CNN: Tower Closures

ljg said:
Any word on TRACON furloughs?
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Got our briefing this morning. One day per pay period starting April 22nd - total of 11 days through the remainder of the fiscal year. All crews will furlough on their Friday with the exception of one crew who will furlough on their Monday. Half the crew will furlough the first week of the pay period, the remaining half will furlough the second week.

This is in a facility that cannot be staffed without the use of overtime to begin with. With the cessation of overtime incorporated with the furloughs...well, I think this was the best way I heard it put: "The general public is going to learn really quick that air traffic controllers are not the people on the ground with wands."

It's going to be ugly. For the vast majority of the workforce, this is an unprecedented reduction of force and the full scope of the reduction of services that will result are honestly unknown - other than it is going to be ugly.
 
TripSix said:
It's going to be ugly. For the vast majority of the workforce, this is an unprecedented reduction of force and the full scope of the reduction of services that will result are honestly unknown - other than it is going to be ugly.
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With our tower closing, I'm am expecting something nightmarish trying to pick up IFR clearances from approach/center.

Any advice for us GA folk that are losing our towers on what we can do to make things easier? Don't have the option of being VFR all the time unfortunately.
 
Shocked that FDK is on this list. The tower there is less than a year old. It can get quite busy there. I think ive read somewhere that its Marylands second busiest airport, behind BWI.
 
What happens when a midair occur/loss of life occurs? I truly hope it doesn't happen, but with the airports on that list I feel like it's inevitable that someone is going to lose their lives over this. Are we going to make a list and show it to Congress? Then what?
 
These are putative cuts intended not to wisely manage 5% temporary savings evenly over an agency, but to cause the greatest inconvenience possible to agency employees, the flying public, and to the pilots and air crews who operate in the system. This shows the risk of having a government oligopoly run by politically-motivated operators with an "us versus them" attitude towards those who pay for it (Americans) and those who depend upon it (also Americans).
 
JumpWake said:
Today, from one of the towers that is closing, ASH in Nashua, NH.

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And this video is now "not available" - at least on two of my devices, so I suspect that Jump feared retaliation of some kind, either against himself or the controller who recorded the broadcast.

Sux.
 
tomokc said:
And this video is now "not available" - at least on two of my devices, so I suspect that Jump feared retaliation of some kind, either against himself or the controller who recorded the broadcast.

Sux.
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Works fine for me still.
 
tomokc said:
And this video is now "not available" - at least on two of my devices, so I suspect that Jump feared retaliation of some kind, either against himself or the controller who recorded the broadcast.

Sux.
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Hmmm...i didn't restrict any access...thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it.
 
JumpWake said:
Today, from one of the towers that is closing, ASH in Nashua, NH.

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When DWC shut down their flight operations ASH became a relative ghost town. Yes it's "busy" but no where what it was a decade ago which is why there was a tower.
 
I wouldn't call Nashua a "Ghost town." Nashua is starting to see an increase in jet traffic after the runway was redone. Yes it's not as busy as it once was, but I still don't think it should go without a tower. Especially after they just paid $30 million on the new runway for a Increase in traffic.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
With our tower closing, I'm am expecting something nightmarish trying to pick up IFR clearances from approach/center.

Any advice for us GA folk that are losing our towers on what we can do to make things easier? Don't have the option of being VFR all the time unfortunately.
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I really don't have any sound advice. There are way too many variables to even start to think about it.

The furlough is going to impact each facility differently, depending on what their staffing numbers were to start with and what services they normally provide.

In the simple chain between tower to servicing approach control, to servicing Enroute center - you start with three links that could be impacted very differently. You are only as strong as your weakest link.

From my personal standpoint, I know that on the first furlough day I'll sit down at an area that usually has between 3-4 controllers. Now there will be 1. The towers still open will have staffing issues so I will have no idea what they can take in vs what they can flush out. And I don't know how much in trail will be put in place because of the centers staffing issues so there will be limits to what they can push in versus what they can pull out. On top of that, there will be a handful of closed towers in the area and the coordination for that will be nothing short of chaos, I assume.

All these factors will change minute to minute and when you look around, the people who actually got to work that day will all be experiencing the same thing.

Honestly man, I can't even wrap my head around that situation to extend any advice. I really, really wish I could.

Be patient, and be careful. We know your livelihood depends on that airplane flying - and I cannot put into words how frustrating it is to not be able to say," do X and you'll be okay and get what you need."

As time goes on I may have something better for you. But when the first domino falls hang on, it'll be a hell of a ride :)
 
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