarity with equipment. Nearly half rated briefer
meteorological knowledge as "poor" or "very poor." The June 22
survey was a follow-up to one conducted on May 29, as reported by ANN.
While 24 percent of respondents in the follow-up survey said
service had improved over the past 30 days, 36 percent thought it
had become worse. Overall, respondents said the rapid decline in
performance has at least leveled off.
"Service has gotten marginally better, but it's still bad," said
Melissa Rudinger, AOPA vice president of regulatory affairs. "We'll
continue to hold Lockheed's feet to the fire until we see better
results."
The follow-up survey also found:
- 38 percent remain dissatisfied about the process of filing
flight plans through briefers
- 38 percent still say their calls are not being answered within
a minute or less (some are waiting more than 10 minutes)
- 24 percent continue to experience dropped calls
Lockheed Martin has been collecting its own performance metrics,
but the rosier numbers don't jibe with real-world pilot
experiences. The company is far from reaching the performance goals
in the contract. For instance, 85 percent of the calls are supposed
to be answered within 20 seconds.
AOPA will be meeting with Lockheed officials next week to
continue to press for improvements. AOPA is maintaining a blog with
up-to-the-minute information on the FSS crisis, at the FMI link
below.
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