Come Hear Bernard "Ben" Ludlow, EWR Tower Supervisor

[jkaplan]

Folks in the NY metro area:

Come Hear Bernard "Ben" Ludlow, EWR Tower Supervisor speaking on Runway Incursions on the evening of July 12th in Little Falls, NJ at the monthly meeting of MAPA, The Mid-Atlantic Pilots Association. 

For Details, please go to:
http://www.midatlanticpilots.com/program.html

[w0x0f]

I found this interesting video on youtube. 

I won't be able to make Ben's presentation.  Let us know if the number of incursions is decreasing.

There is a lot of rebaselining of figures going on within the FAA these days.   

w0x0f

 

[digger]

Figures don't lie. Liars figure....

[TrixieKQ]

Figures don't lie. Liars figure....

Why did you say that?   

Peace

[digger]

If I'm not mistaken, that quote came from Mark Twain. It's in the same vein as "Lies, damn lies, and statistics..."

Did you watch the videos?

The first video illustates pretty clearly that the Administrator is using carefully chosen statistics to back up her claim that there's been a 40% reduction in runway incursions, when a more thorough and reasonable analysis shows the situation has gotten worse, not better.

The second video illustrates how the FAA chooses to "rebaseline" projects, for the sole purpose of being able to claim that they're meeting schedules and budgets, when they're actually terribly behind and terribly over budget.

It's a classic example of manipulating statistics ("figuring"), to represent something other than what's true. In other words, to lie...

[PHL Approach]

We all know the Administrator's famous quote "statistics are a stubborn thing..."

[w0x0f]

Within the FAA Executive Compensation Plan there are Short Term Incentives for meeting predetermined goals. 

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ahr/jobs_careers/exec_opportunities/compensation/

The FAA tracks the operational benchmarks daily and displays them at this web site.

https://employees.faa.gov/org/linebusiness/ato/news/faa_today/media/2007_07_03_faa_today.pdf

Redefining the severity of errors and eliminating the now marginal errors will improve performance numbers and increase executive bonuses.  It is convenient that those in charge of defining error parameters and project timelines and budgets are the same people who benefit from the new and improved performance. 

 http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=1267361616 

Was everyone aware that when a flight is cancelled there is no delay charged against the system?  The aircraft may have sat on the ground for 5 hours waiting to depart and then suddenly it no longer exists.  That's good for FAA executives.

Let's hope the Inspector General looks into this monkey business.  These are your tax dollars.

w0x0f

[jkaplan]

It was great seeing a number of LiveAtc.net folks at last night's presentation from Ben.

I will leave the statistics to those more qualified!!!!

-Jonathan