airfields with a tower that doesn't control pilots?

Last week I was in Greenland, at Narsarsuaq, formerly the USAAF and
USAF airfield Bluie West One.

It's a fabulous place, but one aspect of the Narsarsuaq airfield
really astonished me. There is a tower, six days a week during normal
daylight hours, but the tower only gives advice; the pilot is always
in control, and makes his own decisions.

Is this very unusual?



-- all the best, Dan Ford

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"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...
snipped...
There is a tower, six days a week during normal
daylight hours, but the tower only gives advice; the pilot is always
in control, and makes his own decisions.

Isn't the pilot always in control and have final authority at all towered
airports?

"Brad Zeigler" wrote in message
...

Isn't the pilot always in control and have final authority at all towered
airports?

That wouldn't work very well. You could have a pilot using his final
authority to land on runway 18 while another pilot is using his final
authority to land on runway 36.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Brad Zeigler" wrote in message
...

Isn't the pilot always in control and have final authority at all towered
airports?

That wouldn't work very well. You could have a pilot using his final
authority to land on runway 18 while another pilot is using his final
authority to land on runway 36.

Have you never flown into a non-towered airport?

"Brad Zeigler" wrote in message
...

Have you never flown into a non-towered airport?

Many times. Why?

Cub Driver wrote:
Last week I was in Greenland, at Narsarsuaq, formerly the USAAF and
USAF airfield Bluie West One.

It's a fabulous place, but one aspect of the Narsarsuaq airfield
really astonished me. There is a tower, six days a week during normal
daylight hours, but the tower only gives advice; the pilot is always
in control, and makes his own decisions.

Is this very unusual?


It seems that you have met AFIS - Aerodrome Flight Information
Service. The guy in the tower is not a qualified ATC controller,
but he's able to provide the minimum information needed for
night or IFR operations.

AFAIK, AFIS is in use on smaller European airports.

--

Tauno Voipio (Piper Turbo Arrow IV at EFHF)
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

Tauno Voipio wrote:

AFAIK, AFIS is in use on smaller European airports.

Pretty common here. What looks like a tower isn't a "tower" in the
technical sense. Look at the chart: You most probably won't find a
"tower" frequency but rather an "info" or "AFIS" frequency.

Stefan

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:26:19 GMT, Tauno Voipio
wrote:

It seems that you have met AFIS - Aerodrome Flight Information
Service. The guy in the tower is not a qualified ATC controller,
but he's able to provide the minimum information needed for
night or IFR operations.

AFAIK, AFIS is in use on smaller European airports.

Thanks! I'm glad to know it has a name.

Narsarsuaq's airport is open six days a week and only during broad
daylight. Interestingly, the requirements for an IFR approach are
higher than for a VFR approach at home -- as I recall, 6,000 ft
ceiling and four miles viz.

You take up your Initial Point directly over the airport and at 5,800
feet. Then you fly west on a 5.x degree descent for 8 miles. Then you
make a U turn near a 2,500? ft mountain and fly back east on the same
pitch. The air is so clear in Greenland that the ridgeline looked a
couple hundred feet off the starboard wingtip, though it was in fact
about half a mile away.

Altogether, the most fun I've ever had as a passenger in a jet.

(And that doesn't begin to take into account the lissome Faroese
stewardesses. The Faroes -- Iceland -- Greenland, omigod the women! As
Christopher Buckley wrote recently, it's the result of Nordic DNA, six
centuries of keeping strangers out, and eating raw fish for dinner.)



-- 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

Cub Driver wrote:
On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:26:19 GMT, Tauno Voipio
wrote:


It seems that you have met AFIS - Aerodrome Flight Information
Service. The guy in the tower is not a qualified ATC controller,
but he's able to provide the minimum information needed for
night or IFR operations.

AFAIK, AFIS is in use on smaller European airports.


Thanks! I'm glad to know it has a name.

Narsarsuaq's airport is open six days a week and only during broad
daylight. Interestingly, the requirements for an IFR approach are
higher than for a VFR approach at home -- as I recall, 6,000 ft
ceiling and four miles viz.

You take up your Initial Point directly over the airport and at 5,800
feet. Then you fly west on a 5.x degree descent for 8 miles. Then you
make a U turn near a 2,500? ft mountain and fly back east on the same
pitch. The air is so clear in Greenland that the ridgeline looked a
couple hundred feet off the starboard wingtip, though it was in fact
about half a mile away.

Altogether, the most fun I've ever had as a passenger in a jet.

(And that doesn't begin to take into account the lissome Faroese
stewardesses. The Faroes -- Iceland -- Greenland, omigod the women! As
Christopher Buckley wrote recently, it's the result of Nordic DNA, six
centuries of keeping strangers out, and eating raw fish for dinner.)


Apropos Faroes Islands:

Try to get the Jeppesen charts about the Vagar (Torshavn) airport
(the only one within 400 NM) and have a look at the approaches.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

Tauno Voipio wrote:

Apropos Faroes Islands:

Try to get the Jeppesen charts about the Vagar (Torshavn) airport
(the only one within 400 NM) and have a look at the approaches.

Not Jeppesen, but the Danish originals:
http://www.slv.dk/Dokumenter/dscgi/d...Collection-410

BTW, back to the topic: Note that there's a frequency for "AFIS" on the
charts.

Stefan