Tour of ZKC Center Facility

labbadabba

labbadabba

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labbadabba
I took a tour of the center control for Kansas City last night and it was one of the most fantastic aviation-related activities I've had a chance to do. It was fascinating not only to see the perspective from behind the scope but also how the sausage gets made so to speak.

I learned about how the controllers coordinate hand-offs, plan for deviations, how they work with center weather and how their forecasts are derived. I was their with a tour group and I was the only pilot so I felt bad about asking all the questions but I literally felt like I was in a toy store and just wanted to know more about everything. (they said that's pretty typical of pilots, go figure)

They were very accommodating and stated that if we want to schedule another tour even as an individual to just sit at a controller station for a couple hours we were more than welcome.

I encourage all pilots to take the opportunity to visit if they can. Well worth it.
 
I've done the ZFW tour.

I agree that it was fascinating and extremely enlightening to see all they do for us and how they do it.
 
Oh, and I asked the on-site NWS meteorologist her favorite weather non .gov weather site and she gave me this:

https://weather.cod.edu/

It's not for the faint of heart for sure but if you're a weather nerd it's pretty fantastic.
 
My neighbor works ZKC. I did the tour a couple years ago and he was on duty. We got a chance to chat. It's pretty cool. I'm buddies with a NWS meteorologist that used to work there before he retired.

Another fun tour is MCI approach/tower. That tour doesn't happen very often and the sign up fills up within minutes.
 
We did ZFW a while ago. Very fun. And when we got to "ride along" on the scopes we were able to choose sectors where we typically fly. (NW side of the metro-mess)

And Wings credit to boot!
 
Another nerdy weather app for mobile devices .... Deep Weather
 
I did a write up about a tour I did of the CLT tower/Tracon not too long ago. DEFINITELY worth checking out. Was a really cool experience. I imagine visiting an ARTCC would be similar to a Class B Tracon but am hoping to check out Atlanta Center the next time I am down that way for work.
 
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