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Thread: Contract Control Tower Closures Likely

  1. #1

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    Contract Control Tower Closures Likely

    The Senate today passed a continuing resolution that authorizes government spending, including sequestration, for the rest of the fiscal year by a vote of 73 to 26. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas was not able to amend the bill to protect the contract control towers from closure. So, unless something happens in the House of Representatives, or the FAA has a change of heart, those control towers are history.
    Bill

  2. #2
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    Better bone up on the procedures for departing and entering uncontrolled airports and airspace!

  3. #3
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Floatsflyer View Post
    Better bone up on the procedures for departing and entering uncontrolled airports and airspace!
    Haven't flown from a controlled field in ~14 years. I might be ready... :-)

    Ron Wanttaja

  4. #4
    Mike Switzer's Avatar
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    I am, as part of the airport community, supposed to be opposed to the closing of our tower. I feel for the guys that are going to lose their jobs. But honestly, (other than training ops, which will affect our club & the Air Guard unit) for the most part the only effect it will have here will be the pilots will have to get their cell phones out to get IFR clearance. And ADM corporate flight ops will need to do a bit more coordination to fly in to Midway or O'Hare when they have ground stops in effect. I have flown out of here many times before 6AM when the tower opens, myself, the couple corporate jets, ADM, & the UPS 757s & their occasional DC8's (back in the day when they still used them) & the Shorts Skyvan all talked on the radio & avoided conflict.

    Honestly, SPI has less traffic than we do here at DEC. CMI has barely more traffic, and at times Litchfield (untowered) has more traffic than any of those 3. I don't see why CMI. SPI, BMI, or DEC have towers, and as far as I can see CMI & SPI don't need class C.

    Just my personal opinion, which I am sure I will get heat over after hitting the enter button...

  5. #5
    Joe Delene's Avatar
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    The "sequester" may not be the best option or pretty at times, but let's keep in mind how we got here. The inability to act over the years, by Congress & the President(s) brought us here. Many of the recent cuts are orchestrated to be visible and seemingly painful. If we can't do it the proper way, it still will have to be done. These minor reductions in the rate of spending increases are just a small harbinger of what's to come.

    A presidential 'line item veto' would help, like many governors have. Even though congress is unable to act on spending, they don't want to give away the ability to stuff 'pork' into a bill. Buckle up, the road needs repair ahead.

  6. #6

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    Pick your poision - I'd rather see a reduction in services before politicians resort to "user fees" to support these (mostly unnecessary) services.

  7. #7

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    I have looked closely at the list of proposed tower closings, and for the most part, it is my opinion that they should, indeed, be closed.

    There is one airport on the list that has two operations per hour, on average, while the tower is open. An "operation" is either a landing or a departure, so two operations per hour could mean the only traffic the tower sees in an hour is the same plane coming in for a landing and the taking back off a short time later. Even a simple touch and go would count as two operations.

    Some of the busier airports on the list are a bit questionable, as those are pretty busy airports. The busiest airport on the list has an average of 27 operations per hour. That is a plane either taking off or landing every two minutes. That tower should probably be retained, in my opinion.

    But for the most part, the towers on the list are unnecessary.

  8. #8

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    I think your have a valid point regarding low levels of operation. I trained at a class D airport back in 1992 and was based there (KUES) for about 8 years. Back then the GA activity level was much higher then today and the weekends were very busy with a big mix of aircraft types. The tower was very helpful in getting aircraft into the pattern and giving the pilots more situational awareness. Like Ron, I mostly fly into uncontrolled airports and I'm based at one as well. During the week, traffic is rare, and even weekends it's pretty light. It would make sense to take a look at traffic volume and timing and reduce tower activity where it makes sense. Unfortunately, our govt. system tends to swing the axe blindly then react when the "blow-back" hits the fan.

    Joe

  9. #9

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    Flying in and out of a non-towered airport is easy. Folks get nervous when their routine is disturbed or their workload changes.

    I like the folks in our local control tower, but from a financial and traffic count point of view, I have to say that the local tower makes no sense. Must be really boring to sit there and see nothing going on hour after hour.

    Since towers are expensive to build and operate, they need to work. And unfortunately, towers with low traffic counts don't work enough. I will guess that folks in this forum have done their best to contribute to aviation but with the economy of the last few years the unfortunate reality is that flying is way down. And that means that aviation support services like contract towers can not avoid following the trend forever. Many towns view an airport control tower as a status symbol, but only so long as they do not have to pay the bill. Hard to see how this can work in the long term.

    The tower folks that I know are smart enough to have side businesses. These are not dumb people and I have heard the comment that at least one tower staffer is having a hard time juggling his other business with his tower hours. We can hope that other contract tower staff demonstrates similar motivation.

    When they start cutting Social Security and Medicare, no one will be complaining about contract towers anymore. Tighten your seatbelts.

    Best of luck,

    Wes
    N78PS

  10. #10
    EAA Staff
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    Something everyone is overlooking is safety. Is an uncontrolled field safe? Sure. As long as everyone follows the rules. Is an uncontrolled field as safe as a controlled field? No. And right away everyone gets all fired up, but hear me out. Yes some of these towers may have had lower traffic numbers. But, Towers do more than just seperate traffic. Towers ensure everyone is doing the right thing while flying but they also have the task of taking care of folks on the ground, reporting changing weather that a computer will not keep up with, scanning departing aircraft to ensure all is safe with them, ensuring that the runway enviroment is safe, and emergencies. I can not tell you how many times I have stopped a departure due to something being forgotten during walk around or pre-flight. It is a built in layer of safety, and it is going away. - Chris ATC, EAA

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