Guess who got to go to the Tower!

Rebel Lord

Rebel Lord

Line Up and Wait
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Rebel Lord
Got to go meet the controllers in our tower. Pretty cool to see the people behind the voices and watch them work. I got to ask lots of questions and got some good insight. Everyone there is a 20 year plus FAA veteran controller who worked in the big centers. They took this small tower job as a "Retirement job" which I think is not a bad way to pass some time.

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Is the mandatory retirement age for controllers different for towers and center?
 
Rebel Lord said:
Got to go meet the controllers in our tower. Pretty cool to see the people behind the voices and watch them work. I got to ask lots of questions and got some good insight. Everyone there is a 20 year plus FAA veteran controller who worked in the big centers. They took this small tower job as a "Retirement job" which I think is not a bad way to pass some time.
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That may have been the case at that particular tower, but a controller with only ARTCC experience won't be found in a contract tower. The contractors hire only experienced tower controllers, former FAA or military.
 
NoHeat said:
Is the mandatory retirement age for controllers different for towers and center?
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No. An FAA controller initially hired after May 1971 cannot work traffic beyond the last day in the month in which he reaches 56. That does not apply to contract towers.
 
Controllers are decent folks.
Well, except when they tell me "no".
At that point they get to deal with a petulant three year old :D
 
At first I thought your post,was like being sent to the principals office. Hope you enjoyed your tour,see the people in the tower are human.
 
frfly172 said:
At first I thought your post,was like being sent to the principals office. Hope you enjoyed your tour,see the people in the tower are human.
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Ha no. It was neat though to see all the systems and how they integrate into the ATC network and meeting the controllers defiantly helps with knowing they are here to help and not out to get you. I really want to go to the center downtown now.
 
What class air space was this in? I've been wanting to do it at my home drome (class D)
 
farmerbrake said:
What class air space was this in? I've been wanting to do it at my home drome (class D)
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It was a delta tower. Definitely go if you get a chance. In fact I'm pretty sure they expressly encourage it.
 
It used to be a lot easier to make a visit.

When I worked at ORD, my young nephew came out almost every weekend for a visit and we were welcome to come take a look. Over the years I visited the towers at almost every airport where I worked, gee, must be 6 or 7. Never visited a Center though.

I have always felt that the folks working at ORD were at the top of their game, the best of the best.
 
That's great! I recently toured the one at my airport... was a good experience. But they wouldn't allow us to take pictures :(
 
Yeah, towers can be cool places to visit. Had a controller friend at Orlando MCO took me into that whopper tower! Nice. Then over to radar room. Whole different thing, very intense. The room was dark, windowless like a submarine. I was cautioned to be quiet and was watched by the supervisor. We didnt stay long which was fine by me.
 
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Yes, it's great to visit your local tower. I visited the one at our class-D about a year ago and spent about 45 minutes chatting with the two controllers there, it was a slow IFR day. When you key up the radio to talk with them, it's nice to know who's on the other end and what they are doing. I can recognize the voices of the two gentleman I met in the tower whenever I talk with them and it's good to be able to put a face with the voice. They are also retired FAA employees working at our non-radar contract tower.
 
When I was an USAF controller we had visitors all the time. Especially cool was a tower visit at a fighter base. I don't know if they still allow visits on military bases anymore, if one can even get on the base.
 
Tower visits are always a lot of fun. My first visit pre-solo a plane ran off the runway while I was up there so it cool to see the process after something like that happens.
 
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