FAA to decommission RCO network.

I see this being a problem for third-world countries like Alaska. I haven't used an RCO in a decade and when I did try, it was a 50/50 shot on getting anything useful out of one.
 
///AMG said:
Now that i think of it, I dont hear them reference “flight watch or HIWAS for more information” anymore

Edit: apparently HIWAS is down too
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Flight Watch ended in 2015, which I didn't find out until I tried to call them about a week after it was decommissioned. I had recently used it right before it ended, unaware it was about to be discontinued. Interestingly, I kept hearing "flight watch for more information" on ATISes for several years afterward, presumably inertia on the part of the controllers who record them.
 
Hiboglossi said:
Flight Watch ended in 2015, which I didn't find out until I tried to call them about a week after it was decommissioned. I had recently used it right before it ended, unaware it was about to be discontinued. Interestingly, I kept hearing "flight watch for more information" on ATISes for several years afterward, presumably inertia on the part of the controllers who record them.
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On the mil side, we have these “pilot to meteorologist” or METRO freqs we can call on the ground (or i guess airborne) on UHF. Still a paid civilian forecaster, who will answer on the other end of the radio. I’ve used them several times over the years, especially on an iffy night with a tight dew point spread and weird weather, trying to make the decision about whether to go fly (with the ultimate intention of landing back there/home). I dont care who you ask, having a professional weather human to talk to is always better than whatever reduced funding robot will take the reins to save a few dollars. Maybe they wont take this service away,……maybe…..
 
///AMG said:
On the mil side, we have these “pilot to meteorologist” or METRO freqs we can call on the ground (or i guess airborne) on UHF. Still a paid civilian forecaster, who will answer on the other end of the radio. I’ve used them several times over the years, especially on an iffy night with a tight dew point spread and weird weather, trying to make the decision about whether to go fly (with the ultimate intention of landing back there/home). I dont care who you ask, having a professional weather human to talk to is always better than whatever reduced funding robot will take the reins to save a few dollars. Maybe they wont take this service away,……maybe…..
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The forecast for NOAA isn’t great…
 
Fixtur said:
The "newest" airplane I've ever flown was a 2012 CJ3. That was in 2020.
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For me it's was a brand spankin' new 321 NEO, only 37 hrs of proving runs and the delivery flight - - - or whatever our books say that we have to do before it enters regular line-pilot dude service. It totally still had that new airplane smell and the flight deck didn't look like a dust and crumb museum of unhealthy eating choices:

1743920006252.png

(Pictured above... the cleanest MCDU you'll ever see outside of the factory.)
 
ClearedForOption said:
For me it's was a brand spankin' new 321 NEO, only 37 hrs of proving runs and the delivery flight - - - or whatever our books say that we have to do before it enters regular line-pilot dude service. It totally still had that new airplane smell and the flight deck didn't look like a dust and crumb museum of unhealthy eating choices:

View attachment 83083
(Pictured above... the cleanest MCDU you'll ever see outside of the factory.)
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Is that a Honeywell box?
 
Inverted said:
I see this being a problem for third-world countries like Alaska. I haven't used an RCO in a decade and when I did try, it was a 50/50 shot on getting anything useful out of one.
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Not relevant for AK, they're not doing it up here. If it was it would just go back to the way it was in some of these places before there was an RCO or in places where you can't get center on the ground, or when the RCO is OTS.

It would make it basically impossible to legally fly IFR to a lot of places, it would go back to being the standard "wink wink nudge nudge" where people tell center, "yeah, we broke out, we'd like to cancel IFR but it looks pretty misty up ahead, if the weather deteriorates, we'll be following the ground track of the published missed and we'll call you back, good day."
 
///AMG said:
On the mil side, we have these “pilot to meteorologist” or METRO freqs we can call on the ground (or i guess airborne) on UHF. Still a paid civilian forecaster, who will answer on the other end of the radio. I’ve used them several times over the years, especially on an iffy night with a tight dew point spread and weird weather, trying to make the decision about whether to go fly (with the ultimate intention of landing back there/home). I dont care who you ask, having a professional weather human to talk to is always better than whatever reduced funding robot will take the reins to save a few dollars. Maybe they wont take this service away,……maybe…..
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Most base ops have PMSV service, and they are a very good resource, although they seem to be used more at training command and airlift command bases moreso than at tactical jet bases.
 
Someone asked how you filed flight plans before foreflight or fltplan.com.

I said I did it on a dialup connection and filed it on DUATs or I picked up a phone and called 1800WXBRIEF and filed it with a person when the briefer was done with his weather briefing. I had a blank FAA Form 7233-1 in front of me and I just read off the blocks one by one to the briefer.

I got a blank look and head shake back.
 
woodreau said:
Someone asked how you filed flight plans before foreflight or fltplan.com.

I said I did it on a dialup connection and filed it on DUATs or I picked up a phone and called 1800WXBRIEF and filed it with a person when the briefer was done with his weather briefing. I had a blank FAA Form 7233-1 in front of me and I just read off the blocks one by one to the briefer.

I got a blank look and head shake back.
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I still remember being in the rain/snow having to call FSS from the pay phone outside the closed-for-the-night airport office of the tiny uncontrolled field where the last UPS rural truck in the evening had dropped off its outgoing packages to me, in order to both file my IFR flight plan off the card, as well get my clearance relayed from ARTCC through FSS, with a void time that allowed just enough time to run back out to the bird, make a quick walk around that nothing was open, get in and do start/taxi/takeoff and contact ARTCC before I missed my airborne “slot”. Those were the days….
 
MikeD said:
I still remember being in the rain/snow having to call FSS from the pay phone outside the closed-for-the-night airport office of the tiny uncontrolled field where the last UPS rural truck in the evening had dropped off its outgoing packages to me, in order to both file my IFR flight plan off the card, as well get my clearance relayed from ARTCC through FSS, with a void time that allowed just enough time to run back out to the bird, make a quick walk around that nothing was open, get in and do start/taxi/takeoff and contact ARTCC before I missed my airborne “slot”. Those were the days….
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The first time I flew with somebody in GA that had a Bluetooth capable radio stack and he just called over the ICS he couldn’t understand how furiously angry that capability made me.

Then I explained to him the process of unhooking from everything, moving just far enough from a running helicopter to shout into a phone, running back to it, climbing in without kicking the controls and belting up to meet our departure time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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