TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
Got to go on a great tour of the new Lockheed Martin FTW AFSS Hub today; they moved from FTW Meacham to a new purpose-built facility in an industrial park in North Fort Worth.
A couple of pictures from my phone (sorry for poor quality):
http://picasaweb.google.com/troy.whistman/LMFTWAFSSTour/photo#s5184861541098460306
In the first picture, you see one of the workstations; this gentleman is working "IN FLIGHT SAN ANGELO (IF SJT)", which means he's talking to pilots on 122.0 (Flight Watch) in the San Angelo TX area. You can set up a pilot profile at www.afss.com. In your profile, set it up with the phone number you usually use when you call FSS (your home or cell)... when you dial in, the briefer will see all of your information before he even picks up your call. Your flight plan form will be nearly filled out, with your usual aircraft, pilot contact info, etc. He's just got to fill in your route of flight, time enroute, souls on board, etc.
A future enhancement they are working on will send weather updates (SIGMETS/AIRMETS, TFRs, NOTAMS for the airport you're going to, etc.) to your cell phone or PDA via SMS or email, to supplement your on-file flight plan for new information that appears after your briefing.
Interestingly, they use WSI for a good deal of their weather source. One of the screens on their desk is dedicated to WSI info.
They are pilot testing the "interactive briefing" we've all been hearing about with about 80 users in the Washington DC area. They planned originally to roll that live in the 2nd half of they year, but now it looks more like 2009 before it will go live. Your pilot profile on AFSS.com will drive that, too, so go set one up.
The second picture shows one "wedge" of the room. A supervisor's area with a three-sided jumbotron screen overhead dominates the middle of the room. Surrounding it are three work areas... the room is circular, divided into three main areas. Each of the three FSS hubs handles a geographical slice of the US... the west coast, middle plains, and east coast, respectively. Within each of those areas, there is the "hub" (main FSS station) and several outlying original AFSS stations that have been revamped/remodeled and continue in operation. For example, in the FTW hub region, the Columbia, Missouri AFSS is still in operation, and one in Princeton, MI, if I recall correctly.
Here's how the map looks:
Curtains in the main room allow them to "close off" any of the three wedges... you can see one of those curtains on the far right of the second photo. They can isolate any room from the other sections and use it for training.
Each controller is trained on a particular area of specialty. Texas is divided into two areas, for example... a controller can only work an area once he learns it's unique weather, navaids, patterns, etc. When you dial in, that's why it asks you for the State and Area you're calling from--so they can route you to a trained / rated briefer for that area.
They've revamped the TIBS system... instead of recordings by a person, they are computer generated and continually updated as new weather comes in from AWOS/ASOS/NWS/CWA/SIGMET/AIRMET, etc. It was mentioned that, while the TIBS recordings (transcribed route/area briefings) are not considered "an official weather briefing", they are good homework (like watching the morning weather on TV) that you could/should listen to before talking to a briefer... it will help you ask better questions during the actual briefing.
I suggested that if a caller is put on hold to wait for a briefer, that the system play the TIBS broadcast for the state/area the caller is waiting for... their eyes lit up and said "nobody has ever suggested that, GREAT IDEA!". They are going to escalate it up their idea tree... so rather than corny music on hold, you might get the TIBS for your area soon. They really WANT to hear your ideas...
As for hiring, they are... but they are targetting students coming out of Embrey Riddle and UND, that's why we don't see marketing in AOPA Pilot for workers... they ARE trying to hire young, talented pilots who have an interest in FSS, so we'll be talking to people who understand the FLYING side as well.
And, they are paying more than ATC does... so they're not having too much difficulty getting recruits.
All in all, a good visit. Learned a lot and am excited to hear some of the things they have in store...
A couple of pictures from my phone (sorry for poor quality):
http://picasaweb.google.com/troy.whistman/LMFTWAFSSTour/photo#s5184861541098460306
In the first picture, you see one of the workstations; this gentleman is working "IN FLIGHT SAN ANGELO (IF SJT)", which means he's talking to pilots on 122.0 (Flight Watch) in the San Angelo TX area. You can set up a pilot profile at www.afss.com. In your profile, set it up with the phone number you usually use when you call FSS (your home or cell)... when you dial in, the briefer will see all of your information before he even picks up your call. Your flight plan form will be nearly filled out, with your usual aircraft, pilot contact info, etc. He's just got to fill in your route of flight, time enroute, souls on board, etc.
A future enhancement they are working on will send weather updates (SIGMETS/AIRMETS, TFRs, NOTAMS for the airport you're going to, etc.) to your cell phone or PDA via SMS or email, to supplement your on-file flight plan for new information that appears after your briefing.
Interestingly, they use WSI for a good deal of their weather source. One of the screens on their desk is dedicated to WSI info.
They are pilot testing the "interactive briefing" we've all been hearing about with about 80 users in the Washington DC area. They planned originally to roll that live in the 2nd half of they year, but now it looks more like 2009 before it will go live. Your pilot profile on AFSS.com will drive that, too, so go set one up.
The second picture shows one "wedge" of the room. A supervisor's area with a three-sided jumbotron screen overhead dominates the middle of the room. Surrounding it are three work areas... the room is circular, divided into three main areas. Each of the three FSS hubs handles a geographical slice of the US... the west coast, middle plains, and east coast, respectively. Within each of those areas, there is the "hub" (main FSS station) and several outlying original AFSS stations that have been revamped/remodeled and continue in operation. For example, in the FTW hub region, the Columbia, Missouri AFSS is still in operation, and one in Princeton, MI, if I recall correctly.
Here's how the map looks:
Curtains in the main room allow them to "close off" any of the three wedges... you can see one of those curtains on the far right of the second photo. They can isolate any room from the other sections and use it for training.
Each controller is trained on a particular area of specialty. Texas is divided into two areas, for example... a controller can only work an area once he learns it's unique weather, navaids, patterns, etc. When you dial in, that's why it asks you for the State and Area you're calling from--so they can route you to a trained / rated briefer for that area.
They've revamped the TIBS system... instead of recordings by a person, they are computer generated and continually updated as new weather comes in from AWOS/ASOS/NWS/CWA/SIGMET/AIRMET, etc. It was mentioned that, while the TIBS recordings (transcribed route/area briefings) are not considered "an official weather briefing", they are good homework (like watching the morning weather on TV) that you could/should listen to before talking to a briefer... it will help you ask better questions during the actual briefing.
I suggested that if a caller is put on hold to wait for a briefer, that the system play the TIBS broadcast for the state/area the caller is waiting for... their eyes lit up and said "nobody has ever suggested that, GREAT IDEA!". They are going to escalate it up their idea tree... so rather than corny music on hold, you might get the TIBS for your area soon. They really WANT to hear your ideas...
As for hiring, they are... but they are targetting students coming out of Embrey Riddle and UND, that's why we don't see marketing in AOPA Pilot for workers... they ARE trying to hire young, talented pilots who have an interest in FSS, so we'll be talking to people who understand the FLYING side as well.
And, they are paying more than ATC does... so they're not having too much difficulty getting recruits.
All in all, a good visit. Learned a lot and am excited to hear some of the things they have in store...
