- January 20, 2023
FAA Problems Go Beyond Recent Outage and Delays | Opinion
In the shadows of the airline debacle over Christmas, air travel is back in the news due to another big failure by the Department of Transportation. Last week, the FAA had a nationwide outage that canceled and delayed flights, trapping thousands of passengers. The FAA has been in need of serious reform for a long time and like many in the aviation sector I keep hoping for meaningful improvements to this important portion of the U.S. economy.
As a pilot, I have personally experienced FAA mismanagement. I’ve learned to always carry extra fuel because chances are the FAA will delay you, re-route you and/or give you lower altitudes than you were told to expect. Not only is this inefficient and unprofessional, but it also can be dangerous.
Pilots conduct extensive flight planning prior to takeoff and obtain a full route clearance including the altitude they can expect to climb to for the cruise portion of each flight. Over the past year, on nearly every flight I led, I would receive pre-departure clearance that was substantially different from the clearance given later once in the air. In practical terms, I’ve been told to expect to climb to 39,000 feet within ten minutes of departure only to be told once I am at 30,000 that this will be my final altitude for the flight. Flying at this lower altitude burns significantly more fuel.
Perhaps the most common issue created by the FAA is rerouting. Often I have filed efficient and direct flight plans only to receive pre-departure rerouting that takes my flight well out of its way and into congested airspace. This typically means I am unable to rise to the altitude I was previously told I could. The FAA continuously routes flights over only a few points then claims that the airspace is too crowded, when really the crowding is a problem created by inefficiencies in FAA management.
As a pilot, I have personally experienced the FAA mismanagement.
The other method of re-routing, which is an even larger safety problem, is extensive new route clearances provided during the climb phase where the cockpit workload is at one of the highest levels for the flight. Despite receiving a full-route clearance prior to departure, often while i’m climbing to cruising altitude I will be given extensive new routing that takes several minutes to enter. This is an avoidable in-cockpit distraction because there is no reason the routing should be changed after departure – that could have been accomplished prior to departure.
After the pilot selects points and a route for the flight, the flight plan is filed with the FAA which typically generates an automated inefficient route to expect. This route is generally assigned prior to departure. Each point along the route of flight is painstakingly checked and entered into the flight computers only to find out 5 minutes into the flight that all new points need to be entered because the FAA didn’t do its job prior to departure and needs to change the route.
I’ve planned flights over open areas only to be routed over congested areas then told that I’ll have a delay because that sector is busy — there is no reason to stack planes on top of each other when we have plenty of space available for use. This is a growing concern and seemingly nothing has been done to actually improve it. People complain, but no one makes a difference.
I once had a business meeting out of state. When trying to travel home to Florida, I was told that there was a ground delay and to wait for 45 minutes. Idling an aircraft for that long burns too much fuel. After that delay, we were again delayed due to the FAA being understaffed that day and they couldn’t keep up with the number of aircrafts, though my flight plan had been filed well in advance. That day, I ended up flying home at 17,500 feet so as to not have to rely on the FAA, which requires clearance for any aircraft climbing to above 18,000 feet.
So the FAA has not been functioning well for years, but people don’t seem to want to talk about it until there is a tragedy or bad press. Once again, companies and organizations are not being held accountable to provide their service.
They can continue to fail while those in Washington, like Florida’s Senator Rick Scott, will post statements and express outrage, but do nothing to actually fix the problem nor to demand answers. He did not use the power of his office to help identify the problems which have been going on for a long time, he did not use the power of his office over the past several years to enact solutions. Social media posts and ads are just talk. Talk is cheap. Action is desperately needed.