FAA issues nationwide flights ground stop ‘due to extraordinary circumstances' and ‘safety'

Ali_Baba said:
www.foxbusiness.com

Duffy sounds alarm over aging FAA system after nationwide air travel shutdown

Sean Duffy blamed outdated routers and 1980s-era copper lines for the FAA ground stop, demanding Congress approve $50 billion in emergency funding.
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This being the USA, there is a lot of massive profiteering going on with the upgrade. That is ALOT of money to replace switching infrastructure, even if you put in multiple dedicated redundant fibre optic runs between switches imho ...

Projects like this are feasting time for companies like Rohde & Schwarz ..
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Not even 10% of the voice switches so far.

I just don't get it. At DHL, we did tech refreshes every 3-5 years depending on the system. In some of the more critical distribution centers I was responsible for, we not only had divergent pathways for voice and data services, we also had tertiary 5G-based systems as well for "last resort".
 
AZ_HighCountry said:
Not even 10% of the voice switches so far.

I just don't get it. At DHL, we did tech refreshes every 3-5 years depending on the system. In some of the more critical distribution centers I was responsible for, we not only had divergent pathways for voice and data services, we also had tertiary 5G-based systems as well for "last resort".
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I think the issue is the infrastructure is tightly coupled with the proprietary protocols which makes the act of upgrades so difficult. Now that the problem has been solved, in theory the remaining 90% should be just a roll out project where all the design problems and software issues have been resolved.

I do think this proprietary protocol lock in allows Rohde & Schwarz to rip off the government as there is no where else for the government to go.

If Rohde & Schwarz have done their "job properly", they should have converted all the hardware, and messaging protocols to "modern open standards for software and hardware" so that future upgrades are done the same as what you did at your company in terms of refresh. I suspect Rohde & Schwarz did not do it properly so as to keep "vendor lock in" in place and to milk the government in the future for upgrades..

Imagine a scenario where the backbone( infrastructure + messaging ) for the ATC was done using something like MIL-STD-1553 but where the standards intellectual property is "closed" and restricted access only ( unlike MIL-STD-1553 which is now pretty much open), then you have a scenario where doing anything with that standard is difficult because getting access to the intellectual property and associated hardware is difficult. That increases costs and enforces vendor lock in in. I firmly believe that to be the case here. Rohde & Schwarz will want to keep this all for themselves for the future to milk maintenance contracts etc.

The MIL-STD-1553 example is the best / only way I can describe what the switches, and copper are doing if i am honest with you. Its not like your open ethernet standard which is a plug and play format.
 
AZ_HighCountry said:
Donut racks full?
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Yes, we sold some donuts. Saturday morning, people getting an early start.

Met a very nice older couple. They were on their way to the car show in Pawhuska

Truck stop was full.

Some truckers reported four to ten hour waits to get loaded.

Truckers delivering to the Walmart distribution for the first time.

The diesel pumps stayed busy. Our fuel hauler worked well into the night.

UPS driver from Kansas City said it was all fake.
 
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Ali_Baba said:
Stock up - become a prepper ?
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I am too lazy to be a prepper despite my FIL telling me since the 2008 financial crisis to stockup; his house is full of food, spare gasoline, water bottles, guns and bullets. I could do something though: I live on a large fertile acreage property which is almost entirely wooded.
Back to topic: My local friends are going on a once in a lifetime 53 day cruise from Miami to Antarctica on Wednesday; their flight from GSP is on Tuesday. They are very nervous and so last night rushed to book a rental car and a hotel in case they end up driving. I have volunteered to drive them as a last resort; the guy is almost 80 year old! It will be a very long drive: Almost 750 miles! But I think they will be fine with flying as Tuesday is still some days away.
 
Meengla said:
Back to topic: My local friends are going on a once in a lifetime 53 day cruise from Miami to Antarctica on Wednesday; their flight from GSP is on Tuesday. They are very nervous and so last night rushed to book a rental car and a hotel in case they end up driving. I have volunteered to drive them as a last resort; the guy is almost 80 year old! It will be a very long drive: Almost 750 miles! But I think they will be fine with flying as Tuesday is still some days away.
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My friends are in a tense situation. Not only the flight is unsure on Tuesday morning but even Amtrak or Greyhound are are also swamped. Worse is: Their car rental starting Monday morning is not guaranteed: They told me that it can happen no car is there when you show up to pickup the car.
I have again volunteered to drive them to Miami; my Toyota Yaris is probably too small to carry their luggage for the 53 day cruise so I could drive their own mini SUV. I have all the time in the world--not working--and the recent long train trip steeled me to be resilient. It will be up to them. I will help friends when I am able to.
But their friends, who are also taking the same cruise from Miami, live in Colorado and those friends' options are more limited: It is a long drive from Colorado to Miami and they are old people. But they have the $$$ and can even afford to cancel the cruise.

Oh, boy, this is such a mess! BTW, I am also taking a cruise from Jacksonville in early December but wife and I are driving, which would be only about 7 hours. Damn the air travel!
 
People witnessing unusual air activity when flights were grounded. Unknown flying objects.
 
Corruption and incompetence...


America is completing with Pakistan for the most corrupt and incompetent nation...

 
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