I've found some parts of the FAA to be interested in input from the average pilot while other groups seem to just ignore everyone. I've sent feedback to the folks who manage the FAA's instrument approach procedures and have been impressed with their responsiveness. I once sent a letter to the editors of the AIM, suggesting that the illustration for the approach lights be rendered in color.
The reason I was suggesting this had to do with so many pilots who misunderstand the part of 14 CFR 91.175 that talks about descending below the MDA or DH using the red terminating or red side row bars of the approach light system. The only approach lighting system that have these red lights are ASLF-1 or ALSF-2 lighting systems, which would be clearer if they were illustrated in color. I never got a response from the editors and the illustration still appears as shown below. Rest assured, the AIM does have a bunch of color illustrations of LORAN systems, thank goodness.
Meanwhile everyone, including AOPA, seems to have finally realized that Flight Service under Lockheed-Martin is basically a train wreck. From my experience, LM had things pretty well hosed up from the get-go. While I was flying freight, I found myself repeatedly stuck at a part of the airport with no internet access and no way to get an updated weather briefing save phoning FSS. And when I did, I sat on hold for so long that in the end I had to call a buddy and ask him to tell me about the latest NEXRAD images. And when I couldn't get through to file an IFR flight plan, the good folks at Oakland Clearance Delivery were great - they'd get me a clearance even when I was unable to file a flight plan first.
I tried calling FSS last week and heard the dreaded, trite phrase: "... please listen to our menu carefully as it has recently changed ..." It used to be so easy - call the 800 number, get connected to the nearest FSS, press 1 to talk to a briefer, and you were in business. Now you wait 20 minutes and if you're lucky, you'll get connected to a briefer located ... God knows where. Since the briefers are not located in my area, they're not familiar with the local weather patterns and I have to spell out the names of departure procedures, intersections, and identifiers for VORs because they've never heard of them. You may not realize that scores of FSS specialists were put out of a job as part of the LM privatization of FSS. Incidentally, LM now says they need more money to complete their "modernization" of FSS. The folks that used to work local FSS had detailed local knowledge, but most of them aren't there anymore. The only good news I can see here is that what has happened to FSS is a great example of what will happen to ATC if it is ever privatized. We had a good system and now it's gone, probably for good.
Flying in a Cirrus a few weeks ago, I saw something happen to a pilot that I could have never predicted. In an effort to make their interior layout clean and simple, the good folks at Cirrus placed all of the various switches above the bolster on the left side, just below the left side instruments. The pilot I was instructing was flying a practice instrument approach under IFR, but in visual meteorological conditions. Toward the end of the approach, after being handed off to the tower, the ride started to get bumpy. We'd already been cleared for the option when the pilot reached up to adjust the heading bug on the HSI just as we hit a bump. His hand flew off the knob and descended right on to the avionics master switch! At 500 feet AGL, the GPS units, the radios, the intercom, the transponder, everything went dark. We quickly turned the avionics master back on and flew visually while the Garmin 430s went through the start-up sequence. Suddenly the design choice of the placing the switches unprotected in that location didn't seem like such a great idea.
Life is full of unintended consequences and we may as well acknowledge it, even embrace it. But the current fashion is to deny what has happened and, instead, pretend that just the opposite is happening. And it helps to repeat over and over that what has happened, hasn't really happened. What if we could recognize our mistakes, get over the disappointment, and then go about fixing things?
