The unmentioned consequences of closing contract control towers

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe the horse was lost. 


For want of a horse the rider was lost. 


For want of a rider the message was lost. 


For want of a message the battle was lost. 


For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

All for the want of a nail.

I have read much via an unlimited quantity of newsprint and pixels about the impact of the FAA’s decision to close one hundred forty eight contract control towers serving class delta airspace’s with limited volume around the United States.  In my home state of Connecticut this will shutter six airports towers leaving Bradley International as the only one in the state with an operating control tower.  As a Flight Instructor and general aviation pilot who earn wages while utilizing these services I have thought long and hard about what impact this will have on my ability to pursue my passion and generate revenue.

The news media has picked up on the narrative that there will be flight delays as the reliever airports served by contract towers will no longer be a usable by business jets in poor weather.  This will force them to utilize larger airports served by FAA staffed towers and adding additional traffic to already overburdened facilities will likely cause delays. First off for the average person this will have little or no effect on their lives. For the travelling public in major metropolitan areas the same is true. So the impact of the closures is difficult to quantify to the normal citizen. To them travelling by air is something they do on vacation and lord knows -no one goes on enough vacation.

For Ma and Pa Kettle vacationing in Hawaii or Joe Six-pack taking an occasional trip to Orlando, Cancun or Vegas their trips will likely go off as planned barring any inclement weather. Business travellers may be inconvenienced more frequently but not much surprises the travelling businessperson anymore.

At the airport my business resides next to, for a good portion of time during the year, not having an functioning control tower will have little operational impact aside from inconveniencing a handful of businesses and pilots using light aircraft in pursuit of business. To understand the implications of closing the tower one must look at what occurs when an air traffic control tower is not operating, and to do that a brief explanation of the National Airspace system is necessary.

The National Airspace System is comprised six major categories. Class Alpha (A) airspace extends from 18,000 feet to 60,000 feet and is the area where enroute air transportation usually occurs. Aircraft operating in Class A airspace are always on flight plans and are directly controlled and communicating with myriad air traffic control centers.

Class Bravo (B) is the airspace around the thirty-six busiest airports in the country. Airplanes operating within this airspace are also required to be cleared to operate within its boundaries and aside from the normal see and avoid concepts adhered to by all pilots aircraft operating within Class B are not responsible for their own separation. That is an ATC responsibility, which employs many controllers who take this very seriously.

Class Charlie(C) airspace surrounds the next tier of busy and one needn’t look farther than Bradley International in Windsor Locks CT, Albany, Buffalo, and Islip New York to get an example of what occurs there.

Class Delta (D) airspace is where the lions share of contract tower closings will occur. These are the smaller airports that serve general aviation and in some cases do have limited commercial traffic. Tweed airport in New Haven CT has limited commuter flag carriers that service the city.

Class D airspace typically extends four nautical miles from the geographical center of the airport and from the surface to twenty five hundred feet. Pilots are required to have dialog with the air traffic controllers working there and operate under a clearance to enter or depart the airspace.

Class Echo (E) airspace is controlled airspace that fills in around all the other categories of controlled airspace.  Class E can start at the surface, or 700’ Above Ground Level (AGL) or 1200’ AGL or 14000’ AGL. The way to think about Class E airspace is that it is the airspace with which all the other controlled airspace is carved out of. It fills in between Class A airspace and the tops of and in between the underlying controlled airspaces.

Class G Airspace is the mantle of low lying airspace beginning at the surface that is not Class B,C,D, or E. Class G Airspace is completely uncontrolled. The top of class G typically is at the bottom of class E airspace.

When Danbury tower is in operation (daily from 7:00AM until 10PM) the airspace surrounding the Airport is categorized as Class Delta (D) airspace. Class D airspace is controlled and pilots must communicate and receive clearance from Air Traffic Control (ATC) prior to operating within it. At 10PM the tower closes and the airspace surrounding the airport reverts to Class E until the tower opens again in the morning at 7AM. Class Echo is still controlled airspace the difference being that the start and the completion of flights no longer require communication with a controlling authority. 

This in and of itself is not particularly a problem. Pilots routinely fly into and out of non-towered class E airports all over the nation every day of the year. Pilots must obtain a clearance prior to entering controlled airspace if the weather requires such, and that can be accomplished via cell phone or radio communications. Additionally pilots must manually cancel their flight plans prior to landing with the last assigned controller -when weather permits, or via the telephone after landing when it does not. As I said earlier this happens all over the nation every single day without incident.

Where the danger to the airport and community exists is should the tower stay closed for an extended period of time. My understanding is the control towers stay closed for more than ninety days the FAA will start decommissioning them. Decommissioning is a nice word for stripping all of the equipment used by air traffic control out of the tower. The challenge for us in Danbury is that several systems instrumental towards using the airport unmonitored by ATC either wholly reside or have components of that reside in the tower.

The Pilot controlled lighting system that allows pilots to turn on the runway lights when the tower is closed is collocated inside the tower.

Additionally an Automated Surface Observation System (ASOS) serves Danbury, which is a fancy name for an unattended weather station.  The ASOS reports the weather hourly or as needed to both pilots locally via radio or telephone and is uploaded to the National Weather Service. The ASOS machine or more accurately its function in reporting of weather is what keeps the airspace surrounding Danbury class E when the tower is closed.

The transmitter for the ASOS machine also resides in the tower. If the tower closes for 90 days and its equipment is decommissioned the fate of our ASOS machine determines whether Danbury remains class E or becomes class G.

Class G airspace can be thought of as the Wild West. It is all the airspace that is not categorized as controlled and the way many remember its characteristics is by calling it “go for it” airspace. Pilots do not require a clearance to operate in class G and the weather minimums and cloud clearances limiting operations in its boundaries are liberal. Essentially flying within it is a free for all, and until the contract towers close, it is limited to the most remote of areas in our nation, typically sparsely populated mountainous areas and desert countryside’s.  Having that designation over northern Fairfield County, a scant sixty miles away from New York City is a scary proposition that will likely make even Ma and Pa Kettle sit up and take notice.

Sequester Consequences -Operating at unfamiliar non-towered airports.

One difficulty of flying into unfamiliar non-towered airports is the local phraseology and reporting points being called out by the locals.

I have a customer who tells an interesting story about arriving into KPVG or Hampton Roads Virginia which is a little to the southwest of Norfolk International. This gentleman was on an IFR flight plan in his pristine, refurbished late model Bonanza. My customer is a competent and safe pilot who flies for pleasure and in pursuit of his business several hundred hours a year. As he was cleared for an approach he was advised to cancel in the air or on the ground and given the familiar ”change to advisory frequency approved”. The ASOS reported calm winds and being unfamiliar with the area he kept his instrument clearance and continued with the approach, all the while believing he owned the airspace down to the runway.

Changing frequencies he advised, “Hampton Roads Traffic Bonanza inbound from SEZJY GPS 10”.  He announced his position numerous times as he flew the ten-mile final approach course, giving his position relative to the various fixes on the approach.  As he hand flew a flawless approach he kept hearing other airplanes on the frequency “in right traffic for two eight HAMRO” but due to their Virginia accents, local landmark callouts, and non-standard phraseology he thought nothing about it.  As he descended to the MDA he looked up, saw the runway, announced he was short final for runway 10 while transitioning for a visual landing. During the round out to the flare he finally understood what HAMRO was when he nearly collided with another airplane doing a touch and go on runway 28 and HAM(pton)RO(ads) 

Going into Dare County once we were confused when ATC kept giving us our position relative to Manteo. Finally I queried the controller what he meant by Manteo? He apologized and told me that’s how the locals refer to the airport. That was useful information and as we spotted the field, cancelled and announced on Unicom a Mooney was entering the downwind for Manteo everyone flying there knew whom and where we were. We have friends who are based at KMRH, or Beaufort North Carolina.  When we went to visit them I asked Pete what they call the airport. The name in the AF/D is Michael J Smith Field, The sectional shows SMITH (MRH) on 122.8 but you cannot call it Smith Field because there is a Smithfield NC airport. Pete explained that the natives call it BOFort which saved us having to figure that out on the fly.

14CFR91.103 requires that each pilot in command shall before beginning a flight become familiar with all of the information concerning that flight. Most of us now have Internet connected smartphones, tablets or laptops we carry and use as part of our preflight planning. Picking up the phone and speaking to someone at the field to ask if there is any particular name or reporting points the local’s use can save you some confusion while keeping everyone safer.

Sequester Consequences- Non Towered Airports/Uncontrolled Fields

I fly in and around uncontrolled fields all the time. I frequently use Montgomery Orange County (KMGJ) with Instrument candidates and IPC customers. It’s a great local airport.  The congeniality of the approach controllers working in that sector is unparalleled for the metro NYC area. The folks at 132.75 will usually provide VFR advisories and sequencing for a working flight instructor who knows how to ask for it professionally and politely.  And when those same controllers are overworked Orange County is still a great airport to provide vectors to a pilot over the intercom and perhaps get in three different approaches in during a two-hour session. The inopportune part is when you change to the Unicom frequency and try to fit a long final straight in approach into a pattern full of trainers in close traffic. It’s helpful to report position relative to the end of the runway you are flying the approach to because most non-instrument pilots won’t understand a call relative to a fix on the approach.

Rather than saying  “Orange County Traffic Mooney is over DIYAD for the ILS 3 Approach Orange County” saying “Orange County Traffic Mooney is four mile final runway three” will let everyone know your position regardless of whether they are novices or seasoned space shuttle captains. 

I don’t imagine the FAA will change the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency when our Delta’s become Echo’s so working in and around an airport with a discrete frequency will be more orderly than working at a Unicom airport where many airports are sharing the same.

It is key to remember that when communicating in the blind at a non-towered airport that shares a frequency with other non-towered airports that you must start and end your transmission with the name of the airport you are operating at. 

An example would be “Orange County Traffic Mooney is ten miles south east inbound for left downwind runway 21 orange county”. Note the lack of a call sign in my sample transmission. When we’re not dealing with air traffic controllers who identify and separate us by our call sign it is not necessary to clog up a busy frequency identifying the specific registration number of your plane. 

A pet peeve of mine is when pilots do is call out with “any traffic please advise” as in “Orange County Traffic Cherokee 12345 is 17 northwest inbound for the left downwind runway 3 any traffic in the area please advise”.  Asking for an airport advisory is usually not necessary on an airport that has an ASOS machine. Listening up on the frequency, paying attention to others and keeping your head on a swivel is the best way to prevent any close encounters with other pilots.

My mother used to say “its not the child’s fault” whenever we saw a kid misbehaving or being rude and I try to remember that idea when I hear pilots exhibiting the aforementioned bad habits and I blame one of the pilot’s instructors for some of these bad habits.

Sequester and the Human Impact

Sequestration Consequences-  Loss of contract tower controllers.

If you are a pilot flying in and around Connecticut you had better brush up on your class E airport operations. With the budget sequestration currently taking hold across our nation every towered airport in the state except for Bradley international will be shuttered.

Bridgeport, Danbury, Groton, Hartford, New Haven and Oxford airports will become class echo full time.  I wasn’t flying when Danbury got our tower, but I do remember when Waterbury Oxford was non-towered and frankly it was a free for all with pilots jockeying into and out of the traffic pattern with all of the politeness of drivers vying for empty parking spots at the mall during the holidays.

Instructing seven days a week for the past three years, I can tell you that most weekdays, nine months of the year, closing every contract tower in CT will have very little impact on VFR operations except for on weekends and at key periods during the day. Sitting at my desk on a nice Friday morning with my handheld tuned into Danbury tower the last two transmissions I have heard were clearing ground vehicles and advising that the ATIS had changed. IFR operations are a different story and I am sure that picking up a clearance, and a release with a void time on the phone or a RCO will be a major inconvenience to anyone trying to leave town when the weather is less than VFR.  

I like the controllers at Oxford and Danbury, which are the airports I work out of regularly. I know their voices, and they know mine. Most are friendly, a few are short tempered, and one in particular is completely burned out, his mood swings matched only by the wide spectrum of aircraft performance and pilot skill levels they have to deal with on a day to day basis.  

Having lost numerous positions to budget cuts in my earlier life I understand how they will feel should they get furloughed. I was a 1099 consultant in the financial services and pharmaceutical industry for the better part of my adult life and know how indiscriminate a budget axe can be. But cutting a consultant never compromised any of these organizations safety a bit. What I find scary is once these facilities close down it isn’t too hard to imagine what type of catastrophic event will be necessary to open them up again.

Call your senators and congressman and let them know how disappointed you are with them for letting this happen. Hell, call everybody you can who will listen and tell them this is a steaming pile of pooh. No one ever got hit by the truck they saw coming, and the knowledge of this has been on the horizon for a long time.

April 1^st is the day these fine people who sequence us in and out of our airports and into the enroute system are due to get laid off. They deserve our support and we need their services.  Call your congressman and senator today. Right now.