Gov't shutdown - Impact on GA

Been all around the SE this past week with no issues requesting flight following. They even cleared through B, but I remained clear to hopefully minimize workload. But I did hear some funny reason why others could not get flight following. The best was my keyboard is not working therefore I cannot assign a squawk. Even though they just assigned one :). I do not blame them one bit though, even on the best of days they are awesome.
 
TCABM said:
N1KE is top of mind.
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I am so very sorry for the minor inconvenience to Phil Knight. :rolleyes:
NJP_MAN said:
This is exactly what has been banned. People arent flying 172 in to LAX. They routinely fly bizjets in there and a BBJ with the founder of Snapchat on board is no different than a Gulfstream with Oprah on board.
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Nothing has been banned. "You aren't welcome here without advance notice" is not even in the same ballpark as "you can't come here at all," so let's not pretend it is. The flight teams for a few select billionaires *might* have to make an extra phone call beyond their usual Part 125 prep work.
 
traumamed said:
I am so very sorry for the minor inconvenience to Phil Knight. :rolleyes:

Nothing has been banned. "You aren't welcome here without advance notice" is not even in the same ballpark as "you can't come here at all," so let's not pretend it is. The flight teams for a few select billionaires *might* have to make an extra phone call beyond their usual Part 125 prep work.
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I have a flight tomorrow to the Los Angeles area, guess what airport we will not be going to ? The same airport we go to every other time we go there. You got it, LAX. We are not able to get into LAX with the closure to GA aircraft. Im actually quite happy about it honestly. I like to see the wealthy suffer as much as anyone else.
 
NJP_MAN said:
I have a flight tomorrow to the Los Angeles area, guess what airport we will not be going to ? The same airport we go to every other time we go there. You got it, LAX. We are not able to get into LAX with the closure to GA aircraft. Im actually quite happy about it honestly. I like to see the wealthy suffer as much as anyone else.
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Is there any particular reason why someone flying GA absolutely needs to go to LAX vs LGB or BUR? It's not like missing a connection is an issue here.
 
traumamed said:
Is there any particular reason why someone flying GA absolutely needs to go to LAX vs LGB or BUR? It's not like missing a connection is an issue here.
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Proximity to the destination. Traffic can be really bad and these weirdos just can't be inconvenienced. LAX really ramped up when Santa Monica was shortened. Thats really hot spot and VNY is the other option. Traffic again is the factor that keep us coming back to LAX.
 
NJP_MAN said:
Proximity to the destination. Traffic can be really bad and these weirdos just can't be inconvenienced. LAX really ramped up when Santa Monica was shortened. Thats really hot spot and VNY is the other option. Traffic again is the factor that keep us coming back to LAX.
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The timing of VNY closing their long runway couldn't have been worse. And yeah, the 405 for sure sucks. That said, we should probably look at this from the standpoint of relative suckage, where a 1 is "oops I have to turn around at my neighborhood's front gate because I forgot my wallet on the kitchen counter" and 10 is "Mr. Smith, I am serving you divorce papers and your wife has asked you to leave so her new boyfriend can move in."

Being stuck in Los Angeles traffic an extra 1-2 hours due to your high-end biz jet that needs a 6,000+ foot rwy having to land at a field 20 miles further away from your destination? Probably a 2.

Missing the only international connection of the day at LAX to your destination due to ATC traffic management programs? At least a 5. Maybe a 6 or 7 if you miss a potentially career- or business-altering meeting.

I live in FL and work in SD. I'm not wealthy enough to afford private charters or to fly a turbine for my personal aircraft, nor does my employer have the means to subsidize those extravagances, so when I need to cover long distances quickly, I'm just another peasant on the airlines. Thanks to this ATC fiasco, it took me 25 hours from originally scheduled departure to get to within driving distance of my work, on an itin that usually takes 6-8 hours. I made it with five minutes to spare. I work in a rural underserved critical access facility that does not have backups - if an MD doesn't show up, there basically just isn't an MD there. It's not supposed to work like that, but it's the best a lot of these small facilities can manage. I'm not trying to sound self-important here, but if the CEO of Snapchat has to spend an extra hour in traffic so that a doctor can get to work on time to staff a hospital, I think that's a fair tradeoff. Not having an MD in house at the hospital you happen to be driving by when you have a stroke? That's a pretty easy 10 for you on our suckage scale.

/rant
 
We dont have the financial status to understand that there are people who cant be inconvenienced to wait in traffic. I fly these people for a living and I love nothing more than when they cant have the world handed to them on a silver platter. That being said, I always try my best to be the best at the job I can be. I certainly like to see a little humility sometimes when I inform them that they missed their EDCT window or they cant get to an airport they want though. In the time of cut backs, I think this is the correct step to helping out the folks at ATC. Some rich weirdo can just do a damn zoom call once in a while.
 
NJP_MAN said:
We dont have the financial status to understand that there are people who cant be inconvenienced to wait in traffic. I fly these people for a living and I love nothing more than when they cant have the world handed to them on a silver platter. That being said, I always try my best to be the best at the job I can be. I certainly like to see a little humility sometimes when I inform them that they missed their EDCT window or they cant get to an airport they want though. In the time of cut backs, I think this is the correct step to helping out the folks at ATC. Some rich weirdo can just do a damn zoom call once in a while.
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Agreed, and yes, I absolutely realize there are people who feel entitled, whether it be due to wealth, fame, power, or just being given too many participation trophies as a child. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't admit that I even see it in myself sometimes when I feel incredulous after I'm forced to take a downgrade on a rebooked flight during irrops, or when I have to stand in a line I thought I had some sort of privilege to skip. Programs like the current GA closure NOTAMs exist specifically to protect the safe and efficient functioning of a key piece of transportation infrastructure for as many people as possible. If such programs also force an (entitled) elite few to face the reality that they are not, in fact, special and the rules do actually apply to them, too bad.
 
Went from Dallas to Florida today and got flight following all the way with no issues. Several centers and approach controllers.
 
I flew into 06C (Schaumburg, IL) this evening which if you don't know is pretty much as close as you can get to ORD without having to call the tower. We were on flight following and stayed on it all the way until asking to go to advisory. Granted this was during a not so busy time of night but usually my experience making this same flight is Chicago center booting us off as soon as they can.
 
I flew VFR into KBPT (Class D) last night. Tower was fully functional, helpful and friendly. He even offered flight following when I left.
 
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