That doesn't mean he/she shouldn't try.
Hell, if all these disasters in the making are obvious to me, they ought to be obvious to someone who is charged with overseeing the agency, a full time job that pays pretty well to boot.
The latest folly to cross my desk is that the FAA is trying to save money in the official charting business.
Pilots are required to have the latest information related to their planned flight. One place to get a lot of information is through aeronautical charts. Sectional charts for VFR (visual flight rules) pilots and Low Altitude and High Altitude charts for IFR (instrument flight rules) pilots.
Pilots do not buy these charts once a year. In order to provide the latest information, these charts are updated often.
VFR sectional charts are update every six months. IFR charts are updated every 28 days. I am sure most full time, professional pilots have subscriptions to IFR enroute charts and approach plates. But what about the rest of the general aviation pilots who stay current, but don't fly enough to justify a subscription?
They buy their charts locally.
Well, that is about to change. On October 5, 2009, the FAA changed the rules that affect who will have current charts for sale.
The FAA will no longer offer wholesale rates on aeronautical charts to dealers with less than $5,000 per year in sales, as of this week.
Instead, retailers who meet the sales minimum can be designated as Chart Agents, under a new system overseen by the FAA's National Aeronautical Navigation Services division (formerly NACO). Agents can buy charts at 50 percent off the list price if they give up the option of returning unsold charts after they expire, or they can take a 40 percent discount with up to 20 percent returns.
What does this mean?
It means that 90% of the retail charts sales were made by dealers who can no longer buy the charts directly. They will be left with the option of buying charts from a third party dealer who will likely not buy back unsold charts.
That means that local dealers who don't sell all of their charts may not make any money or may actually lose money by carrying charts.
The outcome? Small chart dealers, usually local FBOs (fixed base operators) will no longer offer aeronautical charts. Since pilots will no longer have the option of buying charts at most airports, they will be left with the choice of buying an expensive subscription they don't need or doing without the latest, most up to date information.
Legal? No, but this is the reality of the situation.
The FAA hopes to save money by conducting all sales online and dealing in larger batches for fewer customers.
That's it in a nutshell. The FAA 'hopes' to save money at the expense of aviation safety.
Too bad administrator Babbitt is too busy touting NextGen, a ground based radar replacement that will cost billions, won't reduce delays, will degrade aviation safety and simply won't fulfill all the promises made as to its safety and efficiency.
9 comments:
Everyday the FEDEX truck delivers another box of charts to our little facility. The new charts are placed on the shelves and the old ones are tossed in the trash. Month after month, year after year. Seldom are the charts even looked at. What a waste of money.
Somebody ought to be looking at them or posting them near your operational positions.
Enroute charts don't have actual changes as often as terminal procedures, which seem to have small changes pretty often.
However, it doesn't change the fact that pilots are required to have up to date charts because none of us know when any particular piece of information will be changed.
Maybe the FAA should have changed the distribution schedule to coincide with actual changes in order to save money.
What a concept!
You get charts everyday? Every? Day? C'mon, man.
This is a good idea. The GA pilots have sucked on the government teat for too long. They need to pay for what they get, not the taxpayers. Mayby the little facility above can sell their charts and donate the money to Marks/Carr.
Charts??
I don't need no stinking charts.
I just point the nose of my airplane in the general direction I am headed, and wait until I get low on gas at the other end.
Thanks FAA for another brilliant idea. You know, they tried to do this once before, and AOPA and EAA went ballistic, forcing the FAA to "recalibrate" the idea. That was about five years ago.
I guess they decided no one would notice this time, now that FSS has been destroyed, getting rid of charts is just a minor issue these days.
God help us all.
It's Oct. 31, c'mon back and give us more material! You do a nice job here!
No more updates for this blog or what?
Gone for over a month?
This chart thing must be really important to him. :-)
Actually I have just scaled back. There are stories out there to be written about and I have three in particular in mind.
However, I am in the same boat as Paul over at the Follies. I am doing this by myself and haven't found the time or motivation recently, although I hope to bang out those stories this week.
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