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United States Pilots Association |
We are all familiar by this time with the Troubled Assets Relief Program involving monetary bailouts to banks and insurance companies and auto manufacturers. What many of you do not know is the FAA, flying extremely low under the radar, has come up with their own TARP program and it does not involve bailouts. Quite the contrary.
This TARP stands for "Traffic Automated Reporting Program" and has to do with aircraft spacing including arrivals, departures, and ground control, allegedly to keep aircraft from getting too close to each other. The issue came to light after a Learjet departed from Midland Airpark under IFR conditions and reportedly almost ran into a regional jet landing at Midland International. Both were under positive radar control.
The new system will not permit automatic releases. Furthermore, simultaneous approaches to different runways are now forbidden. This creates havoc among the flight schools and really restricts the utilization of all of an airport's resources. It causes long taxi times for bizjets and of course does not allow "position and hold" instructions. It increases fuel burns for all aircraft.
I spoke to Michael Harvey, tower manager at MAF. He advised that an FAA "Internal Safety Audit" team came through Midland and began monitoring procedures, etc. The end result was the implementation of this new program which, if applied equally at all airline served airports and airports with control towers, will inevitably lead to even longer delays while other concrete stands idle and unusable. Another FAA inspector who shall remain nameless, stated that this comes about after all of the "near misses" came out that occurred frequently at DFW in Dallas.
My take on all this is the FAA traffic control system is gearing up to fight for more money to help fund the NextGen system wanted so badly by the feds. Essentially NexGen takes the human factor and discards it in favor of computers. We are already seeing "facts" stating that tax revenues are diminishing as a result of less usage and fewer airline seats being sold. My take is that all of this is posturing--something the FAA should not be doing.
Think about all of this the next time you are number 21 in line to take off from a non-hub airline served airport, just because regs do not allow the controller to utilize all of the runways available. Those of us that fly into airports like Las Cruces, NM, and Odessa, TX, are used to seeing aircraft routinely do just that with no dire consequences. Why does an operating control tower make a difference?
Are you an airline pilot? USPA would like to know if you have experienced delays of this type. Please email airone@troychesnut.com. Your information will be kept confidential.
Steve Uslan, President
United States Pilots Association