AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 52

PILOT BRIEFING
NEWS |

Give Leidos a call
Contractor wants to hear your
upgrade ideas

52 |

MISSING SOME FEATURES from DUATS as you transition to 1800WXbrief, the flight service online system?
If so, Leidos, the government contractor providing telephone-based and online weather and flight planning
services for the FAA, wants to hear about it.
Roger Krone, chairman and CEO of Leidos, an
active pilot and a DUATS user making the transition to
1800WXbrief.com, says his company makes quarterly
software updates to the weather and flight planning site
and that most requests they get for new features can be
easily incorporated. "Speak up, we want to hear your
ideas," Krone said.

DUATS users need to transition to 1800WXbrief.com to continue accessing online briefings and filing flight plans because the FAA canceled the
contracts for DUATS effective May 16. The FAA issued the first Direct User
Access Terminal System contracts in 1989 as a way for pilots to access approved
weather information online. With the advances of alternative online weather
sources, including 1800WXbrief.com, provided by the Automated Flight Service
Station contractor Leidos, the FAA decided not to renew the DUATS contract.
In addition to the traditional telephone-based flight service information,
Leidos provides an online flight planning system, including the ability to file
flight plans and get approved weather briefings for a planned route. Leidos
sends the same weather data to numerous flight planning sites and electronic
flight bag apps. To use 1800WXbrief.com, pilots need to create a free account
with their email address. The AOPA Online Flight Planner and the AOPA GO
app are configured to connect to the FSS site for weather and flight plan filing.
Among the features of Leidos provides is the EasyActivate/EasyClose capability, which lets a pilot activate or close a VFR flight plan simply by responding
to a text sent to them 30 minutes before departure and arrival. These actions are
recorded and included in the pilot's history. Reminders are also sent if a VFR
flight plan is not closed within 20 minutes of the expected arrival time. Pilots
using EasyActivate/EasyClose can use text messaging to activate or close a VFR
flight plan, and to receive acknowledgement of the action. The telephone-based
services for flight service remain unchanged and briefers can be reached at
1-800-wxbrief.
-Thomas B. Haines

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - July 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - July 2018