A visit to the tower!

FlyGirlKHWO

FlyGirlKHWO

Pre-takeoff checklist
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FlyGirl
Had a very cool experience yesterday... my student pilot husband has been training at KPMP at American Flyers, using our rather distinctive Tiger (see tail art)... and I guess he made an impression on the tower there. They invited us to come up for a visit!

It was the first time for both of us to actually see first-hand the workings of the tower technology. Both controllers were super friendly and of course, we swapped a lot of stories about the crazy stuff they've seen (and that some of us have done, LOL)

Is it unusual to be invited up? Never happened at our home airport.
 
i got to go inside the JFK tower and NY TRACON a few months ago. my dad is friends with a kennedy tower guy. it was awesome. the guys/ladies are super friendy and were willing to answer any questions. definitely an experience to remember
 
My CFI made it a point to take students up into our class D tower. I've done it on my own, too. Some towers are more accommodating than others - just call them and ask.
 
A buddy of mine is a controller at KHPN and said anytime I want...need to get off my @ss and do it.
 
Do you need to be a US citizen? :mad2:

I'm a resident alien.:goofy:
 
polaris said:
Do you need to be a US citizen? :mad2:

I'm a resident alien.:goofy:
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I don't think so. My wife came with me to ATL control tower and she is a permanent resident, not a citizen. They just wanted to see her drivers license for their sign in sheet. You should be good.
 
FlyGirlKHWO said:
Is it unusual to be invited up? Never happened at our home airport.
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Invited? That's a bit unusual. It's very, very common for a private pilot plus (reasonable) entourage to be permitted to go up, though, upon request. Depends on workload.
 
polaris said:
Do you need to be a US citizen? :mad2:

I'm a resident alien.:goofy:
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Tower, typically no. Toured the Denver TRACON a few years back, they required it.

Although I've been up there more times than I can remember, I NEVER turn down a tour of our (LAX) tower. They get all the cool stuff to play with.
 
We had an FAA Safety seminar on a Saturday a few years ago. It was called as I remember, "Operation Raincheck." We got to tour the TRACON, Approach Control and the Tower at Memphis. It was time well spent and I appreciated the FAA for going to this trouble to host it.
 
Calrugerfan said:
Can you post a better pic of your plane?
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Of course, it's like showing off your grandkids! (Not that I would know-- my only child is a 12 y o Westie--shown below in the back seat of the Tiger!)

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Tower visits are fun. I still need to go ask at KAPA sometime. They're open to visits as long as they have an additional staff member not on a control position to escort you.

Have been up in the KBJC old tower numerous times. Never been In the new one.

Was up in the DEN/DIA tower once at night. Played with the lights, with permission, on a non-active runway. Interesting how much delay there is in the lighting systems having to switch all that current and multiple circuits, across a large area, simultaneously.
 
The dreaded "tour of the tower" is not something one looks forward to at my home field.
 
Stupid iPhone tiny screen! I can see that you have some art on the tail but I can't make it out. The yorkie looks almost as cute as my 2 "puppies." A 45 pound Heinz 57 everything mix and a 125 Anatolian Rottweiler mix.
 
When I was getting my Private at KTTN, my CFI made a call to the tower and got a few of us up on a tour which was a very cool experience.

jordane93 said:
i got to go inside the JFK tower and NY TRACON a few months ago. my dad is friends with a kennedy tower guy. it was awesome. the guys/ladies are super friendy and were willing to answer any questions. definitely an experience to remember
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The NY TRACON tour was great, we were probably on the same one back in September.
 
I try to schedule my students trip to midland to coincide with a tour. That way when they are solo they aren't as afraid to talk to the folks because they have met them and know they are just people in jeans doing their job.
 
polaris said:
Do you need to be a US citizen? :mad2:

I'm a resident alien.:goofy:
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I wanted to visit the tower at the class D field where I had did most of my flight training, the ATC guys really helped a lot and had a lot of time and patience for us newbies, but my request was denied because I am from the UK and not a US citizen....It was suggested by the Airport admin that I write and thank them...:rolleyes:
 
All kidding aside, what is the deal with this US citizen crap? Like you're going to take secret spy photos of their amazing US control tower technology??? I don't get it. :dunno:
 
FlyGirlKHWO said:
All kidding aside, what is the deal with this US citizen crap? Like you're going to take secret spy photos of their amazing US control tower technology??? I don't get it. :dunno:
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It's very common in safety related government work.

There is an assumption that citizens are more trustworthy.

I doubt the concern is theft of technology (though ITAR comes into play in places where you might think otherwise). You could cause people to get hurt if you interfere.

Generally, the distinction is that resident aliens will need green cards to prove identity, and no one carries that on them. Foreign nationals need passports, and those on the "avoid list" (China, Cuba, a few others that move in and out -- Israel was on the list some 10 years ago but isn't now) get the boot and others have a set of paperwork that probably isn't worth it for a tower tour.

I needed 30 days to set up an aircraft visit by a French national.

You want crazy? If I were to work on our telescope's inertial reference hardware, I would be unable to talk about it to our German partners even though they built it. It's dual use hardware that could make for a highly impractical missile or aircraft guidance system.
 
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FlyGirlKHWO said:
All kidding aside, what is the deal with this US citizen crap? Like you're going to take secret spy photos of their amazing US control tower technology??? I don't get it. :dunno:
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I said something similar when I was denied permission to visit the tower, I jumped through all the TSA hoops to meet their foreign pilots requirements to allow me to do my flight training in the US, I am now a FAA certified pilot, I own a home in the US, I own a car in the US, I have a bank account in the US, I pay taxes on investments I have in the US, so the point I'm making is I have a big enough footprint here to prove my identity and good intentions.
I have been visiting since 1980, and spend 20 weeks a year in the US, the TSA probably know more about me than I know about me....but I can't go visit the tower at the airfield I fly out of every time I'm in the US because ....I'm a foreigner !
 
Tower tours are a lot of fun, but the most valuable learning experiences I have had were when I spent time "plugged in" with TRACON and Center controllers.

One time, I spent the majority of a shift with a TRACON controller. His supervisor arranged things so we worked all of the radar sectors, high and low, satellite airports and bravo airport. One of the funniest things I noticed was that he talked about 20% slower when working the satellite airport/bugsmasher sector compared to working the bravo airport sectors. He didn't even realize it.

Another couple of times I have spent an hour or two plugged in on a Center sector.

In all cases I learned both from listening to the traffic and watching how the controller ran things, "shipping" traffic to other sectors, telecons to coordinate on issues, etc. plus being able to ask questions during the lulls. I also quickly learned why a controller is sometimes a little slow to answer a call: he's probably on the phone with another sector.

In both cases, the invitations to plug in came at the end of group tours. Just ask. Or just call, request to talk to a supervisor, and ask.
 
peevee said:
I have said for a long time the FAA should have a central number for pilots to call and get help setting up tours. Towers are pretty easy but the radar facilities can be harder. You don't need to know anyone or an in just need to talk to the right people that will do the paperwork to get you in. It's fairly routine.
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Yeah, it's soooo hard to call the facility and ask. Ha.
 
Towers are pretty easy but the radar facilities can be harder.
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In my experience the easiest time to call (and I call a couple of times a year with a question) is outside normal business hours. Then I get a shift supervisor directly and he/she is always happy to help. But I have also talked receptionists or whatever during business hours and easily reached a tour person or a supervisor.

In my experience, ATC people are 100% nice guys and eager to help. In fact I have never met one of the evil FAA people who are often maligned by the internet crowd.
 
You can find those numbers online, but I do not know where they're published officially.
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IIRC some I found published in the AF/D. Others via on-line searches. I don't recall that any were specifically identified as "watch desk" but as I said, whoever answers is either happy to help or will get me to someone who can help. It has just never been difficult.

I have a bunch of the numbers programmed in my phone for the day the radios die and I just use one of those when I have a question for someone.
 
You can get ARTCC numbers on the FAA's website. You can get tower numbers on acukwik.com.
 
polaris said:
Do you need to be a US citizen? :mad2:
I'm a resident alien.:goofy:
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I've been to several towers, tracons, and centers. And I've arranged group tours for others. Every time, I was told non citizens would require special approval that US citizens did not. I went through the process of getting a non citizen approved. As I recall, there was a two or three week lead time and they just wanted a bunch of information (name, dob, location of birth, country of citizenship, passport number, etc, etc...). We gave them the information, they passed it on to whoever, and got back to us saying it was approved. It was actually pretty painless. Whether the controller wants to go through the trouble of the paperwork is another matter.

If you want to go on a tour, it's worth asking. It really is a great experience and everyone I've met on a tour was friendly and enthusiastic about their job.

peevee said:
You can find those numbers online, but I do not know where they're published officially.
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If you're trying to get in touch with tower, I've found the easiest route is to just ask the FBO on the field. They've been able to tell me the number every time. The center numbers are online in various places, but I'm not aware of an official listing.
 
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denverpilot said:
This. Very smart.
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Me too. I had to use it when we had a flat nose tire just as we pulled onto the runway at KRNO and then had to shut down to push the airplane back across the hold short line. The guys in the tower were very happy that I was able to call.
 
DesertNomad said:
Me too. I had to use it when we had a flat nose tire just as we pulled onto the runway at KRNO and then had to shut down to push the airplane back across the hold short line. The guys in the tower were very happy that I was able to call.
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Your nose tire took out your comm radio?
 
Through my training my instructor said we would visit the tower, probably in a small group, but we never did. I was pretty disappointed, I really wanted to do that. Maybe I should call and see if there is a chance for me to get up there by myself.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Through my training my instructor said we would visit the tower, probably in a small group, but we never did. I was pretty disappointed, I really wanted to do that. Maybe I should call and see if there is a chance for me to get up there by myself.
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Almost certainly, there is.

I asked Ground while I was taxiing to parking once, and got an "affirmative." It's probably best not to use Tower frequency unless it's dead quiet.
 
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