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.
