FAA And Airspace Modernization

GAO WORRIES ABOUT THE FUTURE OF VFR
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192560)
We all know that satellite-based systems will largely replace
curve-of-the-earth-hampered ground stations and we all know that it
will require some extra equipment on board. But is VFR going to be
somehow limited or discouraged in the process? The GAO seems to think
so. The Government Accountability Office recently released
(http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06653t.pdf) its latest in the series of
updates on just how the FAA is doing with its modernization plans
(better, it turns out). That document contains vaguely disturbing
references to just how VFR fits into the Next Generation Air Traffic
System (NGATS). The report contains three references (p. 2, 5 and 29)
calling it a "critical policy issue" to determine "the extent to which
NGATS will accommodate visual flights versus instrument-only
flights."[
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192560

OTHER THAN THAT, FAA SCORES DECENT MARKS WITH GAO
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192561)
The GAO report says the FAA, which was reorganized in 2004 to include
the Air Traffic Organization, is doing better at buying and
implementing the technology that will be required to accommodate the
three-fold increase in air traffic that is anticipated by 2025 (that
FAA-estimated growth is questioned by some in the industry). While a
couple of years ago it was a given that FAA procurement projects would
go sideways, the GAO says that for the second year in a row the agency
has managed to bring new projects on line in time and within 10
percent of budget 80 percent of the time. But, then, the process is
far from over.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#192561