The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Overheard at Little Rock:

King Air N1234: Little Rock clearance this is King Air N1234 with a request.

Clearance delivery: Go ahead.

King Air N1234: I have been trying to file a flight plan with Lockheed for more than 30 minutes. Could you take the info and file for me?

Clearance delivery: Sure, give me the info.

King Air N1234: [after the info was given] I never thought I would see the day when I would say the federal government was more efficient than the private sector. Thanks!

I filed just the other day and found the service had improved (at least on this occasion). The technician I dealt with was knowledgable about the Bay Area even though he was sitting in Prescott. He was also interested in things like, how long did I had to wait, etc. I have my fingers crossed. However, I don't think anything can improve on the good ole days when I could walk into the FSS and look at the charts and print outs myself - have coffee with the briefer and walk out completey and thoroughly briefed.

Let's hope they get the bugs out of the system before long. My last experience was around Mother's Day. Called, got the recording, gave the state (TX), East or West (East) and was on hold for about 10 minutes. When the briefer came on and we began talking, he was handling East Texas from the Nashville center, but physically he was in Washington DC. Go figure He was nice however and although he had no clue (his admission) where I actually was going to land because it was a private airport near East Texas Regional, it all worked out OK, but like it was said, it sure is different from the good ole days.