Greetings from GFK Tower

SeeYA@GFK

Well-Known Member
Hey UND'ers,

Glad I found this site the other day. Lots of good stuff on here. I've been a controller at GFK since November of 2006. I graduated UND back in 2005 and thought I'd never see this town again, but sure enough it sucks ya right back in! haha

If any of you have questions about procedures, why we do certain things, concerns, comments, names of controllers that had you wait 20+ mintues before takeoff (j/k), please feel free to post here or drop me a private message. Also if you want to visit the tower I can arrange that too.

With the new construction going on, we've been on our toes just as much as you pilots have. We are also doing alot of training in the tower as you may have heard. We currently have four trainees on local control and one on ground. Sometimes I think we should call ourselves 'Green' tower at times! haha

I'm going to touch on a few topics here that I've seen that need some clarification, so you might see me a bit in the coming days.

Good luck with your flying and keep it safe!

Joe Czech
 
Welcome !!!
Glad to have you on the forums. Thanks for your patience and continued support with all the newbies flying around. :hiya:
 
Joe,

Welcome to JC! I've still got your business card from when I visited the tower... I never visited during the day, but the night visit was cooool. Glad to see you around here!
 
Welcome !!!
Glad to have you on the forums. Thanks for your patience and continued support with all the newbies flying around. :hiya:

Your welcome :) As much as some of the guys in the tower, including myself at times, complain about some of dumb things we see happen on a semi-regular basis, we know that without you guys we wouldn't be here.

That goes the same with the amount of foriegn pilots we have now. I really do believe that our traffic count would be hurting without them. I'm sure it goes the same way with UND. Now if they are passing along those big money contracts along to you guys is the million dollar question in reduced flying costs. But, that's another topic for another day.

And yes, I'm sure you guys catch us saying some pretty stupid things too. So I can't get off the chopping block that easy. Especially when I clear an aircraft to land when they need to takeoff first. Been there done that! haha
 
Joe,

Welcome to JC! I've still got your business card from when I visited the tower... I never visited during the day, but the night visit was cooool. Glad to see you around here!

Glad you were able to get up and visit! I wish more students would. Let me know if you want to get up there during the day and check things out.
 
I was told only ATC majors and instructors are allowed to go up. Is that not the case?

You can go with your instructor without an escort by one of us. But, if you say your an 'ATC student' I'll guarantee you that no one will ask you to prove it. So take that for what it's worth.

It's good practice to call the tower before you show up (a few hours is all) or try doing a 'walk-up'. Depends on who's working and our staffing at the time and we should be able to get one of our trainees down to escort you in. Basically anytime during the week from 8:30am to 9:30pm is the best.

Hope this helps!
 
The only woman working in the tower is our sectetary. The last woman that worked in the tower was early 2007 then entered the life of retirement.

Only 23 more years to go for me.....Scary......

I think she was let go prior to you being there in Nov. of 2006. Just wasn't sure.

Do any of the tower guys at GFK go anywhere else after a few years?
 
Out of curiosity, is Francis still in the tower there? How about Chuck? I haven't flown out of GFK since March of 2004, just wondering if they have moved on.
 
I think she was let go prior to you being there in Nov. of 2006. Just wasn't sure.

Do any of the tower guys at GFK go anywhere else after a few years?


My buddy Chris S. is in the tower right now and is bidding some jobs in the Minneapolis area. Came to GFK after working crystal tower in the cities for a while to beef up his game, now on to bigger stuff back in the cities area...
 
I think she was let go prior to you being there in Nov. of 2006. Just wasn't sure.

Do any of the tower guys at GFK go anywhere else after a few years?

Our tower manager has told the FAA to overstaff us due to the fact that he knows that alot of us want to move on to bigger and better things after GFK the moment we certify. It's a great facility for us new to the agency to get some good traffic and experience under our belt before moving on to bigger facilities.

There are a few new guys now that want to spend the rest of their career in GFK as crazy as it sounds, but a good majority of us want to get out. I recently applied for MSP a few weeks ago, even though I was six days short of the one-year fully certified requirement and found out last week that I wasn't eligiable, which obviously I knew before I sent it in. But, since it was that close I still gave it a shot. So the waiting game continues.
 
Out of curiosity, is Francis still in the tower there? How about Chuck? I haven't flown out of GFK since March of 2004, just wondering if they have moved on.

Yup, Frank is still here. I think he'll be here for quite awhile. I'll just leave it at that.

Chuck is still here as well. Getting closer to retirement. I believe 5 or so years left. He did apply for DEN ATCT recently though. It's been a dream of his and I'm sure lots of people to retire there.
 
My buddy Chris S. is in the tower right now and is bidding some jobs in the Minneapolis area. Came to GFK after working crystal tower in the cities for a while to beef up his game, now on to bigger stuff back in the cities area...

Good ole' Sledster. Yea, he's pumped on the MSP bid that came out. He should find out in the coming weeks if he got it. I hope he gets it since he's been itching to get down there the moment he steped in the doors here.

You can find us at Big Daddys on Tuesdays or Thursdays for some good clean Bingo fun. We keep getting close on hitting that jackpot. Even though it probably won't let us retire early, a good night out on the town is all we can ask. If our schedules let us of course.
 
Hey, welcome to the boards. Now we have someone to whine and moan to right? haha j/k

haha That never was in the job description when I signed up! But, if you want your short approach or obstacle take off, I might be able to help ya.

I still think we should have a tip jar at the end of the runways for good service :) Our manager obviously thinks otherwise....What a party pooper! haha Oh wait...I do have PayPal.....hmmmmmm
 
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