Airports with no ATC

H

heeha

New Member
When I was in college, I lived in a town that had an airport with commerical jet service, but the airport did not have an ATC tower.

So my question is this: Who controls ATC for those types of airports and how do pilots warn other pilots when they are landing and taking off?

Has anyone on here ever flown into a airport with no ATC tower? If so, does it bother you?
 
Nobody does, you announce where you're at and what you're doing on the CTAF frequency.

I trained at uncontrolled airports, and worked at uncontrolled airports for years, it ain't no different in a jet.

Heck going into Savannah late at night we'd end up using the PCL to turn the lights on ourselves, and we'd just announce what we were doing on the CTAF. There was usually nobody around.
 
heeha said:
Has anyone on here ever flown into a airport with no ATC tower? If so, does it bother you?
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Oh, not above a thousand times. It's terrifying, you could die at any moment.

Sorry to be glib. You self-announce, other aircraft (presumably) reply, and you work out out like adults (usually). The FAR/AIM is a really inexpensive little volume full of information for the curious. You can learn a lot. Highly recommended.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Oh, not above a thousand times. It's terrifying, you could die at any moment.

Sorry to be glib. You self-announce, other aircraft (presumably) reply, and you work out out like adults (usually). The FAR/AIM is a really inexpensive little volume full of information for the curious. You can learn a lot. Highly recommended.
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Yer Mom.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Oh, not above a thousand times. It's terrifying, you could die at any moment.

.
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Thats what people usually hear about though, the accidents that have happened at uncontrolled fields, midair and ground collisions. Hence where they get their worry. United Express, Quincy, Ill 1996; Wings West Airlines, San Luis Obispo, CA, 1984; and Skywest Airlines, Flagstaff, AZ, 1981.
 
MikeD said:
Thats what people usually hear about though, the accidents that have United Express, Quincy, Ill 1996; Wings West Airlines, San Luis Obispo, CA, 1984; and Skywest Airlines, Flagstaff, AZ, 1981.
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TWA and United, Grand Canyon, June 30, 1956.
 
PeterPilot said:
TWA and United, Grand Canyon, June 30, 1956.
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That one was more enroute rather than on-airport or near, though, or related to an uncontrolled field. I think more laypeople fear airports with no tower (if they know it's indeed that) for collisions with all the "little planes", more than they think about it while enroute.
 
MikeD said:
That one was more enroute rather than on-airport or near, though, or related to an uncontrolled field. I think more laypeople fear airports with no tower (if they know it's indeed that) for collisions with all the "little planes", more than they think about it while enroute.
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Yep, but with your propensity for accident analysis I thought you would enjoy the historical reminder.
 
PeterPilot said:
Yep, but with your propensity for accident analysis I thought you would enjoy the historical reminder.
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Oh I definitely do, don't get me wrong. Still a good example. And parts from both planes can still be found at the bottom of the Canyon to this day.
 
MikeD said:
Skywest Airlines, Flagstaff, AZ, 1981.
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I usually have a pretty good memory of accidents, can't recall this one nor seem to find it anywhere. I'm asuming it was a Metroliner, was it fatal?

I heard about the wreckage at the bottom of the canyon, I read about 3 guys who hiked down to go see it, it took them 3 days to get to it. Once they got there they found thousands of tiny peices of metal and stuff as large as emergency exit doors. Crazy, after all these years.
 
I understand there are still small pieces of wreckage to be found at Mount Weather from the famous 1974 TWA accident there too.
 
ChasenSFO said:
I usually have a pretty good memory of accidents, can't recall this one nor seem to find it anywhere. I'm asuming it was a Metroliner, was it fatal?

.
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No memory because it occurred long before you were even a thought to anyone, young Padawan.....:)

Here's where I described it in another thread. I remember it being big on the evening news at the time:

MikeD said:
Last one I remember, as it was big news, was the ground collision of a Skywest Metroliner and an MU-2 Marquis in 1981. Metro was on takeoff roll and the MU-2 was landing opposite direction in less than a mile viz with ground fog. Both aircraft collided as the Metro attempted to liftoff over the MU-2 and clipped it, slamming back into the ground having sliced the top of the MU-2 off. Miraculously, no one seriously injured. ATC tower was closed at the time due to the PATCO strike, and the airfield was uncontrolled.
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HDN can get wild. In a twenty minute timespan you can have an rj in the pattern with a GV, while a A320 takes off. After you land you might see a 757 land in one direction while a King Air lands in the opposite direction 2 minutes later. All sorts of airplanes swirling in all sorts of directions.
 
MikeD said:
No memory because it occurred long before you were even a thought to anyone, young Padawan.....:)

Here's where I described it in another thread. I remember it being big on the evening news at the time:
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Ah, thanks. I read through accident reports somewhat often and just never came across that one surprisingly, guess its not on ASN.
 
Hootie said:
HDN can get wild. In a twenty minute timespan you can have an rj in the pattern with a GV, while a A320 takes off. After you land you might see a 757 land in one direction while a King Air lands in the opposite direction 2 minutes later. All sorts of airplanes swirling in all sorts of directions.
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Sounds like your describing HPN. Haha

I cant believe that White Plains has no ATC after 11. There are arrivals from Colgan, Piedmont, Airtran, Jetblue, and many others. Then you have all the GA traffic. Then in the morning they dont open until 6am, and there are many airline departures just prior to 6am. In the evening New York normally acts almost like a tower. They tell you what runway to use, even though it might be calm winds and you can setup easier for a different runway.

For the past 2 months I have been doing the same route to Beckley with a stop over in Shenandoah, both are untowered airports. At night and early morning its not normally an issue. You get your clearance on the ground, and normally there isnt any GA at those times. But I have been into Shenandoah in the middle of the day and had to share the pattern with a few Cessnas who were there for training purposes, you REALLY have to pay attention to whats going on outside of the aircraft.
 
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