2007 FAA AUTOMATED FLIGHT SERVICE STATION (AFSS) VISIT, October 27, 2007

The Club visited the new AFSS near Alliance Airport on Saturday, October 27, 2007.

Hugh Giggy, manager of the facility, helped us with the arrangements.

Our tour guide that day was David Walz.

We also met Court Bailey who, in addition to being an AFSS Senior Manager, is the artist who painted a large wall mural inside the entry to the faciity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Flight Service Station Background Information

On February 1, 2005, the FAA awarded a contract for the services provided by the 58 AFSSs in the Continental United States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii to the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin assumed responsibility for providing AFSS flight services on October 4, 2005.

A Flight Service Station (FSS) is an air traffic facility that provides information such as weather briefings and flight planning services to aircraft pilots before, during, and after flights.  Unlike air traffic control, an AFSS facility is not responsible for giving instructions or clearances or providing separation.

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The people who communicate with pilots from an FSS are referred to as specialists rather than controllers.  The precise services offered by flight service stations vary by country, but typical FSS services may include:

  • Providing preflight briefings including weather and notices to airmen (NOTAMs);
  • Filing, opening, and closing flight plans;
  • Monitoring navigational aids (NAVAIDs);
  • Collecting and disseminating pilot reports (PIREPs);
  • Offering traffic advisories to aircraft on the ground or in flight;
  • Relaying instructions or clearances from air traffic control; and
  • Providing assistance in an emergency.

In many countries, flight service stations also operate at mandatory frequency airports to help co-ordinate traffic in the absence of air traffic controllers and may take over a control tower frequency at a controlled airport when the tower is closed.

In most cases, it is possible to reach flight service stations either by radio in flight or by telephone on the ground.

Recently, some countries, such as Canada and the United States, have been consolidating flight services into large regional centers, replacing former local flight service stations with Remote Communications Outlets (RCOs) connected to the centers.