FAA Computer Nightmare

J

Jazzer

Filing Flight Plan
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May 16, 2013
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Leawood, KS
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Jazzer
I am at my year point on upping my SI for OSA. Per the letter I received, I sent everything in at the timeframe they directed (60 days before expiration) and waited. Well, my medical expired at the end of April and still no idea how long it will take to get through the system.

I have called OKC everyday to check and my AME has also called and get told the same story. The computer systems are all screwed up at the moment and it has ground everything to a trickle pace.

Dr. C also confirmed as much with me as well. I don't know if he would suggest it but if you are due to renew, you might want to give yourself more time than you might have needed to in the past.

If anyone has a great idea, let me know although Dr. C is probably the final answer (as we would expect).
 
Is a plane ticket to OKC out of the question? I'd wager that pounding on the door of the office that makes the determination could only help, right?
 
Yeah, probably out of the question although if I was getting on a plane, it might be better to go to Peoria and do a new medical...

:mad2:
 
Any chance you could just present to your AME and he re-issues a certificate expiring April 30 2014?

By choice, I went back to my AME on my "in between" year. I too have the SI for OSA and also DM2. The AME commented I didn't need to do this, but I said it was worth supporting him with the cost of office visit and my time to get the renewal right away.

He accepted my status letters, filled out the required forms, and I walked out with the certificate.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Any chance you could just present to your AME and he re-issues a certificate expiring April 30 2014?

By choice, I went back to my AME on my "in between" year. I too have the SI for OSA and also DM2. The AME commented I didn't need to do this, but I said it was worth supporting him with the cost of office visit and my time to get the renewal right away.

He accepted my status letters, filled out the required forms, and I walked out with the certificate.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of AME that knows how to work this system. Once I am up for my full medical, I am going to seek out a new AME and go from there. Dr. C spent more time than he should have trying to counsel me and what I could tell my AME but it just didn't work. I am grateful for someone like him willing to answer questions and allowing me to be somewhat of a pest.

I learned some valuable lessons about getting the right kind of AME.
 
I am a regular poster here but have to request this be posted unidentified for obvious reasons:

Let me tell you a tale of federal woe.

IN 2011 OMB decided to consolidate all IT operations in Alexandria VA.
Warren Silberman saw his tech support going away (not a dummy!) and he petitioned for exemption…DENIED.
He reclassified as best he could one of the original N_G coders to "QA" and kept her in OKC.
In Jan 12, Warren resigned after 18 years, in protest.

IN spring 2013 the server itself started to go bad. The one person was a coder, not a hardware person.

Dr. Courtney Scott decided he had to migrate to a commercial server where the hardware maintenance was part of the deal. March 15 they shut down, on the 18th everyone came back in an nothing worked.

Examiners have trouble seeing documents, the workflow is disrupted, god-awful mess. Files no longer come to the top based on scanned date. All the sub-databases have the mandatory 10 minutes time out and the examiners have no way to log them back in. They can't see the submissions. The contractor withdrew his bid to do tech support April 1-Mary 2014. Now there is none and nobody on the original coding team is doing interim support. Documents pile up on the contract scanner’s computer without being able to be inputted into system. When the system comes up, the frantic effort to get files in constitutes a “denial of service attack”.

Sigh.
 
Unregistered said:
I am a regular poster here but have to request this be posted unidentified for obvious reasons:

Let me tell you a tale of federal woe.

IN 2011 OMB decided to consolidate all IT operations in Alexandria VA.
Warren Silberman saw his tech support going away (not a dummy!) and he petitioned for exemption…DENIED.
He reclassified as best he could one of the original N_G coders to "QA" and kept her in OKC.
In Jan 12, Warren resigned after 18 years, in protest.

IN spring 2013 the server itself started to go bad. The one person was a coder, not a hardware person.

Dr. Courtney Scott decided he had to migrate to a commercial server where the hardware maintenance was part of the deal. March 15 they shut down, on the 18th everyone came back in an nothing worked.

Examiners have trouble seeing documents, the workflow is disrupted, god-awful mess. Files no longer come to the top based on scanned date. All the sub-databases have the mandatory 10 minutes time out and the examiners have no way to log them back in. They can't see the submissions. The contractor withdrew his bid to do tech support April 1-Mary 2014. Now there is none and nobody on the original coding team is doing interim support. Documents pile up on the contract scanner’s computer without being able to be inputted into system. When the system comes up, the frantic effort to get files in constitutes a “denial of service attack”.

Sigh.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. Let's just say that I have reason to trust this 'anonymous' post.
 
Ha. That wasn't me. At the time that was posted I was on a sotfball field, and my only means of connecting to the internet was at home.
 
Its pretty obvious who posted it, and its even more obvious that we shouldn't pursue it.

Suffice to say, knowing who it is, I believe every word of the post, and moreover, am not even the slightest bit surprised that it happened. To avoid such stuff, you have to have an agency with at least a sliver of management skills.
 
SkyHog said:
To avoid such stuff, you have to have an agency with at least a sliver of management skills.
Click to expand...

The agency has a long history with failed IT projects. Read the stories about the old ATC replacement system called AAS sometime.
 
Bill, this one worked without a hiccough since 1998. But, then OMB got involved.

My sister is a Service Chief at a metropolitan VAH. She's in charge of the O.R. At about the same time the order came from OMB that all POTS phones (Plain old Telephone Systems) would no longer be maintained and that they were to move to I.P. phones. Well 24 services orders later, they still don't work.

Say your Veteran is bleeding to death in the O.R? You use your personal cell phone to call out to the front operator to get switched to the Blood Bank...If that phone is working. There's nobody left to be a "runner". That cell is in contradiction to another directive that says, no use of personal cells when on duty.

OMB is a clown center. You have to give the local O-6s some autonomy, or the enterprises will fail.
 
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Bruce, I agree with you. Part of the problem is that the contracting officers really don't have much experience - in fact, in some parts of the government they eve contract out the bidding and evaluation functions...
 
Government at its finest. Is anyone surprised? So, let's turn over ALL healthcare for EVERYONE to them!! I'm sure there will be no problems with that plan. :rolleyes:
 
Doc Bruce, is the computer fiasco impacting MedExpress on a normal reissue with no SI problems?

Mine is due this summer, I let it go from Class 2 to 3 last year, did not need it. I will soon need the Class 2 again as an opportunity is coming this fall for Part91 tour flights with the local flight school.
 
Well, after no movement from OKC, I decided to explore the option of doing a new medical with a different AME locally. I called his office to explain that I was hung up with SI renewal. His staff member told me that he had left for the day but was happy to give me his cell number to discuss it with him directly. I was floored and have never had a office offer up a doc's cell phone.

I call the doctor and explained the hang up and he suggested I call the regional FAA office first before I start over and explained what I should say. I called the Regional Office and explained my situation and within about 10 minutes they had pulled my information and the Doctor had approved my renewal and emailed me a temporary medical.

Supposedly, my AME of record had called this office and was told we just had to wait for it to be processed at OKC.
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Needless to say, I think I found a local AME who understands the system and would be willing to advocate.
 
I was up against an SI last month. The AME managed to run it through region instead of Oak City. The computer thing drug on for two weeks but they finally got me a wire so I could go to work. At least at region I had a contact that was familiar with my situation and worked as an advocate in a way. He was completely stymied by the behavior of the IT system. I'm grateful to him.
 
Being that Dr. Silberman said stuff like MedExpress would have a secure ID of who you are because it verified that your email address was valid....:yikes:
 
My first class medical got deferred yesterday for some reason? I passed the medical, could this be the problem?
 
Saw your post in the thread you started. Be paitent and wait for Dr. Bruce to comment.
 
CropGun said:
I was up against an SI last month. The AME managed to run it through region instead of Oak City. The computer thing drug on for two weeks but they finally got me a wire so I could go to work. At least at region I had a contact that was familiar with my situation and worked as an advocate in a way. He was completely stymied by the behavior of the IT system. I'm grateful to him.
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Crop gun: I have found that for working airmen the Medical officers BEND OVER BACKWARDS to make the system work.

I have a couple. The attitude is, "we will make the system work....until we can't".

But just in the last few days it's getting better. I got calls from FOUR medical officers today and I have 4 guys cleared to fly. Now I get to go find C172capt's string.....
 
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