Senate kills amendment to keep high traffic towers open

So, what happened to KILG (Wilmington, DE)? It was on the first list to be closed, now it is on none of the lists? Since Joe flies into there with AF2, think it got spared for that reason?
 
Florida Cracker said:
Classic!

ISM, Kissimmee is staying open, even though they were notified that it was on the list.
I guess the three congresskritters that go in and out of there might have had some impact.
Lakeland will be open until, sun-n-fun is finished, then shut down.
Lees burg is being shut down and all three aircraft using it will have to remember how to call their positions. I never got why federal money built and staffs a tower op, there.
Click to expand...
Leesburg was quite busy when that big flight school at Orlando Exec was operating. They used that airport for shooting touch and goes and practice instrument approaches. That got the number of operations in the book, and by the time the flight school owners took the money and ran, the tower was already in process. I recall it being quite chaotic there for a while, and then traffic dropped off a cliff.
 
Marauder said:
So, what happened to KILG (Wilmington, DE)? It was on the first list to be closed, now it is on none of the lists? Since Joe flies into there with AF2, think it got spared for that reason?
Click to expand...
KILG has an FAA-staffed tower. The lists released March 22 only included contract towers.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Leesburg was quite busy when that big flight school at Orlando Exec was operating. They used that airport for shooting touch and goes and practice instrument approaches. That got the number of operations in the book, and by the time the flight school owners took the money and ran, the tower was already in process. I recall it being quite chaotic there for a while, and then traffic dropped off a cliff.
Click to expand...

I kind of remember that but also remember the many times I stopped there to go have Italian and was the only thing moving on that field. Talk about a waste of tower funds. No reason to fund a tower, IMO.
 
Florida Cracker said:
I kind of remember that but also remember the many times I stopped there to go have Italian and was the only thing moving on that field. Talk about a waste of tower funds. No reason to fund a tower, IMO.
Click to expand...

This is a little tongue in cheek but we all have heard of massive amounts of stimulus money to create few jobs. Rather than "no reason to fund a tower" at least it gave some people jobs and also was a convenient place for some to get tower practice. I for one have tower phobia since I am based at a non-towered airport and need all the practice I can get communicating with ATC.
 
Kelvin said:
The NASCAR teams will not be leaving JQF...they have tons of hangars there and have offices and shops within blocks...

Business as usual...
Click to expand...

Yep, what I figured.
 
Warrior said:
This is a little tongue in cheek but we all have heard of massive amounts of stimulus money to create few jobs. Rather than "no reason to fund a tower" at least it gave some people jobs and also was a convenient place for some to get tower practice. I for one have tower phobia since I am based at a non-towered airport and need all the practice I can get communicating with ATC.
Click to expand...

When I first started flight training, I flew out of a part time tower. The very first thing the instructor did, when we got in the air, every time, was direct me to fly to an uncontrolled field so we could do a bunch of T & G.

He hated having to talk to the tower to do routine landings and we did over 90% of our work out in the country at secluded airports.

One of those fields was Leesburg. We almost never saw another plane but that was a long time ago. When I went in to Leesburg in the last five years, it wasn't nearly as busy as any of the Tampa area fields, or Orlando Exec, Sanford, or Ocala. Gainesville was almost deserted, every time I have ever been in there. People say they get very busy when there's a big basketball game, or football weekend.
 
Florida Cracker said:
When I first started flight training, I flew out of a part time tower. The very first thing the instructor did, when we got in the air, every time, was direct me to fly to an uncontrolled field so we could do a bunch of T & G.

He hated having to talk to the tower to do routine landings and we did over 90% of our work out in the country at secluded airports.

One of those fields was Leesburg. We almost never saw another plane but that was a long time ago. When I went in to Leesburg in the last five years, it wasn't nearly as busy as any of the Tampa area fields, or Orlando Exec, Sanford, or Ocala. Gainesville was almost deserted, every time I have ever been in there. People say they get very busy when there's a big basketball game, or football weekend.
Click to expand...

I trained at TMB (Tamiami Airport) and was grateful for all the help that the controllers gave me for my touch and gos. That would have been 1970 so I have since moved to my non-towered KSEF. (Sebring)
 
I found this information from my congressman Jim Sensenbrenner very interesting:


Washington, Mar 22 - Congressman Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) response to the FAA’s announcement to move forward with the closure of Contract Towers as part of sequestration cuts:
“I am concerned about the FAA’s announcement that 149 federal Contract Towers will be shut down as a result of sequestration, including all eight in Wisconsin. There are fewer safety incidents at Contract Towers than at comparable FAA-staffed towers, and Contract Towers cost an average of $1.5 million less per year. The FAA budget is being cut by 5 percent, while the FAA is cutting contract towers by 75 percent. Not coincidentally, 75 percent of the towers the Obama Administration is closing are located in Republican Congressional Districts.

“The bottom line is Contract Towers are safer and save money. The FAA must reevaluate its decision, and the White House must put an end to its political charade. On March 14, several of my colleagues and I sent a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta questioning these closures despite considerable wasteful spending at FAA. I intend to send a follow-up letter inquiring how much taxpayer money is being spent on the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program, which funnels money to remote airports, like the one in Saipan, while towers around the country are being shut down. I also intend to investigate the role public unions played in this decision.”
Click to expand...
 
Do the contract tower controllers belong to the same union as FAA controllers?
 
Hiring temporary controllers for race weekend sounds like a smart idea.

Or they could close KVUJ instead and leave Concord open. There is NOTHING going on at that airport. It has a tower because once every couple of days, the air national guard flies a C-130 or two in there.
 
Last edited:
nddons said:
I found this information from my congressman Jim Sensenbrenner very interesting:
Click to expand...

Typical Sensenbrenner bloviating.

As for the lower number of 'safety incidents' at contract towers is probably a reporting quirk. Those incidents are based on a self-reporting system. The union controllers at FAA towers have an incentive to report safety incidents under their internal ASRS type system. The contract towers otoh have an incentive to NOT report safety incidents as those will show up at the next contract renewal.

This was addressed in the report he cites but evidently didn't read ;) .
 
nddons said:
I found this information from my congressman Jim Sensenbrenner very interesting:
Washington, Mar 22 - Congressman Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) response to the FAA’s announcement to move forward with the closure of Contract Towers as part of sequestration cuts:
“I am concerned about the FAA’s announcement that 149 federal Contract Towers will be shut down as a result of sequestration, including all eight in Wisconsin.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

There are nine contract towers in Wisconsin, Appleton will remain open.
 
nddons said:
Steve, I think Henning asked if contract tower controllers belong to the same union as the FAA employee controllers. What do you think?
Click to expand...

I don't believe so. PATCO was exhumed a few years ago in an effort to unionize these controllers. I don't know how successful that was.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top