Touring Memphis ARTCC

ARFlyer

ARFlyer

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I have the opportunity tomorrow to tour the Memphis ARTCC, TRACON, and one of the local towers.

I already have a mental list of questions I want to ask. Do any of you guys have questions you would like answered, if I have the chance?
 
If you're in a Volkswagen Beetle traveling at the speed of light and you turn the headlights on, what happens
 
AggieMike88 said:
If you're in a Volkswagen Beetle traveling at the speed of light and you turn the headlights on, what happens
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I'd ask if you were in the "Heart of Gold" on your way to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!!
 
Be sure to ask if you can "plug in" for an hour each with a Center and a TRACON controller. It will be the best bit of flying education that you have ever experienced.
 
Ask about GA - flight following, getting in and out of their airspace, do they encourage GA flights and contacts, ... Some facilities (like Kansas City) really work hard to encourage GA traffic - their bonus depends on it! - plus they like doing something other than steering airliners around all day. Ask about their busy times, and about getting chances to do pattern work. In KC, Center is quite a few miles away from tower/TRACON. But the tower/TRACON facility is essentially the same building, upstairs and basement.
 
Memphis Center is usually very GA friendly, at least between Nashville and central Arkansas. Memphis TRACON, however, can get busy sometimes and forget to hand you off back to center (happened to me twice). I've flown on Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings to visit family, and the center frequency was so quiet I had to do a radio check. The controller sounded bored and said, "Yep, I'm still here." :)
 
airdale said:
Be sure to ask if you can "plug in" for an hour each with a Center and a TRACON controller. It will be the best bit of flying education that you have ever experienced.
Click to expand...


This is the best post of this thread.
 
Good answers.

If they have a trainee, I'd recommend watching the process, if they will let you. Might be also interesting (in addition to all the great suggestions here).
 
Ask them why some flights show up on flight aware and others don't.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Go there during the FedEx morning push.
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AggieMike88 said:
Now that would be an interesting time.
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Yes indeed, but it's like from 3am to 5am. Andrew doesn't like to get up before noon!

As an aside...never stay at a hotel in Southhaven, MS when the wind's out of the south...at least not without earplugs. You definitely won't sleep from 3am to 5 am as a fedex jet departs about every 45 seconds right over town (at least over the Hampton Inn Suites that I stayed at). Boy that sucked.

Andrew, ask them if they ever worked at Springdale! :)
 
Yep it does get busy and noisy during the push. When I lived in Memphis, I lived in Midtown which got a little noise at times but not bad at all since we were not directly in the flight path.
 
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