There you go, that was up at the DUATS booth at Airventure. The folks there were concerned...


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message ...
: On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:47:56 -0700, "Jay Beckman"
: wrote in gOCzg.10285$RD.1633@fed1read08::
:
: I may have misinterpreted what I read, but did anyone else recently see any
: mention of a possible plan to take DUATS out of the realm of competitive
: bidding, give it soley to LockMart who would then remove it's status as an
: "official" source of Wx info?
:
:
: This is all I could find:
:
:
: http://www.flightprep.com/showmyturn.php?id=11
: If it?s not broke why fix it?
: Direct User Access Terminal Service (DUATS) has now been around for
: about fifteen years. Its primary function is to allow pilots, having
: access to computers, to acquire weather information, manage flight
: plans, get NOTAMS and review the latest airspace changes. DUATS is an
: FAA sponsored service administered by private vendors. The service is
: free to pilots. There are currently two vendors, DTC DUAT and CSC
: DUATS. Each service provides the basic weather products and services
: as specified by the FAA. Pilots love this service since they can
: access DUATS on their terms - at any time and at any place. The
: service is accurate, reliable and up times are phenomenal. The vendors
: are paid on a per pilot use basis. So it is incumbent for them to
: provide the best possible service to attract pilots to their
: respective DUATS offering. As a result, each service provider adds
: free value added products and services. CSC DUATS for example has
: teamed with FlightPrep? to provides the powerful graphic flight
: planner GoldenEagle FlightPrep? free to any pilot for the asking, and
: DTC DUATS provides a high performance DUAT web access site also free
: to pilots.
:
: Having two competing DUATS providers benefits pilots, improves the
: service and reduces costs. Both are low cost options for taxpayers and
: cost less than $3 million a year. The DUATS flight planner and
: briefing service is used by more than 17,000 pilots a day. The DUATS
: service has never run over budget. The same can not yet be said of the
: planned FSS A76 Modernization transition of the Flight Service
: function. This service will be administered by Lockheed Martin Inc.
: While not part of the approved contract, the FAA now proposes to do
: away with DUATS as we know it and move this important service to a
: single source private provider. As is usually the case, such a move
: makes the service uncompetitive, which most likely will result in cost
: overruns and mediocre service. As far we can determine, no one outside
: the FAA (with the possible exception of Lockheed Martin Inc.) thinks
: this is a good idea. Most pilots, flight planning service providers
: and AOPA do not support this proposed change. There is no compelling
: reason to fix DUATS - it?s not broken.
: