Flight Service
Updated:02:58 PM March 20, 2009
Flight Service Station personnel provide pilots with several services before and during their flights. First, they provide weather briefings, notices to airmen, and airport conditions along their proposed route of flight. Second, they accept and process flight plans for both instrument and visual conditions. Third, they provide en route flight following and weather information during the flights and monitor the emergency communication frequency. Finally, they initiate search and rescue operations if a pilot does not close out the flight plan in a timely manner. Because there are relatively few Flight service stations (61 automated, 15 manual, and 14 rotational stations in Alaska) for the entire US, they frequently must provide coverage for very large areas and thousands of pilots. The flight service controllers need to quickly access huge amounts of information and must communicate on many radio frequencies and landlines.
