Visit to the Control Tower

[Charles Talleyrand]

I just visited our local control tower. We're a small field.
Interesting things I learned include ...

1) There is just one guy working at a time, plus a possible second
doing paperwork. There are five guys total on staff. They are all ex
military.

2) There is a radar on the field, and the tower is wired to show the
radar to the guys in the cab, but there is in fact no display. The
display is in center, 400 miles away. To get a display they need
30,000 movements per year. They have 29,000.

3) Often there is only one guy on duty. When he needs to go to the
bathroom, he can take a hand held radio and field calls sitting in the
"office".

4) They have a mental list of pilots that need special attention.
They don't write it down.

5) General Aviation activity is decreasing locally. They blame fuel
prices.

6) One of the five guys is a pilot who owns a Cherokee, but he doesn't
fly because it's too expensive.

7) There is an emergency generator. They test it once per week for a
hour.

8) The cab has weights for weightlifting, fridge and microwave, but no
television.

[Mike[_22_]]

"Charles Talleyrand" > wrote in message
...
>I just visited our local control tower. We're a small field.
> Interesting things I learned include ...
>
> 1) There is just one guy working at a time, plus a possible second
> doing paperwork. There are five guys total on staff. They are all ex
> military.
>
> 2) There is a radar on the field, and the tower is wired to show the
> radar to the guys in the cab, but there is in fact no display. The
> display is in center, 400 miles away. To get a display they need
> 30,000 movements per year. They have 29,000.
>
> 3) Often there is only one guy on duty. When he needs to go to the
> bathroom, he can take a hand held radio and field calls sitting in the
> "office".
>
> 4) They have a mental list of pilots that need special attention.
> They don't write it down.
>
> 5) General Aviation activity is decreasing locally. They blame fuel
> prices.
>
> 6) One of the five guys is a pilot who owns a Cherokee, but he doesn't
> fly because it's too expensive.
>
> 7) There is an emergency generator. They test it once per week for a
> hour.
>
> 8) The cab has weights for weightlifting, fridge and microwave, but no
> television.

It sounds as if it's a non-fed tower. There's a lot of factors that
determine if a tower gets a radar display. First of all, if they don't have
a terminal radar in the area, they will never have a display in the tower.
If the only radar in the area goes back to the center, it can't be used for
the tower. Center and terminal radars are two different animals. Some
terminal radars are piped into the center for coverage, and it is possible
to pipe the center radar back to a TRACON, but this is done only as a backup
to the terminal radar.

Most VFR tower controllers recognize most of the aircraft based on the field
if they've been there any length of time.

[Charles Talleyrand]

> It sounds as if it's a non-fed tower. There's a lot of factors that
> determine if a tower gets a radar display. First of all, if they don't have
> a terminal radar in the area, they will never have a display in the tower.
> If the only radar in the area goes back to the center, it can't be used for
> the tower. Center and terminal radars are two different animals. Some
> terminal radars are piped into the center for coverage, and it is possible
> to pipe the center radar back to a TRACON, but this is done only as a backup
> to the terminal radar.
>
> Most VFR tower controllers recognize most of the aircraft based on the field
> if they've been there any length of time.

It is a non-federal tower.

What they told me was the radar existed and was currently operating,
the tower was wired appropriately, and they only lacked a display.
They also told me getting a display was a bright line rule. 29,999
movements meant no display, and 30,001 movements meant they got a
display.

I admit they could be oversimplifying for the pilot.

[Gene Seibel]

> 2) There is a radar on the field, and the tower is wired to show the
> radar to the guys in the cab, but there is in fact no display. *The
> display is in center, 400 miles away. *To get a display they need
> 30,000 movements per year. *They have 29,000.
>

Three touch and goes a day and you get them their display. ;)
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Aeroplanes - http://pad39a.com/gene/planes.html
Because we fly, we envy no one.

[Mike[_22_]]

"Charles Talleyrand" > wrote in message
...
>
>> It sounds as if it's a non-fed tower. There's a lot of factors that
>> determine if a tower gets a radar display. First of all, if they don't
>> have
>> a terminal radar in the area, they will never have a display in the
>> tower.
>> If the only radar in the area goes back to the center, it can't be used
>> for
>> the tower. Center and terminal radars are two different animals. Some
>> terminal radars are piped into the center for coverage, and it is
>> possible
>> to pipe the center radar back to a TRACON, but this is done only as a
>> backup
>> to the terminal radar.
>>
>> Most VFR tower controllers recognize most of the aircraft based on the
>> field
>> if they've been there any length of time.
>
> It is a non-federal tower.
>
> What they told me was the radar existed and was currently operating,
> the tower was wired appropriately, and they only lacked a display.
> They also told me getting a display was a bright line rule. 29,999
> movements meant no display, and 30,001 movements meant they got a
> display.
>
> I admit they could be oversimplifying for the pilot.

Being "wired" for a display doesn't really mean much. The old tower
displays (called the BRITE system) are being phased out and no more are
being installed. So even if they were wired for such a system, it's
obsolete now anyway. The new displays are flat screen color type and are a
completely different system. It also requires 2 full T-1 data lines which
are VERY expensive.

So basically the first hurdle you have to overcome is the availability of a
terminal radar. If you don't have a terminal radar within about 20 miles or
so, you're not getting a display no matter what. The next hurdle would be
space. A climate controlled equipment room would have to be available to
support the part of the system that's not in the tower cab. The next hurdle
would be the availability of T-1 data service to the tower. Somewhere
within all those hurdles would be traffic count, but as you can see that's
just one hurdle of many and really it's down on the list some. Next you get
into budget and money issues, political issues, technician availability
issues, equipment availability issues, and all sorts of other things.

There's lots of towers out there which are very deserving of a radar
display. Not all of them will get them anytime soon.

[JGalban via AviationKB.com]

Charles Talleyrand wrote:
>
>4) They have a mental list of pilots that need special attention.
>They don't write it down.
>

Last time I visited my local tower, they had the list of goofy pilots' tail
numbers taped to the console. Fortunately, I wasn't on it :-))

John Galban=====>N4BQ (PA28-180)

--
Message posted via http://www.aviationkb.com

[GMOD10X]

2) There is a radar on the field, and the tower is wired to
show the radar to the guys in the cab, but there is in fact
no display. The display is in center, 400 miles away. To
get a display they need 30,000 movements per year. They
have 29,000.


Or until they have a mid-air that kills a few people and
little white sheets and goo are scattered over some nice
neighborhood

The FAA is typical Government. People must die before the
Tombstone agency does anything. Now if some VIP dies they
will also throw money and equipment at the problem

Sorta like you don't get a red light at the busy
intersection until some people die or a kid gets killed
getting off a school bus

Typical ****ed up Government. Beans before souls.

What if your wife or kid or you were one of those statistics
BEFORE you get the red light or the radar display??

Changes the perspective a little huh??

[Mike[_22_]]

"GMOD10X" > wrote in message
...
> 2) There is a radar on the field, and the tower is wired to show the radar
> to the guys in the cab, but there is in fact no display. The display is
> in center, 400 miles away. To get a display they need 30,000 movements
> per year. They have 29,000.
>
>
> Or until they have a mid-air that kills a few people and
> little white sheets and goo are scattered over some nice neighborhood
>
> The FAA is typical Government. People must die before the Tombstone agency
> does anything. Now if some VIP dies they will also throw money and
> equipment at the problem
>
> Sorta like you don't get a red light at the busy intersection until some
> people die or a kid gets killed getting off a school bus
>
> Typical ****ed up Government. Beans before souls.
>
> What if your wife or kid or you were one of those statistics BEFORE you
> get the red light or the radar display??
>
> Changes the perspective a little huh??

Not in any rational way. The FAA must operate within a budget just like
anyone else. There may be locations that can benefit from such a service,
but at what cost? And who is going to pay those costs? Are you willing to
accept user fees at that airport to pay for such a service? Should fuel
taxes be raised? Should John Q. Taxpayer be required to foot the bill? And
assuming you could pay for an install a radar display in every single tower
than can use one, could you have saved more lives by using the same amount
of money making common sense changes like those traffic lights you spoke
about? Let's look at the statistics.

The US already has the safest air transportation system in the world and the
current trend is already going down. There are typically only 15-20 mid air
collisions in the US, and most of those happen near uncontrolled fields.

In 2003 there were 0 mid-air collisions at controlled fields.

In 2002 there were 3 mid-air collisions at controlled fields. Two happened
at fields that already had radar, and one happened at Sun-n-Fun, which
doesn't even have a permanent tower.

In 2003 there were 0 mid-air collisions at controlled fields.

See where this is going?

Changes the perspective a little huh??

http://www.aopa.org/asf/ntsb/searchResults.cfm?tss=8

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

"JGalban via AviationKB.com" <u32749@uwe> wrote in message
news:864eef44de3b1@uwe...
<...>
> Last time I visited my local tower, they had the list of goofy pilots'
> tail
> numbers taped to the console. Fortunately, I wasn't on it :-))
>

I knew there was a reason I preferred uncontrolled fields.


--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.