Bill to Privatize US ATC...

[amorris311]

KPCA. KFHUs PAR was just decommissioned. The only full time ASR/PAR in Arizona is KNYL.

Oh that brings back some memories. The controllers must have had currency issues with PAR approaches since it seemed like I would be asked a lot going in and out of there with students. Cool place nonetheless, taxi backs were really interesting as well when they had some of the UAV’s taxiing behind us. The owner of our flight school in OLS used to head over there once a month for the ATP rides in Army King Airs. Cool place to see some of the technology and testing.

 

[amorris311]

Interesting place. Just looked at it on google maps. Curious if any of the local flight training aircraft have ever asked for a PAR. I used to do do them at Gray AAF and they never said no but that was back in the 80's. NAS Whidbey was known to say no and I never tried. Really no reason a 172 couldn't do a low approach to an 800 foot "runway" even though it has an H on it. It was well understood that you didn't land at Gray, just a low approach.

Used to instruct out of OLS and would head over there from time to time for training. The controllers would ask if one of our approaches would/could be a PAR. I assumed it was a currency thing for them. Yuma was the same, but much less frequent.

We would “practice” LOC-backcourse approaches into DMA with the instruction of low approach “ONLY” given by the controller. It’s been 15+ years though so I’m sure things have changed a bit.

 

[MikeD]

Oh that brings back some memories. The controllers must have had currency issues with PAR approaches since it seemed like I would be asked a lot going in and out of there with students. Cool place nonetheless, taxi backs were really interesting as well when they had some of the UAV’s taxiing behind us. The owner of our flight school in OLS used to head over there once a month for the ATP rides in Army King Airs. Cool place to see some of the technology and testing.

That’s what it was, they were having trouble keeping currency, just like @Lawman talked about. Eventually, the PAR there was deemed not needed, and was decommissioned a little less than a year ago. Ole Larry Tiffin, I remember when he had a flight school at PRC along with a small part 135 airline using Chieftains flying PRC-PHX. Arizona Pacific, I believe it was.

 

[MikeD]

Used to instruct out of OLS and would head over there from time to time for training. The controllers would ask if one of our approaches would/could be a PAR. I assumed it was a currency thing for them. Yuma was the same, but much less frequent.

We would “practice” LOC-backcourse approaches into DMA with the instruction of low approach “ONLY” given by the controller. It’s been 15+ years though so I’m sure things have changed a bit.

Both NYL and DMA are traffic permitting for civil instrument approaches, though NYL is much easier being both joint-use as well as having 4 runways. NYL gets far more regular use of the PAR than FHU ever did, and mil traffic permitting since they are only to the main runways, is happy to have civil to them too. Have never heard them turn anyone down.

 

[Maurus]

The budget was blown up, it has failed to remain on target for milestones, and it will have less of an impact than was originally stated. The FAA is also fudging numbers to game certain milestones.

The DOT published this report earlier this year: https://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/default/files/library-items/FAA NextGen Status Report_4.30.24.pdf

Do you think we would have this under NASA without contracting with the private sector?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYUr-5PYA7s&themeRefresh=1
As I said earlier, I won't pretend to have the answers, but a private/government hybrid solution has been implemented in other countries. It is worth investigating. It's clear something is very wrong with the current system. If that could be fixed, fix it. If a company like Boeing were put in charge of the privatization of ATC, we're all hosed.

Other countries don't have the air traffic that we have in the US and they also tend to have a better public transportation infrastructure compared to the US. Just think how much less airline traffic there would be between along the east coast if we had a proper high speed train network. NYC <> BOS flights would likely tank.

Also does it make sense to give a single corporation so much power that they can cripple the US economy?

Ultimately your example is not 100% correct. NASA is more like the FAA in your scenario. SpaceX tech is merely used as a tool until the next best thing comes along.