The airspace within fifty miles of a major airport is as complicated as it gets. ![]() The end result is organized, safe service. The bigger the airport, the more automated the system. These releases may be done verbally or automated via computer. Awaiting release.” He’s waiting on radar to grant him permission to “release” your departure. Towers and radar therefore have letters of agreement (LOAs) that specify how departure coordination is handled. It’d be like throwing a football at someone without first yelling “Catch!” Traffic conflicts with other IFR traffic can occur if radar isn’t protecting airspace for the departure. A tower controller can’t just clear an IFR departure without letting radar know he’s coming. Towers have to coordinate with overlying radar facilities for departures on IFR flight plans to maintain the required IFR separation in all weather conditions: a minimum of three miles horizontally, 1000 feet vertically, or 15 degrees of heading divergence. Swap that Boeing on final for a 70 knot Cessna who will take almost two minutes to fly those two miles and I can launch the Cherokee. If I have a Boeing 737 clocking 120 knots on two mile final-putting him over the threshold in sixty seconds-then I shouldn’t clear a Piper Cherokee for takeoff in front of him. “Tower-provided visual separation” makes tight squeeze-plays possible.Įxperience with specific aircraft performance characteristics is a huge plus. Required tower separation in VFR conditions is at times measured in feet, not miles. When they’re watching airplanes through the windows, towers can run airplanes closer than a radar controller relying on sensors dozens or hundreds of miles away from their traffic. He is, after all, watching over your most critical phases of flight: takeoff and landing.Īt times working in those glass offices can feel like an Olympic ping pong match, fast and furious, controllers making snappy decisions in tight quarters: How do I fit this jet in with my pattern traffic? Do my departures match my overlying radar controllers’ expectations? Your journey through the national airspace system may begin with a tower controller saying “Cleared for takeoff” or may end with “Cleared to land.” Before the controller can utter those phrases, he must exercise good judgment and ensure spacing exists. The majority will describe that most visible of aviation icons: an airport control tower. Each facility type has a very specific role to play.Īsk a random member of the non-flying public about air traffic control. While the rules are universal, they’re broken down by the three main types of ATC facilities: tower, TRACON, and center. They all apply the same rulebook-FAA Order 7110.65-and use the same standardized phraseology. There are approximately 15,000 FAA controllers in the USA, with thousands more working at military airfields and in privately-managed contract towers. In either case, each controller watches out for potential conflicts. A local IFR flight may only talk to a few. A typical airline flight from New York to Los Angeles may talk to several dozen controllers. Additional services include emergency assistance and weather advisories. If they have a mission to accomplish along the way-be it military operations or civilian requests like IFR training or aerial photography-we coordinate amongst ourselves to get the pilots what they request. We sequence them with other traffic and separate them from threats to their safety like other aircraft, special use airspace, and obstacles. Controllers work as a team to help aircraft get from their departure point to their destination safely. That’s nicely phrased, but not exactly overflowing with details. Air traffic control’s intent is summed up by its FAA-issued mandate: “The safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of aircraft.” To understand any system, one must first understand its basic purpose. But I’ve discovered every day I do my job, the ideas behind all that are actually pretty simple. There’s no denying the USA’s air traffic control system is layered, technical, and complex. I wasn’t really sure how all of those facilities were interconnected. Their ability to manage a pattern full of Cessnas from their glass office seemed magical, but what most intrigued me were those mysterious voices answering to “Departure,” “Approach,” and “Center” who lived beyond our airport’s airspace. In ’03, that all was rocket surgery to me. In due course, I also became a tower controller. From his description, I pictured a dark room filled with the intense chatter of men and women half-lit by radar scopes and blinking sci-fi lights.Ī few short years later, I’d be a radar controller in one of those dark rooms. My instructor and I were chatting about air traffic control. In spring 2003, I was halfway through my flight training.
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