Word: faa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...controls "the pilot in command can easily control the aircraft from either seat. There is never a situation in which the nonpilot can put the plane into such immediate peril that there is no recovery." Only after an analysis and "probable cause" finding in about six months will the FAA review its regulations covering young pilots...
...says. So-called flying records by youngsters, he maintains, are a bogus concept. "We've intentionally ignored attempts like this here at Flying because we didn't want to promote the activity. It has no validity from an aviation sense; the pilot in reality is the certified pilot." The FAA regulations that allow children "to fly" with a certified pilot at the other controls are intended to facilitate teaching, not to encourage stunts. In what seems a semantic distinction, the FAA says Jessica was technically a passenger; a pilot must be at least 16 and have a license...
...that happens, there are ever fewer people to do the repairs. Many of the technicians acquainted with the 9020E's innards have long since retired. "We are down to two trained technicians specialized in the IBM 9020E in New York Center," says Henry Brown, a power-systems technician. The FAA has tried to hire contract workers. But, says Acadeno, "a contract technician is not going to come to work in a snowstorm." And those who finally do show up are trained to work with microprocessors, not primitive circuit boards...
Experienced controllers are also in short supply. Staffing has become such a problem that major hubs have instituted mandatory six-day weeks. After the FAA decided in 1994 to discontinue incentive bonuses for work in high-stress, high-volume, high-cost areas, many veterans migrated to jobs in low-stress, low-cost areas. Now, as job openings go unfilled for months at a time at major hubs like New York, Chicago and San Francisco, each controller not only carries the work load of three but works mandatory six-day weeks as well. Union officials dryly note that even with...
...FAA insists that current staffing levels are sufficient. "It is much more efficient today than it was several years ago," says Monte Belger of the FAA's Air Traffic Services. NATCA's Krasner counters, "If you have a vision of an air-traffic-control system that 15 or 20 years from now will have fewer controllers, it doesn't really matter if you make these people work longer hours and burn them out. From an economic standpoint, it makes sense. From a human standpoint, it's crazy...