COPA member James le Voguer sent a note to headquarters
outlining a problem he had telephoning flight service to file a flight plan.
“I was twice on hold tonight: once for 10 minutes at around 08:30 p.m. and then
gave up; then for 25 minutes at 10:15. I called the (FSS) number in Montreal on
one line and the number in Quebec on the second line. The only reason I bothered
to wait is because I had no choice; I was flying to the United States IFR.
Finally I called the Montreal Area Control Centre. They were quite helpful and
ready to take my IFR flight plan right away.
“I think there will be either be a lot of flight notices or a lot of illegal
flying going on if this is the way it’s to work. They either provide the service
or change the law for VFR flying, because there is no way I’ll wait for Nav Can
to answer for 25 minutes to be legal. I’ll just go.”
Nav Canada reply
COPA forwarded Le Voguer’s note to Nav Canada. It was answered by Dave Radtke,
Nav Canada Director Flight Information Centres.
“We have investigated the service provided to Mr. Le Voguer on April 23, 2002.
The staff working at that time in Quebec was three qualified specialists and one
trainee. Two specialists and the trainee were working at the weather
briefing/flight planning positions and one was working at the radio position.
Montreal was not providing weather briefing service as it stops at 7:00 in the
evening and the telephone service is automatically transferred to Quebec.
“It does appear that Mr. Le Voguer did wait a considerable length of time and
this is not acceptable to us as well. Unfortunately when Mr. Le Voguer made the
two calls simultaneously, one to Quebec and the other to Montreal, his calls
would be competing against each other as the Montreal call was auto-forwarded to
Quebec. Whichever call was made second would be in the queue behind his first
call, thus increasing his wait time.
“We appreciate you bringing this to our attention as we found that some flight
planning and weather briefing work was being transferred prematurely into
Quebec. A few of the Flight Service Stations in Quebec have an auto-forward
feature on their telephone and this was being used. Consequently pilots calling
locations like Roberval were being automatically forwarded to Quebec. As a
result Quebec workload increased unexpectedly and more that what we had been
staffing for. We have stopped the transfer of these calls and this should
increase the availability of pilots who use Quebec.
“We are working hard at ensuring that Quebec can provide a service that is
acceptable to our customers. Currently Quebec has eight specialists in training
to be ready for the transfer of Montreal workload on June 13, 2002. While we are
training new specialists our productivity does decrease. The qualified
specialist providing the training has to occasionally sign off the position to
explain or coach the trainee on his performance. While he is signed off he is
not available to answer calls. This period of time is usually only for a few
minutes, but it can create a situation where a pilot will be placed in the
queue. To help minimize this situation Montreal FSS will extend their telephone
briefing service to 9:30 p.m. until it closes June 13. As well, we are placing
two of the Montreal specialists into Quebec temporarily for six months starting
in June. This will bring some of the Montreal expertise to Quebec and help to
ensure that we have sufficient staff to meet the increased work.
“As much as we don’t want to see this quality of service we do want to hear
about them when it does occur.”
COPA response:
To Dave Radtke:
“Thank you for the explanation and for the changes you have made to provide
better service during the transition period. By copy of this to the complainant,
James, I will ask him to be patient and to help us monitor the service after
June 13 when the Quebec location hopefully will be up to speed.”
Kevin Psutka, President and CEO, COPA
Nav Canada customer service
Pilots may send feedback on Nav Canada service directly to the company; Tel.:
1-800-876-4693, Internet: www.navcanada.ca.