Some of you guys and gals have flown in here and know the airport.
As you arrive you can see a very nice 8 year old control tower and 300 feet away a 3 year old radar complex. Everyone who sees this thinks ' hey kool, this airport is up to speed on traffic separation'.
Well, the truth is the information derived off that radar is sent to SLC for them to use via 200 miles of wire. Oddly enough, the local airport manager and board decided not to run a cable the 300 feet to the tower and add a display screen so they have that same traffic data for the tower controllers to use to sequence incoming and outgoing traffic. 99.9% of the people see the tower and radar and get that warm fuzzy feeling of safety. This airport does roughly 370,000 passengers enplanements a year through the main terminal. That does not count in the GA side, which is probably 80 % of the total 30,000 a year operations. Between the high traffic count, poor weather conditions and the terrain here traffic awareness is paramount and the great controllers we have here are at a huge disadvantage by having only their eyeballs to use for safely running the tower.
It was apparently funded by the FAA a few years back to install that connection and display but in our recent attempts to push this safety issue forward the airport is now saying those funds are not available anymore. We are not quite sure what those funds were actually spent on.
Attached, I hope, is a FAA safety seminar circular showing a upcoming meeting here. If you are passing through that day we could use pilot comments. If not I will try to edit this post with a way for you guys and gals to submit your feelings to the proper channels.
Here is a email address to send comments to. rick.schmidt@serco-na.com
Thanks in advance for anything you can do.
Ben Haas
AOPA, ASN for Jackson Hole Wy. KJAC
As you arrive you can see a very nice 8 year old control tower and 300 feet away a 3 year old radar complex. Everyone who sees this thinks ' hey kool, this airport is up to speed on traffic separation'.
Well, the truth is the information derived off that radar is sent to SLC for them to use via 200 miles of wire. Oddly enough, the local airport manager and board decided not to run a cable the 300 feet to the tower and add a display screen so they have that same traffic data for the tower controllers to use to sequence incoming and outgoing traffic. 99.9% of the people see the tower and radar and get that warm fuzzy feeling of safety. This airport does roughly 370,000 passengers enplanements a year through the main terminal. That does not count in the GA side, which is probably 80 % of the total 30,000 a year operations. Between the high traffic count, poor weather conditions and the terrain here traffic awareness is paramount and the great controllers we have here are at a huge disadvantage by having only their eyeballs to use for safely running the tower.
It was apparently funded by the FAA a few years back to install that connection and display but in our recent attempts to push this safety issue forward the airport is now saying those funds are not available anymore. We are not quite sure what those funds were actually spent on.
Attached, I hope, is a FAA safety seminar circular showing a upcoming meeting here. If you are passing through that day we could use pilot comments. If not I will try to edit this post with a way for you guys and gals to submit your feelings to the proper channels.
Here is a email address to send comments to. rick.schmidt@serco-na.com
Thanks in advance for anything you can do.
Ben Haas
AOPA, ASN for Jackson Hole Wy. KJAC
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