On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 17:41:20 -0400, "Happy Dog"
wrote:

Is this very unusual?

Unicom. Just a guy giving friendly advice.

No, it's not Unicom. The airfield tower is a very serious matter. If
you want to fly outside of tower hours, you pay $800 to bring the
"controller" (whatever he is called) out, and to man the fire station.

It's merely that the pilot and not the controller makes the decisions.
I appreciate that the pilot is always the ultimate authority, but in
the U.S. he can't go against the wishes of the controller unless he
declares an emergency, right?

Narsarsuaq is a challenging airport in a very severe environment (the
icecap starts just five miles to the east). The pilot needs somebody
in the tower and in the firehouse. It seems to me that the challenge
is so great that the final control authority has been punted from the
tower to the cockpit, and I wondered how common this is.



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com