Celebrating a Centennial of Flight Service
Flight Service leaders and Air Traffic Organization executives joined in a virtual celebration for the centennial of Flight Service on Aug. 20, recognizing a service that continues to help pilots fly safely and efficiently in Alaska and across the rest of the national airspace system.
By C. Troxell, FAA Office of Communications
Did you know that air traffic control services began long before the FAA was established? Thirty-eight years before, to be exact — and 19 years before the FAA’s predecessor Civil Aeronautics Authority formed.
“When the first air mail radio stations were established, it was realized that pilots would need assistance, and a service was born that continues today,” Flight Service Director Steve Villanueva said during the Flight Service Centennial virtual celebration on Aug. 20 — exactly 100 years after the day it all began.
Villanueva’s colleagues joined him to recognize the steadfast work of Flight Service specialists over the last 100 years, as well as the many innovations to modernize the service and continue supporting pilots in an ever-changing, technology-driven aviation environment.
“To be able to communicate with someone who is located where you are heading or has information about your route can be at least helpful or, at the most dramatic times, lifesaving,” said Villanueva.
Seventeen years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, the first aviation-support facilities opened with the first radio operators staffing them to help pilots using the air mail route between New York and San Francisco. These specialists operated out of the first 17 Flight Service stations — called air mail radio stations — where they “made local weather observations, obtained other weather information by radio, and often made their own forecasts,” as detailed in former Flight Service Specialist John Schamel’s “Flight Service History” article.
Today, while much of Flight Service has been automated in the continental United States, specialists in Alaska still provide critical services to general aviation pilots in a vast area where 82 percent of the communities are disconnected from roadways. Specialists working from the stations there provide preflight pilot weather briefings, issue notices to airmen, file flight plans, relay pilot reports and issue clearances. Additionally, as Villanueva emphasized, their “lifesaving” function is realized as they respond to aircraft emergencies and initiate search-and-rescue operations for overdue aircraft.
“I think we have a very unique relationship with our flying community because a lot of us live in small communities,” said Roger Koppes, a specialist at Kenai Flight Service Station. “We may know them through community interaction. It’s a much more personal service in Alaska, and we’re invested in it because of our acquaintance with those folks.”
NATCA Alaska Regional Vice President Clint Lancaster, a former Anchorage Center controller, has a similar appreciation. “Our geography requires that we have a robust and efficient small aircraft system. They serve our community. They deliver freight; everything to keep Alaska moving. I truly believe the system wouldn’t be as safe or even possible without the work being done by our specialists in Alaska.”
As J.R. Miller, Manager of Alaska Flight Service, explained during the celebration, the first four Flight Service stations in Alaska were commissioned on Jan. 1, 1940. They were in direct support of World War II through the Lend-Lease Act, which sent more than 8,000 American aircraft to Russia. By the end of the war there were 45 stations, and there have been 56 locations where stations have operated in Alaska. Many of them operated less than 10 years, but some are still operating today.
“Nine years prior to any air traffic control in the United States, these early stations provided the critical personnel, infrastructure and information necessary to help pilots operate and navigate safely,” said Doug Haralson, Manager of the Flight Service Training Academy, located in Kenai. “Service-oriented personnel are the heart of our business.”
Today, there are 17 stations in operation in Alaska, three full-time parent facilities operating 24/7 and 14 part-time satellite facilities. Operating them are about 150 specialists in total — much fewer than there were in the 1940s. During World War II, approximately 4,000 men and women trained and staffed the airway communication stations across the United States that were deemed essential for the war effort, as detailed in FAA Historian Terry Kraus’ article, “A Century of Service to the Aviation Community.”
While pilots in the lower 48 states utilize automated services, participants in the centennial celebration emphasized the continued criticality of the specialist positions in Alaska and why the state still needs these positions filled. “One of the important topics we teach our students here is Alaska’s dependence on aviation,” Haralson said. “Most Americans don’t know much about Alaska. We teach our students about Alaska topography, geography…Russian and native place names, as well as Alaska’s specific weather and how it impacts on aviation and pilots throughout the state.”
Flight Service today is 85 to 90 percent automated and operates via the Leidos mobile website 1800wxbrief, a site providing interactive weather maps in high resolution and automated voice service through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. And the FAA is continuing to modernize Flight Service in other ways.
“We’re working with our NATCA counterparts to analyze data and understand the existing operational environment in validating our stakeholders’ current and future needs,” said Flight Service Future Planning Manager Chris Henne. “As we celebrate 100 years of Flight Service, I can’t help but look back at all the changes that have occurred — the internet, cellphones, tablets, all the ways our stakeholders utilize our services.”
Henne shed light on the Alaska Flight Service Initiative he is spearheading to modernize the aging infrastructure in Alaska and ensure its viability for the next generation of users. He said the initiative aims to replace the more than 30-year-old voice communication system that specialists use to communicate with pilots; install multi-touch electronic flight strips at each facility in Alaska; resolve console design issues; and develop two-way texting between specialists and pilots to improve search and rescue operations.
Another key advancement in Flight Service is the expansion of the weather camera network from Alaska to the continental United States, specifically in Colorado, where the FAA installed 13 camera sites in the mountains to give pilots a look at updated weather conditions before and during flight. The camera sites add to the more than 230 sites in Alaska, and more are coming.
“The program never rests… We’ll soon install 23 camera systems in the Hawaiian Islands to help support needed aviation safety increases in that airspace as well,” said the Weather Camera Program Manager Walter Combs. “In Alaska, we’re working to develop new and improved cameras and other weather sensors that will allow us to affordably expand available weather data throughout the state.”
The centennial celebration concluded with Teri Bristol, COO of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, who recognized the service of Steve Villanueva, J.R. Miller and System Operations Vice President Mike Artist.
“The leadership of these individuals has really made a difference to this program, to the ATO, to the entire FAA and I know to the flying public as well,” Bristol said. “They’re truly the best examples of public servants.”
For more on Alaska and Flight Service, check out our YouTube playlists: Flight Service Specialists and Flying in Alaska.
