|
|
|
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Tower Information The Task of the Tower
At the Federal Aviation Administration, conducting air traffic is more like conducting an orchestra. From its tower high above the Dane County airfield, the FAA directs dozens of flights at once and somehow unites them into one effortless performance. Of course, it's not that easy. The FAA controls traffic flow in the airspace, keeping track of every aircraft that takes off, lands or just passes through Madison airspace. That's not just large commercial but also general aviation, military, and charter flights. General aviation makes up 59 percent of the airport's traffic. The FAA's job is divided into two areas. Up in the glass-walled tower, controllers visually track aircraft in the immediate area, roughly a three-mile radius around the airport. They talk with pilots via radio, assigning altitude changes, clearing them for takeoff or landing, and specifying which runway to use. (Whenever air traffic and weather permit, planes are directed to take off toward the north and land from the north. This keeps aircraft noise over populated areas to a minimum.) Aircraft outside the radius monitored by the tower are tracked downstairs, by FAA air traffic controllers in front of radar screens. These controllers monitor the airspace 30 miles around the airport up to 10,000 feet. In a darkened room, they carefully watch glowing dots creep across the screen, instructing pilots to adjust direction or altitude as needed. This tower's responsibility for each flight ends only when it passes into an adjacent airport's airspace, or above 10,000 feet, into the high-altitude airspace monitored by the FAA's Chicago Center.
|
