HonuPineapple
New Member
Yay tomorrow I get to go check out ZNY!!!!
:nana2:
:nana2:
Touring a tower on Friday
- Thread starter HonuPineapple
- Start date
RetiredATLATC
Well-Known Member
nathanw
New Member
:yup:
HonuPineapple
New Member
Well the ZNY tour is tomorrow.
TEB was pretty cool. The tower is tiny and if the trees were a little higher you wouldn't be able to see half of one runway. They are rolling in new equipment as they get the opportunity, so I saw some new stuff and some old things. The tower cab is very small inside, I was surprised by that. There were 4 people working up there, one was 2 months out of OKC.
They showed me how the computers and phones work, how they give pre-clearance for takeoff, how they route planes from tower to tower so they don't have to use en route, and that was about it. I thought the preclearance thing was especially cool, because my dad had shown it to me in the Falcon he was flying that day (I went up to the airport with him). He sends a text/email message to the tower and then a few minutes later he got clearance to take off. No speaking involved. Then from the tower I saw how that came up on the computer there and they could send the info back.
I think my biggest surprise was how quiet it was there. I expected lots of noise and loud talking...just really stressful. But it was actually pretty chill.
My dad got out about 5 minutes before SWAP (severe weather avoidance pattern) went into affect...I went to the tower as he was taking off. So I saw what the SWAP procedures were like. There's one computer screen section that lists all the planes that can't take off, another with planes that can, and so forth.
Pretty simple...not very high tech or anything like I expected. They want to get a whole new tower, and I can't blame them! They need new gear and some added height.
They said that on a busy day they get 800-900 flights per day, and on a slow day around 250.
I didn't learn anything valuable about the hiring process. The supervisor said he's pretty detached from all that stuff. The kid right out of OKC pretty much said the sort of stuff you read on here all the time.
That's some interesting information.
LOL... I guess I should have specified what tour.
LOL... I guess I should have specified what tour.
AFTOFAAATC
New Member
I toured ZKC back in Sep 07 and let me tell you, those guys were so disgruntled. They all kept saying things like "you don't want to work here", "stay in the Air Force", and "I know of a contract tower that is hiring". ATL, I think one of them was your long lost cousin, Jed. There was an unsettling tension throughout the entire building. As I've been told, the Centers in the midwest are supposedly the ones where you want to work because everybody gets along, so I could only imagine how ZNY would be this time of year. Other than the general displeased workforce, ZKC was very nice. It was cool breaking away from my tower weenie roots for a day and seeing the hustle and bustle of the Center. I'd say definitely take a tour of every facility around you. Even the military and contract ones, because it will only open your eyes and minds more to how the NAS works. Possibly even influencing you to join the Air Force. See I'm still doing my job as an NCO, hell yeahs!
utahaviator
New Member
Anyone curious about Florida...I have spent approximately about 10-15 days in the Orlando-Sanford International Airport tower (KSFB) doing the "Adopt-a-pilot" program they offer. Nice place. They were in the process of upgrading all of their systems last time I was there, so the tower was more or less torn apart, but still very nice people. They're very open to tours as well. If you're interested let me know. I have the contact info for the tour of the guy in charge of tours.
