(Source: Washington Post; USA Today & Airsafe.com)

 The people should have access to this kind of information

Department of Transportation is preparing to reject a proposal by the Federal Aviation Administration that would keep secret data about where and when birds strike airplanes.   Among the high-profile boosters of releasing the information is Transportation Secretary  Ray LaHood, whose agency oversees the FAA.  He said the comments ran “99.9 percent” in favor of making such information accessible.  

“I think all of this information ought to be made public, and I think that you’ll soon be reading about the fact that we’re going to, you know, make this information as public as anybody wants it,” LaHood said in an interview for The Washington Post’s “New Voices of Power” series. “The people should have access to this kind of information.

“The whole thing about the bird strike issue is it doesn’t really comport with the president’s idea of transparency,” the secretary said. “I mean, here they just released all of these CIA files regarding interrogation, and . . . the optic of us trying to tell people they can’t have information about birds flying around airports, I don’t think that really quite comports with the policies of the administration. . . . It’s something that somebody wanted to put out there to get a reaction. We got the reaction, and now we’re going to bring it to conclusion.”

Here is the Secretary’s interview to Washington Post’s Lois Romano on this issue:

 The FAA last month quietly posted a proposal in the federal register, requesting public comment, that would bar the release of its records on bird collisions. The proposal followed a prominent incident in January when a flock of geese brought down a commercial flight, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River. The agency immediately came under fire because the recommendation runs counter President’s Obama vows of government transparency.

For those interested in reading the FAA’ proposal on Federal register, here it is:

 Note: TransportGooru appreciates the Sec. of Transportation’s stand against this move by FAA.  Public have the right to know and it is not nice that FAA can withhold  sharing this data, even after the overhwleming public response.

(Source: Wired; Photo: Flickr/ Wouter Sonneveldt via Wired)

Boneheaded politician pushes for legislation aimed at banning in-flight cellular communications.  

“I think many Americans understand the potential for problems on aircraft if 100 or more people start talking on cell phones,” DeFazio said. “People are in very, very close quarters and this is a circumstance where you would have a cacophony of people on cell phones that would amount to a great potential for trouble.”

DeFazio introduced the bill in April, but so far nothing’s happened with it. Let’s hope it stays that way. Although we can think of nothing worse than being stuck next to some pinhead yammering away incessantly during a transcontinental flight, this isn’t an area the government needs to get involved in.

TG Musings # 1: This is very illogical and idiotic – TransportGooru wonders aloud if Rep. DeFazio has ever traveled across the country in GreyHound or Amtrak? If he did, probably he failed to recognize that there are no such rules about attending to a cellphone call while you are cruising on the highway or riding the rails at 60 mph.  What difference does it make if the mode of transportation? A phone call is a phone call and if it can be attended to during a train/bus travel why not it be made during the flight?  Interference with flight to ground communications can be somewhat acceptable (which in itself is a very questionable argument anyway due to the various studies conducted that totally disproved this theory) as a reason for prohibiting these phone calls.  But that’s not even in this picture painted by Rep. DeFazio.  Americans are decent people and they are much more courteous and well-behaved than you can think.If Rep. DeFazio’s logic is squarely based on his experience dealing with the people’s representatives around him in the Congress, no wonder he thinks there is a potential for problems if 100 or more people start talking at the same time – which is what politicans are prone to do, right?   With a country full of smart people,  it makes one wonder how come such people elect illogical politicians to be their intelligent voice on such societal issues? I hate to use the word Bonehead, but I think it is the only suitable word that can be applied to someone with this sorta logic (or lack thereof), Rep. DeFazio. 

TG Musings # 2:  Social Equity – This is a big issue, Rep. Defazio.  A big business owner flying First Class  can afford a $2/min phone call. He would go ahead and do it with the carrier operated, over-priced inflight phone system.  The average Joe Smith/Jane Doe on the street who is flying across the country (often on discounted fares) in the coach class does not have that kind of money.  Especially, in this poor economic climate!!! If anything he or she is already paying through his/her nose for a cellphone (that handles both personal and his small business needs) but still can’t use it, thanks to the existing FAA rule.  He/she would still hold a peice of technology in his pocket that is all well capable of making that phone call from 30K feet, but because of a logically-deficient politican he/she will never be able to make that call.  Let’s say for argument sake, if 10 businessmen in first class decide to make a phonecall at a given moment (hypothetically speaking), doesn’t that account to cacophony? You are not going to convince those business men – “People are in very, very close quarters and this is a circumstance where you would have a cacophony of people on cell phones that would amount to a great potential for trouble.” – Are you Rep. DeFazio?  If you can work  so hard on helping people not just in Oregon but across the country, please refrain from pushing this bill forward. You should spend a couple of minutes to rethin/revise your flawed logic and help all American’s in winning that  the rest of the world rightfully enjoys (i.e.,  in-flight cellular voice calls).  I am sure you want us Americans to be globally competitive in this economy and be ready to serve the needs of our business customers anytime anywhere!

Mike Zara @ Flickr

 (Source: New York Times)

Like many other air traffic controllers, Michael Pearson was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the early 1980s to help replace more than 10,000 striking air traffic controllers who were fired en masse by President Ronald Reagan.

(Source:  Wall Street Journal)

Ok. Ok. So this might be a bit wonky, but we never let a good chart go to waste.

This one – which appeared in a GAO report released Tuesday – shows the declining uncommitted balance in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, a pool of money used to help pay for services such as the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The trust fund grew over the years mostly from the 7.5% excise tax on tickets and the federal segment fee of $3.40 assessed on every flight. Fuel taxes and other federal fees, like the international arrivals and departure tax, go into the fund as well. As ticket prices decline and travel slows, those taxes don’t produce as much revenue, and the government has been drawing down the fund, which originally was set up to pay for future modernization of air travel. The GAO reported that the uncommitted balance in the Trust Fund has decreased since fiscal year 2001.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Wired Magazine, Transportation for America, Streetsblog)

From Wired Magazine via Aaron of Streetsblog comes this amazing map and video that shows a day of air travel over North America. Using data from the Federal Aviation Administration and a service called FlightView that tracks airline travel each day, artist Aaron Koblin created this Google map that shows 24 hours of airline travel on August 12, 2008.

There’s also a breathtaking movie version of this same map, that shows the flights in real time through the course of the day.

The sheer number of airplanes traveling over the United States is simply mind boggling. On this day chronicled in the map, the FAA tracked 205,000 flights in U.S. airspace. Anyone who has ever traveled by plane knows that we have plenty of air above our country, but the problem is the fact that too many of them need to be in specific pieces of air at the same time. Or traveling through the same crowded airports.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Business First)

The U.S. Department of Transportation budget, within the framework of the federal government’s Fiscal 2010 budget outlined Thursday by President Obama, calls for the federal government to provide $800 million for the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

The system, which has been beta tested by Louisville-based UPS Airlines since 1996, is an effort to improve the nation’s air traffic control system by using a satellite based surveillance system rather than the current radar surveillance system.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in November approved the deployment of the system, also known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B.

UPS Airlines, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), tested ADS-B on 107 Boeing B-757 and 767 aircraft, Business First reported in August 2006.

Click here to read the entire article.