Factor
Woodstock, VA
Male, 65
My life in ATC began with 4 years Air Force then another 30 years with the Federal Aviation Admin. working tower & radar at some big international airports. I fought in the 1981 war with PATCO, survived the strike and kept a job that was just too exhilarating to walk away from. While there was nothing better than working airplanes, I did move on through several air traffic supervisory and management positions. It was a long, crazy career but I wouldn't trade a moment of it for love or lucre!
I think I can help you James. I’ll tell you a story that isn’t really fiction but it’s close enough to fool most anyone.
The scene was a fairly large airport located somewhere North of Florida. Characters in this story included a team of tower controllers plus several local and Federal law enforcement officials. One of them had called the control tower and advised the supervisor that they had been tracking a suspected drug smuggling plane ever since it left Central America several days prior. It was expected to land at this airport very soon. The Agent was very specific in his instructions to the tower supervisor. When this flight checked in with the tower, controllers were to act as normal as controllers can possibly act. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, there were additional instructions.
Upon landing, the plane was to be guided to a specific parking area on the ramp, where extensive preparations had been made to arrest the crew. The supervisor briefed his controllers, who immediately grew excited by the idea of taking part in a drug bust! The excitement intensified with each passing minute. Eventually, the airplane did call the tower for landing instructions. All seemed normal as the plane landed. There were no signs the pilot was suspicious as the tower controller instructed the flight to contact Ground Control.
Now, we were all sure that the “preparations” must have looked like a scene out of Miami Vice; with walkie-talkies crackling away in everyone’s ear, snipers hidden in the shadows and a dozen SWAT Team guys, dressed in black and ready to storm the plane. We all watched as it taxied off the runway toward the parking area.
The ground controller appeared a little nervous but responded promptly and professionally when the suspect aircraft called him. After all; this was his moment to shine – his 15 minutes of fame! The response he gave would become permanently ensconced in local ATC folklore. Remembering everything he’d been told about the situation by his supervisor (but apparently forgetting the part about why), he instructed the pilot to “Taxi to the Northeast corner of the ramp. The Federal agents are waiting to meet you there!”
The plane made a quick turn back onto the runway and accelerated. It lifted off, leveled at crop dusting altitude and vanished quickly over the horizon. Nobody heard whether the pilot was ever caught but the tower supervisor sure was. Within minutes, the cab was full of astonished and very irate agents who had brought with them a huge headache for that supervisor.
Thanks for writing and have fun with your fiction.
Factor
Share Answer: 
Good hearing from you Aaron. The gear-up landing at Newark was pretty dramatic. Whenever airplane bellies rub runways; sparks will fly! Your question is a good one because videos like the Newark landing show up in the news periodically, yet it’s hard to understand exactly what’s going on. People watch and wonder if a pilot can actually train for such a thing, how does it happen, what are the risks, etc.
First off; pilots obviously never make gear-up landings for practice. That would be kinda like practicing shooting yourself in the foot. The best way to rehearse for such an event is to practice landing WITH the landing gear extended. The trick will be in how the plane approaches the runway, which is going to be pretty much the same as a normal landing. The airplane will be slowed to the normal landing speed, with the nose pointed straight down the runway. Once over the runway, the pilot will ‘flare’ the aircraft; raising the nose to bleed off more speed as the plane descends those final few feet to the surface. Once on the runway, the pilot can use the aircraft’s rudder to try keeping the plane on the runway centerline.
How gear-up landings occur can vary. The most obvious reason is a mechanical malfunction. There is another, fairly common, reason. My flight instructor once told me that there are two kinds of pilots; those who’ve forgotten to put the gear down before landing and those who WILL forget! It’s not quite that extreme but sometimes pilots, especially pilots with low experience levels, can overlook that one important detail in an otherwise perfect landing. If there is an operational control tower at the airport; an alert controller may notice and have the pilot pull up before it’s too late. If the field is uncontrolled, the pilot may not be so lucky!
Risks associated with these landings are pretty much what you’d expect; lots of damage to the plane, a possibility of fire, personal injury and maybe even damage to the runway and associated lighting. No matter what happens – it’s never good and I do not recommend it!
Thanks for writing!
Factor
Share Answer: 
Hello Jim! Thanks for bringing up a very important issue. Whether pilot or controller; thunderstorms are the bane of their workday. All three factors you mentioned can affect the safety of flight. Lightning can be pretty disconcerting but not as dangerous to an airplane as you might imagine. Today’s planes are given extensive lightning certification tests to ensure the safety of their design. That could be why the last commercial plane crash attributed to lightning happened in 1967.
The lack of visibility, although a hazard in some instances, is not a major problem for pilots flying in or near thunderstorms. Rather than looking out the cockpit windows, they’re normally relying on the aircraft’s flight instruments to keep it properly oriented.
By far, the biggest safety hazard relates to the tricky winds found in and around those things! Accident investigation reports are rife with accounts of what can happen when airplanes experience the vertical wind shears and microbursts associated with thunderstorms (See Eastern Airlines Flight 66 landing JFK in 1975 or Delta Flight 191 landing DFW in 1985 as examples). Especially hazardous when planes are operating near the ground (taking off or landing), such winds can cause the aircraft’s wings to lose the lift they need to maintain flight. If this happens to a landing airplane (and it can happen instantly), all the available engine power may not be enough to save it.
When a plane loses the lift needed to maintain flight it becomes more like a brick that someone has thrown. It may still be traveling forward but only due to forward momentum and only for a very short time. I saw this happen from one of the control towers I worked in. An airliner flew through a thunderstorm situated on the final approach course and turned into that “brick” within a mile of the runway. When I finally saw the plane; it was no longer really flying but wallowing left and right as it fell. Fortunately, it fell onto the grass adjacent to the runway and eventually slid to a stop. The aircraft was destroyed but incredibly, there were no fatalities. I’ll tell you though; my shift couldn’t have ended fast enough.
Thank you for writing,
Factor
Share Answer: 
Greetings CollegeGirl! I am happy to see a continuing interest in the ATC profession.
The situation you describe is going to make it difficult for you to land an ATC position with the Federal Aviation Administration unless you can somehow get two to four years of college with an aviation related degree. Other options include gaining ATC experience in the military, which was my pathway in. Or perhaps you might apply for employment with one of the private ATC providers. You should also consider flight training while you are in college. Having your pilot’s license will help you meet the threshold for aviation related experience.
Best of luck and thanks for writing!
Factor
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Hey there Frequent Flyer! Thanks for sending a great question. I’m sure you represent the millions of other frequent flyers who’ve had those whimsical daydreams about cutting their way out of a grounded airliner with a can opener. Believe me; their frustration extends all the way up to the control tower.
How do these things happen? The root of most such delays is a reduction in system capacity; either enroute or at the airport. A recent example would be the Asiana Airlines crash on San Francisco Airport. I’m pretty sure that, immediately after the crash, every plane destined for SFO was either held on the ground at its departure point or delayed in the air until a determination could be made that the airport was accepting arrivals. Even when arrivals were resumed, SFO was left with a runway that was closed indefinitely. Closed runways will affect the capacity of any airport, slowing down both arrivals and departures.
Airport capacity refers to the number of landings and takeoffs an airport can handle per hour. Factors that may reduce capacity include such things as aircraft accidents, adverse weather, a reduction in the amount of available runways, equipment failures, controller staffing, workload, etc. There are several more but you get the idea.
Enroute capacity can be affected by many of the same factors that affect airport capacity. If, for instance, there is a large and hazardous storm system affecting the routes from New York to Chicago; the enroute controllers may have their hands full rerouting airborne flights around the bad weather. In such cases, other traffic scheduled to depart New York for Chicago during that time period may be held on the ground for a while. If you’re lucky, your flight might not have boarded yet and you can wait out your delay in the departure lounge. Other planes that have already left the gates may be held on a ramp or taxiway.
Controllers don’t like to see their taxiways blocked by delayed airplanes. If the delays are long enough, some of those planes may have to return to their gate. This can cause additional problems for controllers because flights returning to the gate can complicate the task of getting other departures out to the runways. It’s much like an ‘18 wheeler’ changing its mind half-way up the on-ramp to a busy Interstate highway, then deciding to turn around. A critical mass of congestion can occur. There have been situations where airports became so congested with planes trying to get on or off the ramps while others sat waiting on taxiways that the moment comes when no one could move at all. Total gridlock. When that happens, the last thing needed is more arrivals, so they too are stopped and placed into holding patterns.
Reduced capacity and the resulting delays, especially at the busiest airports, are a major frustration to everyone involved; particularly those who are out in the thick of it, like pilots, passengers and air traffic controllers.
Thanks again for writing!
Factor
Share Answer: 
Greetings and thanks for writing. Although my opinion is worth a little more than a burned out matchstick; I’ll give it to you. I think you should contact the FAA Regional Office nearest you. A list of such offices can be found here:
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/arc/ro_center/
Ask to speak with someone who is directly involved in hiring controllers, Tell them of your situation and ask if they plan on hiring within your specific timeframe. Don’t be discouraged if they say they won’t be hiring. There are nine (9) FAA Regions and just because one of them has no upcoming vacancies doesn’t mean some or all of the other eight Regions won’t be hiring either. Give ‘em a call. When I was trying to get the job, my ‘home’ Region told me they were not currently hiring. They advised me to call another Regional Office (RO). I did - and that Region was indeed hiring. They also told me I’d have to have my application transferred from my ‘home’ RO to their office. Apparently at the time, you couldn’t have your name on more than one Region’s list of applicants. I don’t know if that is still the case or not but it’s a question to ask them.
If you run into a dead end with the FAA and are still determined to be a controller; contact one or all of the private companies who provide ATC services and ask if they’re hiring.
Best of luck to you!
Factor
Share Answer: 
Thanks for writing, JB. First off, I should mention that very few small airports have operating control towers. It is not cost effective to have controllers at airports with very little air traffic. Even if you see a tower there; chances are you’ll find far more cobwebs inside than controllers.
To your question though, I will break it down into a few important points. At airports without towers, most planes come and go as they please. They are responsible for separating themselves visually from other traffic. At such airports, the only pilots that need permission to take off are those who filed an Instrument Flight Plan with ATC. As there would be no controllers on site; permission is generally obtained from the ATC facility responsible for that airport, either by phone or radio. Pilots are issued a short time window in which to depart so that ATC knows when to expect them and provide ATC services.
At airports with operational towers, all flights must receive a specific clearance to take off and/or land. Without that ATC clearance; pilots can do neither.
There are also airports with part-time control towers. When the tower is open, the rules specified in the previous paragraph apply. When it is closed, expect what I outlined two paragraphs back. There are several publications available that list all towers and their operating hours, so you’ll know what to expect when you go flying.
You also asked if a tower is required to keep a schedule for take offs, even if they have say less than one a day. Although towers do not generally keep flight schedules, they do receive information on the proposed departure time of flights on Instrument Flight Plans. This information is normally transmitted to the tower via computer.
I hope this answers your questions!
Cheers,
Factor
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