Peyton✈️

Sports, aviation, and weather; ATC, pilot, NWS volunteer. Any posts are my own views and not representative of my employer or bargaining unit

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

I would pay for https://t.co/zpdBVdcfib if they gave me camera choices

[Rob Friedman @PitchingNinja]

Shane Bieber's Pitch Arsenal (home plate view)

[ArtButMakeItSports @ArtButSports]

The Battle of the Peasants, by M.D. Hout, 17th c

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

We cannot consider #AI to be morally neutral. In reality, every technical tool embodies choices and priorities through what it measures, ignores, and optimizes, and how it classifies people and situations. Ethical discernment cannot be limited to asking whether we are using a system for good or bad purposes. It must also examine how that system is designed and what vision of the human person and society is embedded in the data and models that guide it. #MagnificaHumanitas

[INDYCAR on FOX @IndyCarOnFOX]

FELIX ROSENQVIST WINS THE CLOSEST FINISH IN INDY 500 HISTORY!

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

The administrator just cut ATC staffing target numbers by over 2000. You’ll never convince me this agency has the public safety in mind

[Yahoo News @YahooNews]

The head of the ‌FAA will ‌tell Congress on Tuesday the ​agency failed to act on warnings prior to the January 2025 fatal ‌collision between ⁠an American Airlines regional jet and Army ⁠helicopter that killed 67 people near Reagan ​Washington National Airport. https://t.co/8nxkR4TWHX

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.

[go4gordon 🌕 @go4gordon]

Artemis II liftoff from the zero deck

[patrick. @imPatrickT]

Artemis II if it was shot on Apollo 11 era Kodak Ektachrome film.

[NASA @NASA]

Liftoff.

The Artemis II mission launched from @NASAKennedy at 6:35pm ET (2235 UTC), propelling four astronauts on a journey around the Moon.

Artemis II will pave the way for future Moon landings, as well as the next giant leap — astronauts on Mars.

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

@BuzzPatterson The helicopter was VFR, restricted AOB 1500. United was restricted AOA 2000. Visual separation was never applied in accordance with the new separation rules. The RA is obviously not good but this was a an entirely legal air traffic op

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

I don’t know about this specific incident, but visual separation requires a specific instruction to initiate. The new standard when flight paths cross in class B, C, or TRSA airspace is VFR radar separation which is 500’ OR target resolution. Making a traffic call doesn’t imply visual sep was used. I haven’t heard the audio but just hoping to prevent any misconceptions 👍

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

I don’t know about this specific incident, but visual separation requires a specific instruction to initiate. The new standard when flight paths cross in class B, C, or TRSA airspace is VFR radar separation which is 500’ OR target resolution. Making a traffic call doesn’t imply visual sep was used. I haven’t heard the audio but just hoping to prevent any misconceptions 👍

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The air traffic controller cleared the fire truck onto the runway. Seconds later, the same controller screamed “stop, stop, stop.” The plane was doing 93 to 105 mph.

Both pilots are dead.

Everyone will frame this as controller error. One controller was simultaneously managing a United flight that aborted takeoff after an anti-ice warning, dispatching a fire truck across an active runway, and sequencing an inbound Air Canada landing at highway speed. At 11:40 PM. On a mandatory overtime shift at a facility that has been understaffed for years.

A system that assigns one person that workload will produce exactly this outcome. The only variable is when.

The FAA is short approximately 3,000 controllers. The headcount dropped 13% from 2010 to 2024 while flight volume rose 10%. Over 40% of the FAA’s 290 terminal facilities are understaffed. The New York TRACON, which manages the most congested airspace in America across LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, has been chronically below target. Newark was operating at 59% of its staffing goal. LaGuardia handles 900 flights a day.

The hiring pipeline is broken at every stage. Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. Training takes up to 6 years. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is a bottleneck, with roughly 35% of trainees washing out. Congress blocked legislation to build a second academy. In one recent hiring cycle, the FAA brought on 1,512 candidates and lost 1,300 in the same window. Net gain: around 160 controllers for an entire country.

Three things need to happen and everyone who can make them happen has known for years.

Congress needs to fund and authorize a second FAA training academy. One facility in Oklahoma City cannot produce enough controllers for 900 million annual passengers. Members of Congress from Oklahoma have actively blocked this. That needs to end yesterday.

The FAA needs to cut certification time. Six years from application to fully certified controller is absurd. The agency’s own data shows tower simulators reduce certification time by 27%. They’ve installed them at 95 facilities. That should be every facility, and the simulated hours should count toward more of the certification requirement.

The FAA needs to stop plugging staffing gaps with mandatory overtime. Controllers at understaffed facilities are working six-day weeks rotating between morning, mid, and night shifts. The NTSB has flagged fatigue repeatedly. The controller last night was managing overlapping emergencies during a nighttime operation. Overtime is not a staffing plan. It’s a countdown to the next runway collision.

The controller said “I messed up” to a Frontier pilot who watched the whole thing. The pilot responded “No man, you did the best you could.”

One of them is right. The answer determines whether this happens again.

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

@sarcasmforfree @USA_Polling None of the personnel were operational. Those terminated were strictly administrative roles separated from the operation by several steps.

I’m not arguing if it’s right or wrong. It’s misleading to say that FAA staffing as a whole was gutted.

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

@Kolfax3 @USA_Polling None of the personnel were operational. Those terminated were strictly administrative roles separated from the operation by several steps.

I’m not arguing if it’s right or wrong. It’s misleading to say that FAA staffing as a whole was gutted.

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

@MCCCANM air traffic is busier than ever, with as few controllers as ever. most traffic has gotten so condensed to the hub and spoke model that it overwhelms a lot of those hubs because of the banking off arrivals/departures

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

It was another pilot on frequency but sure

[Danielle Fountain | Austin 🏡 @AustinRealtor]

Charlie Kirk landing in Phoenix on Air Force 2

“Welcome Home Charlie, You didn’t deserve it. May God bless you and your family”
-Sky Harbor ATC Tower

[Peyton✈️ @NeuerSzn]

I won’t share my opinion, but here’s some of the provisions in the bill.

[Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy]

.@POTUS’ One Big Beautiful Bill comes at a critical time.

This bill gives @USDOT the ability to upgrade America’s air traffic control system to ensure flying is safe and efficient.

Let’s get it passed!