My clearance comes from Apia, my radar from Saipan

On Monday the Government Accountability Office reported that the FAA has no reliable lifecycle cost estimate and no integrated master schedule for the Brand New Air Traffic Control System. Congress appropriated $12.5 billion in July 2025. The FAA aims most of it at phase 1 and plans to finish in December 2028. In June it gave the auditors high-level per-program figures without supporting analysis. The figures leave out government costs and phase 2 costs. Missing as well are most phase 1 costs of operation. FAA puts phase 2 at about $10.2 billion without dates for start or finish.

The FAA manages 11,389 individual phase 1 project schedules. According to the auditors, the FAA can plan several projects at a facility without coordinating the installations. Uncoordinated installations disturb air traffic operations. FAA officials said they intend to fix the gap. They have set no timeline for it. The Transportation Department partially agreed with the two recommendations, on the cost estimate and on the phase 1 schedule.

In May the Transportation Department committed more than $750 million to eight replacement facilities. The eight are Charleston, Grand Forks, Greer, Lawton, Pocatello, Sacramento, San Jose and Tamiami. A further $85.8 million went to contract towers at 41 airports across 24 states. In the department's published plan Alaska has a separate heading, and the Pacific none.

At Mount Petosukara on Saipan the FAA and the Air Force propose a long-range surveillance radar. The Air Force retired the PACBAR III station at Tangke near As Matuis. A draft environmental assessment sets out construction and operation inside that footprint. Under the proposal the FAA would put an integrated radome and array on a new radar service building and upgrade about 1.6 miles of electrical infrastructure. Deteriorated structures at the site would come down. During construction a mobile unit would watch the airspace. The radar would close a surveillance gap north of the Marianas.

Commenters write to Jonathan Salter, the program manager for special infrastructure projects in NAS Defense Programs, until September 15. The FAA posted the draft online under its air traffic facilities notices. A printed set is at the Joeten Kiyu Public Library. On historic properties the CNMI Historic Preservation Office concurred with the finding of no adverse effect. Archaeological monitoring applies to ground-disturbing excavation. The notice schedules no public hearing.

Article XXII, section 3 of the Commonwealth constitution names Chamorro, Carolinian and English as the official languages of the Northern Marianas. Under that section the legislature may fix the language of government proceedings and documents. Courts may not review that section. Carolinian speakers call their language Refaluwasch. In the Marianas, Chamorro speakers write theirs as CHamoru. Public Law 03-26 established the Chamorro-Carolinian Language Policy Commission on October 13, 1982. The legislature reenacted it through Public Law 15-96 on October 10, 2007.

Scoping for the Hawaii Airspace Modernization Project lasted from November 18, 2025 to March 15, 2026. The FAA had set January 31 as the closing date and moved it. The FAA counts the project among the first under its Airspace Modernization Roadmap Strategy. Over Hawaiʻi and the oceanic airspace around it, the project treats the airspace structure and the air traffic procedures. On August 4 the FAA opened the solution development phase. Its designers draft instrument flight procedures and special activity airspace in that phase.

Commenters filed through a Google Form. The FAA sorted the returns into six categories and published the counts. Among the returns, residential and community concerns drew 320, tour helicopters 52, civilian procedures 40, military airspace 31, other 32 and military procedures 20. Commenters get no individual reply. The FAA's notice says the returns inform the scope and fine-tune the proposed instrument flight procedures.

Under article XV, section 4 of the Hawaiʻi constitution, English and Hawaiian are the official languages of the state. Delegates wrote that section at the 1978 convention. Voters ratified it that November. In public business Hawaiian applies only as statutes provide. Speakers of the language call it ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. The FAA published its form in English. On Hawaiʻi Island, 204 education staff ranked 27 statements about a prevention curriculum. The statement asserting Native Hawaiian grounding received zero votes at three ranks.

Controllers at the Honolulu Control Facility will handle the redrawn procedures. The facility combines the Honolulu tower with a center radar approach control watching the ocean around the islands. In January RTX and Indra signed contracts to replace up to 612 radars by June 2028. The FAA takes the high-traffic areas first.

Handling nearly 260,000 square miles of airspace, the Guam CERAP at Barrigada gives approach and departure service to Guam International on 119.8 and 269.0 through the remote transmitter on Mount Santa Rosa. Since 1972 Chamorro has had official status in Guam alongside English. The territory's legislature is at Hagåtña. In the clip above a CHamoru voice model speaks a line about the usual bad weather of November.

Although Pago Pago lies in a US territory, the FAA's own aeronautical information publication tells pilots there to get IFR clearance from the Faleolo Air Traffic Control Unit in independent Sāmoa, on a country-code 685 number. For the field, the New Zealand office at Christchurch issues the NOTAMs. Runway 05/23 measures 10,001 feet. Samoan, Gagana Sāmoa to its speakers, is the everyday language of Tutuila.

Translators put an aviation operator's guides and scripts into Marshallese and CHamoru. Against the source a project lead fixed the terminology. First-language reviewers then checked the high-stake fields and sent back three lines. A flight number appeared after the destination instead of in front of it. The second line named a carrier absent from the source. In the third line the draft stated a passenger count once. The source states it twice. A wrong safety line changes a passenger's step in the cabin.

Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the appropriations subcommittee for transportation received a February presentation on the overhaul. The CNMI delegate, Kimberlyn King-Hinds, told constituents the presentation named three items from the $12.5 billion, radar replacement, runway safety technology and expanded weather monitoring.