Horry County, South Carolina, to look into restricting flights over schools

Some Horry County officials are looking into writing an ordiance that prohibits helicopters from flying over area schools.

 THE SUN NEWS FILE PHOTO BY JANET BLACKMON MORGAN

CONWAY — Horry County officials hope to work with the city of Myrtle Beach to draft ordinances petitioning a flight standards office to implement a temporary flight restriction for low-flying aircraft, like helicopters, from flying over schools when children are present.

It’s a new move, one being called a “long shot” by County Councilman Al Allen, but it comes at the requests of some residents who say the fight with the choppers, specifically Helicopter Adventures off 21st Avenue North, has been a long one.

“It’s a long shot, but it’s a good case and a good possibility,” Allen said. “Washington has them. They even have one over Disney World.”

But Freddie Rick, owner of the helicopter company, said the temporary flight restriction is not needed because he made changes to the route, which did fly over the schools in the summer, back in August, and has the GPS proof that his pilots are not flying over the schools.

Horry County will look into petitioning the Flight Standards District Office in Columbia for a temporary flight restriction over schools, especially the Myrtle Beach Attendance Area where the company’s popular $20 flight route hovers over. As of Friday, the city had not heard of the effort, said Mark Kruea, spokesman for Myrtle Beach.

Allen, who is a commercial pilot himself, said the city and county councils can point out the potential safety hazard because of the close proximity of the Myrtle Beach schools and note the activity and congestion of students there during school hours as mitigating factors for the flight restriction. Residents, including Leslie Anderson, claim they have asked the company, headed by Freddie Rick, to change their routes away from the school.

“I’ve written him a letter to please, just as a matter of safety more than noise, try and avoid the school area,” she said, adding she specified the area between Grissom Parkway, Oak Street, 29th Avenue North and 38th Avenue North. “Give us the school and ball fields and fly anywhere else you want to fly. I just feel like the school should be off limits. With a single engine, just like a car, no matter how much maintenance you do, you can’t guarantee that nothing will happen.”

Rick said he has met with Anderson and invites her and any county official to examine the GPS mapping of his routes and the newly purchased equipment his helicopters use for proper tracking.

“I will absolutely guarantee, without a shadow of a doubt, that we’re not flying over a school. Period,” Rick said. “And now, not only can I say it, I can back it up with GPS data that I get several hundred data points a second.”

Companies like Helicopter Adventure have agreements of flight patterns that they enter into with the air traffic control tower at Myrtle Beach International Airport. A map on their website shows the shortest pattern, or the popular $20 deal, hovers above the area of concern, but Rick said that’s an old map that is scheduled to be updated this week. The tower enforces and monitors the agreement, but federal regulations allow the company to fly one quarter of a mile on either side of the predetermined route.

Councilman Marion Foxworth said he has noticed a change in the pattern.

“Up in the air, a half a mile corridor is not that big of a deal,” Foxworth said. “But on the ground, a half a mile could be the difference between an abandoned ground field, a school complex, a heavily traveled tourist destination, a crowded beach front or a quarter of a mile off shore. And pilots flying the same thing all day long, they’re going to have variations... And to expect them to not fly over small areas like that, I think, is asking too much. The fact remains that amusement helicopter rides in a downtown urban setting makes no sense from a public policy standpoint at all.”

Councilman Gary Loftus, who is also a pilot, said the county should look into the restriction.

“A TFR is an avenue certainly worth exploring,” Loftus said.

Helicopter Adventures just completed its second summer, but battled hard to simply open its doors in 2012. Shortly after starting the operation in May 2012, Rick changed the flight routes to fly away from the neighborhood and followed the proper process before opening. The company is in a legal battle with area resident Rick Hinde, which is over whether the helicopter business is allowed through the zoning in the area. It remains in the S.C. Court of Appeals.

Before that, the Horry County zoning administrator said initially that Helicopter Adventures fits in county zoning, then the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals said it doesn’t. It went to an Horry County judge, who ruled in January 2012 that it is allowed in that zoning, and a month later declined Hinde’s request to reconsider that ruling. Hinde appealed to the S.C. Court of Appeals.

Earlier this year, the county council announced in the heat of tourism season that it was not going to approve the lease it had with Huffman Helicopter. Eventually, the county and the helicopter company settled on a lease, where its owner, Jeremy Bass, had already agreed to re-route its flights over the ocean.

Councilman Brent Schulz, who owner Freddie Rick said he reached out to speak to Friday, said Thursday some action needs to be taken.

“This is a major situation we’ve got and if we could at least move it away from the schools, it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.

Source: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com

Air traffic controllers mark anniversary

Without them, we would use boats. No airline would fly. No one would plan a weekend shopping trip, an overseas vacation or visits from far-flung family.

Their work was duly acknowledged on Sunday, the 52nd International Day of the Air Traffic Controller.

Every year, the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization pauses for a moment to mark the day in late October 1961, when 12 European countries met in Amsterdam, Holland, to found the European Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations.

The organization has since grown to encompass Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa-Middle East, representing more than 50,000 air traffic controllers in 137 countries, 27 of them throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean.

The Cayman Islands is one of them, and while no special ceremonies were planned for Sunday, Jeremy Miller, one of 15 air traffic controllers at Grand Cayman’s Owen Roberts International Airport and Cayman Brac’s Charles Kirkonnell Airport – working alongside three trainee controllers and three assistants – says the demands and stresses are similar to anywhere, and that “we are just trying to get public awareness of the safety of air traffic control.”

“In Cayman, we do not have the high volume of traffic, but the stress levels, the workload, are still as daunting as in the U.S. You have to be trained almost like a military guy.”

Training and demands of the job

Mr. Miller, a controller for nine years, completed a 10-month course at Trinidad’s International Civil Aviation Organization-certified College of Air Traffic Control in Port au Spain, followed by three months of on-the-job training.

Every 13 months, he – and other controllers – undergo a refresher course to maintain their certification, overseen by Cayman’s the Civil Aviation Authority.

While most air traffic control employs radar to ensure ICAO-required aircraft separation, Cayman, because of its relatively low traffic volume, uses “procedural” control, relying on trained individuals. Ground-based navigational aids detail horizontal and vertical separation of aircraft according to time, distance, height and location. Meanwhile, air traffic controllers have to visualize the location of each flight based on its route, speed, altitude and estimated times as they pass predetermined points.

The controllers then separate each aircraft based on the progress board and their best judgment.

Cayman’s controllers occupy the airport tower behind Beacon House, the edge-of-runway headquarters of the Aviation Authority. Each controller works a seven-hour shift, tracking both departures and arrivals, although hopes are that the functions will be separated in the near future.

High-pressure season

Mr. Miller says his team is just now coming into the highest-pressure months of the year as tourist arrivals start to mount.

“In the winter, we get between 150 and 200 aircraft movements [arrivals and departures] on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, between about 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., we get about 50 movements. We are pushed to the extreme from November through February or March,” he says.

Thousands of lives are at stake, of course, but the operation pales in comparison with places like London’s Heathrow, New York’s JFK, Washington’s Dulles or even Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok.

Heathrow and Hong Kong, Mr. Miller says, will have hundreds of controllers, overseeing “hundreds of movements throughout an eight-hour period, similar to Atlanta or Miami.”

The demands are so great, he says, that an individual can only work “on two-hour intervals, then go on break for an hour because of the stress.”

In Cayman alone, Mr. Miller says, he will sometimes handle eight aircraft simultaneously, looking after imminent departures, the “aerodrome operation,” while processing communications from Cuba, as incoming flights come within 40 minutes of arrival, the “approach operation.”

“The tower moves aircraft on the ground to take off, and the approach controller separates the planes as we get information from Havana. At the moment, I do both of these. With eight planes, I get so concentrated on air altitude, and crossing at 4,000 feet, and then you also need to give a second and third aircraft an altitude.

“Then you get the departures and have to figure out how you get him out.”

He hasn’t made a mistake yet, but the potential is ever present: “In a busy period, you are so concentrated, you’re almost in ‘a zone.’ Without much activity, when you’re not so busy, that’s when you can make mistakes.”

Every air traffic controller is responsible for a “section” of the sky. “Each controller has his own grid and they hand off to each other” as aircraft move in four dimensions.

“In the future,” he said, “I would like to progress to a different style of ATC, which would require more [personnel],” assigning departures and arrivals to separate controllers.

Rules vary internationally

Some rules vary between Montreal’s ICAO and Washington’s Federal Aviation Administration, creating separate organizations. Montreal, for example, allows ATCs to work until age 65, whereas Washington enforces retirement at age 56.

Unlike in Cayman, ATC operations at larger airports are usually privatized, Mr. Miller said, provided by companies under contract to airport management.

“The company would supply ATCs all over Europe, with different countries contracted to different agencies. Dubai, for example, he said, “comes under the U.K.”

One of the concerns at the ICAO, on fact, is that privatization raises issues of accountability.

“As an independent business now responsible to [aviation regulators], air traffic service providers can expect increasing regulation of their activities – and this will include items such as certification standards for their equipment (previously not even a question when combined as a government department),” according to a 2007 ICAO report.

Managing a provider’s behavior, however, means regulators must be able to suspend – or even revoke – a license, replacing the company with another to maintain continuity of service.

“It will not be long before there are multiple air traffic service providers in any given state’s airspace.” Anticipated changes will free air traffic management from the restrictions of national boundaries, meaning the provider “will truly become an international business and have to deal with multiple legal jurisdictions, just like any other international business.

The Airports Authority declined to comment on proposals for airport expansion and whether it might affect air traffic control, but Walter Ebanks, senior manager of Air Navigation Services, offered his appreciation to ATCs: “On behalf of the Airports Authority, I commend our Cayman Islands team for their professionalism, track record and dedication to maintaining aviation safety in the Cayman Islands. Their combined efforts contribute to the overall safety of travelers throughout the world and we recognize them on this special day.”

Source:  http://www.compasscayman.com

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines informs airlines of Manila radar outage

The  Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has issued a notice-to-airmen (NOTAM), saying the Manila radar would be out of service for maintenance from October 21 to 26.

There would be a continuous outage of the radar service from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on October 24, the NOTAM said.

During this period, all landing and takeoff procedures would be done through “conventional” means, using the celestial navigation called STAR, and Standard Instrument Departure.

To limit congestion, air traffic controllers would limit the number of aircraft under its control to 11 arrivals and 11 departures per hour.

“International flight schedules will be the first priority for the arrival and departure sequence,” the Caap said.

To give more airspace within the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Aerodrome, the Caap said general-aviation flights will not be allowed.

“Departure flights will be subject to Air Traffic Flow Management release, and departure,” the Caap added. Flights will be advised of their estimated departure clearance time while waiting for clearance on the ground.

To meet the flight-separation requirement, air traffic controllers said five to seven minutes of separation must be applied between flights while in the holding patterns, since possible complications may arise during bad weather condition, unexpected  flight delays, or during emergencies.

The Caap told the Airline Operators Council (AOC) that it would be prudent to advise their head offices to assign sufficient extra fuel for Manila-bound flights affected by the radar outage schedule to avoid flight diversions.

The chairman of the AOC, Herr Obusan, the local manager of Japan Airlines (JAL), said he had recommended to Jal to add at least one hour extra hour of fuel when leaving Narita, Osaka, for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. 


http://www.businessmirror.com.ph

Campaign urges Emiratis to consider a high-flying career as an air traffic controller

ABU DHABI // Young Emiratis are being urged to look to the skies when choosing a career.

While many opt to study medicine or engineering, a national campaign is promoting the benefits of training to become an air traffic controller.

“Traditionally, the popular jobs for UAE nationals are doctors and engineers. Why not become an air traffic controller?” asked Mutasem Al Swaini, manager of air navigation service-provider training at the Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Center (SZC).

The Air Traffic Controller Promotion Campaign aims to raise awareness of the profession and generate interest in pursuing a career in it.

Launched by the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), officials from the initiative have visited schools, universities, colleges and career fairs.

“We have seen a lot of interest from males and females,” said Mr Al Swaini, who is a graduate of the GCAA’s Air Traffic Control Nationalization Training Program, which the campaign promotes.

The Emirati-only training scheme began in 1998.

The campaign, which began about two years ago, is not about getting more applicants, but is focused on raising awareness of the profession, said Mr Al Swaini.

“We get thousands of applicants every year but you want people who really are keen and interested in the job,” he said.

“You want to raise awareness and it also gives an opportunity to younger people to think about a career in the future.”

People need a specific set of skills to make the grade, such as being able to multitask, work under pressure, speak good English and analytical thinking.

“We have to train someone from zero,” Mr Al Swaini said. “It’s a very technical job, it’s a highly skilled job. The right skills have to be there. There are certain skills we look for in a person and it’s not easy to find. Safety comes first, so there’s no room for mistakes.”

The air traffic controllers at SZC are responsible for about 2,100 flights across the UAE every day.

These includes planes entering or leaving the country, domestic flights and those passing through.

Controllers guide the pilots, telling them where to go and what speed to fly at, to ensure all aircraft operate in a safe and efficient manner, complying with international standards.

Applicants for the training program, who should be between the ages of 19 and 25, have to go through a screening process.

This includes aptitude, psychometric, English and maths tests, plus interviews to assess their personalities.

Training takes between two-and-a-half and three years and consists of theory classes – in-house and sometimes in other countries – as well as simulator sessions and a year of live training under the supervision of an instructor.

As a testament to the success of the program, the top two levels of management at SZC are Emirati.

Out of 102 air traffic controllers at the Abu Dhabi-based centre, 27 are UAE nationals. There are another 20 Emiratis at different stages of training.

“It’s very important to nationalize in all of the industries in the UAE, especially in the aviation industry,” Mr Al Swaini said. “We recognize the efforts from the GCAA management in making this program a success and appreciate their continuous support.”

Thani Al Karimi, 22, was following in his father’s footsteps and studying engineering when he changed his mind and decided to become an air traffic controller. He graduated from the training program in August.

“I thought that I wanted to do something else, something unique,” he said. “It’s a job that’s as important as a doctor or engineer. I recommend it.”

The Dubai resident said it was an interesting and fun job.

“You find new situations every day. You will never face the same problem every day,” he said. “There is a lot of pressure. We have been trained to deal with high-pressure situations and just do it.”

Emirati Hamad Sabaan, 24, from Abu Dhabi, graduated last month.

“I like to control.” he said. “I want to be in charge of everything. I was in the petrol industry as an instrument control technician.”

He recommends a career as an air traffic controller to other Emiratis.

“It’s a good opportunity,” he said. “Every day you will experience a lot of things. It’s exciting.”

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae

Voices of the shutdown: "It's a job you can't slack off of"

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world's busiest airport, with more than 95 million passengers passing through it in 2012, according to the Airports Council International's 2012 World Annual Traffic Report. 

Douglas Lowe, 32, is an Airways Transportation Systems Specialist for the Federal Aviation Association (FAA), at Hartsfield-Jackson, a job that is considered essential to public aviation safety. 

"In a nutshell, everything that an air traffic controller uses to keep aircrafts in the sky, I work on and maintain," said Lowe. 

Lowe works specifically on the rapid deployment voice switch - connecting air traffic controllers to the channels they use to speak to pilots. 

"They're [air traffic controllers] talking to airplanes that are coming in on final approaches and taking off and turning out," he said. 

However, since Oct. 1, Lowe has been working without pay because of the government shutdown. He's one of 40 on his team not being paid, working 10-hour shifts on a seven-day rotation. 

"We work days, nights, weekends, holidays," said Lowe. "It's a job you can't slack off of." 

Lowe's next pay check is scheduled on Oct. 29. Like thousands of government workers across the country, he's hoping the shutdown ends before then. 

"If this continues on, the next pay day I will get absolutely zero on my paycheck," said Lowe. 

The shutdown has been stressful for him and his family. 

"I actually tapped into my savings plan and took out a loan to make sure I don't default on anything. I have a mortgage, and then I have a second mortgage for my mom. I take care of her because she is mentally ill so I have two mortgages to worry about, car payments, a kid," said Lowe. 

"I'm the only one that works in the house; my wife goes to school full-time. It's very stressful to say the least," he added. 

Lowe, a former Marine, joined the FAA in 2007. 

He is also the Georgia chapter president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, which represents 11,000 nationwide employees. He and some of his members have organized a small protest Tuesday to hand out flyers at the airport. 

"[We're] letting the public know they're getting on that flight right now because we're at work," said Lowe. 

Lowe says the government is holding people's lives in their hands over something that has nothing to do with making the government function. 

"Congress has a very important role of funding the government and deciding what should be funded and what shouldn't be funded instead of sitting there bickering over a health care law that was passed into law," said Lowe. 

"Not funding an entire government, putting people on a straight furlough, and making people work for free is ridiculous to me." 

Story and Comments/Reaction:   http://www.cbsnews.com

Government shutdown forces air traffic controllers to work without pay

 

ATLANTA -- More than 600 Atlanta based air traffic controllers guide aircraft in and out of Hartsfield Jackson International airport and regionally, around the southeast. 

Since the government shutdown, a union vice president says controllers have been under orders to work without pay.

"It's a standoff. And both sides seem to be backing up and punting, and we seem to be the football right now," said Victor Santore of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "And I don't like being the football."

Santore says air controllers will get half a paycheck Tuesday. If the government shutdown continues two more weeks, they will get no paycheck -- even though they've reported to work. He contends FAA furloughs impact air safety.

"Every day this goes on, it just peels away at the margin of safety," Santore said.

One Delta pilot says there's no noticeable difference.

"I'm sure they have personal issues with what's going on with their jobs. But they don't seem to bring that to the control cab, to the control station," said Rob Welch, a 33-year Delta pilot headed from Atlanta to Dusseldorf Germany Monday. "I've noticed no difference in their professionalism."

"The job of an air traffic controller is stressful to begin with," Santore added. "There's no reason to add this extra stress, and just treat us like pawns in a game of chess."

Santore says the controllers have been told they will receive back pay whenever the government shutdown ends.

Story and Video:  http://www.11alive.com

Should the United States Get Out of the Air Traffic Control Business?

The federal budget sequester may advance an old proposal that was once unthinkable: privatizing the U.S. air traffic control system.

In a story today that’s well worth reading for anyone who flies, Bloomberg News lays out the arguments being made to get Uncle Sam out of the business of directing airplanes. This debate is hardly new, although the meat cleaver Congress took to the federal budget in January has given the proposal new impetus and appears to have made leaders of the labor union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, ready to discuss fundamental changes.

“My organization has pivoted,” Paul Rinaldi, president of the controllers union, said at a symposium in June on modernizing air traffic control in response to the deep budget cuts. “If we do not mature, have this discussion, find a way to sustainably fund this system properly so that we can modernize it, we are going to fall way behind the world.” (A video of the panel discussion on FAA funding can be viewed here.) The union has not advocated any particular approach or called for air traffic control to be privatized, hoping instead to foster a wider, public discussion of the issue.

The Federal Aviation Administration cut $637 million from its $16 billion budget this fiscal year as a result of the sequester and faces similar cuts in the year beginning Oct. 1. In April, the traveling public felt the first effects of the reduced funding with furlougs hitting some 50,000 FAA employees touching off about 2,300 flight delays. Days later, after heavy press coverage and outrage from airlines, Congress passed legislation allowing the agency to transfer funds to end the furloughs.

The basic change would be to fund traffic control not with taxes but through a “fee for flight”—a twist on the medical profession’s fee-for-service model—collected by a government corporation or a public-private partnership of some sort. About two-thirds of the costs of operating the U.S. air-traffic system comes from excise taxes on airline tickets and jet fuel, Bloomberg News reported. And with appropriations from Congress serving as the basis of long-term capital projects, the FAA’s ability to complete a transformation to a satellite-based routing system—as well as other large, capital-intensive efforts—has been called into question.

“The idea that you pay for $20 billion dollar infrastructure projects out of annual operating cash flow is nuts,” Robert Poole Jr., a co-founder of the libertarian Reason Foundation and a long-term advocate of moving ATC out of the federal government, said at the June conference. “You wouldn’t run any business that way.”

Dozens of countries, including Australia, Canada and Germany, have relinquished the management of flight traffic to various private and public-private organizations in a bid to increase efficiency, lower costs, and boost safety. Funding air traffic control through fees also allows the agency in charge to issue bonds and pay for large projects, Poole has argued. Many of those agencies even enjoying investment-grade credit ratings.

There’s also the matter of public safety and bragging rights: For decades, the U.S. has boasted the safest air traffic system, and some foresee that title being supplanted by other nations that operate their airspace differently. Others, however, argue that controllers should be government employees and that privatization could compromise safety. “I do know that the current system is broken and this conversation needs to start to happen,” Rinaldi said.

Original article:  http://www.businessweek.com

Air-Traffic Wish List Targets Busiest Skies: WSJ

September 22, 2013, 12:08 p.m. ET

By ANDY PASZTOR

The Wall Street Journal

Facing potentially deep budget cuts for modernizing air-traffic control, aviation-industry leaders have mobilized to protect funding for a handful of top-priority initiatives that target congestion around busy airports.

The recommendations, released by an influential U.S. Federal Aviation Administration advisory group last week, represent the industry's most detailed wish list so far of projects that should be placed on a fast track, even under the federal government's across-the-board spending reductions called sequestration.

Approved by representatives of airlines, manufacturers and labor, the recommendations are included in a report requested by FAA chief Michael Huerta. The focus is on new navigation and runway procedures that don't entail sweeping changes in current traffic management, or require major airline investments in new cockpit equipment.

Instead, the conclusions put the onus on the FAA to push ahead and even accelerate shorter-term enhancements aimed at increasing airport capacity and achieving clear-cut fuel savings before the middle of the decade.

The handful of projects at the top of the list include expanding satellite-based approach and departure procedures that already are being tested at various hub airports.

Aircraft can fly shorter, more direct routes using such procedures.

They also can increase airport capacity through more-precise and gradual descents, and by following other planes more closely to parallel or converging runways.

Other high-priority items include efforts to keep better track of planes or vehicles moving on tarmacs and revised wake-turbulence standards to reduce separation between landing aircraft.

Some efforts, however, have faltered as a result of overall agency inertia, lack of training for controllers and the FAA's slow progress in redesigning certain airspace. In April the Department of Transportation's inspector general criticized the agency for failing to develop "an integrated master schedule to help advance and prioritize" key projects.

At an industry gathering Friday, Mr. Huerta said that the agency will review the recommendations to determine its next steps. The same advisory committee also gave Mr. Huerta a report calling for stepped-up efforts to share fuel-use data among airlines in order to substantiate savings.

After ranking some three dozen planned initiatives, industry officials reached consensus on the top six. Some were included in previous recommendations. But this time, the committee explicitly ranked projects at the top that were "deemed to be high benefit and high readiness," stressing that "budget cuts should not affect these capabilities."

Missing from the top of the industry list were ambitious concepts to use digital data communications to replace radio transmissions between pilots and controllers, practices that would allow pilots to unilaterally change routes while airborne and plans to permit landings in extremely-low-visibility conditions that currently aren't possible.

The industry move comes amid escalating controversy over the direction of NextGen, the more than $40 billion proposed restructuring of the nation's air-traffic-control system.Fearing potential negative impact from sequestration, airlines and equipment manufacturers are stepping up pressure on the FAA to focus immediate attention on a handful of the most promising upgrades. The Aerospace Industries Association, which represents aerospace contractors, plans a public roundtable at the end of the month to buttress those arguments.Airlines, meanwhile, generally remain resistant to making expensive equipment purchases essential to realize the ultimate benefits of NextGen.

"In a difficult budget environment, it is important to prioritize and move forward with programs" that use existing equipment "to provide immediate benefits to the flying public and reduce fuel burn," a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, the leading trade association representing U.S. passenger and cargo airlines, said over the weekend. The association reiterated that satellite-based routes around busy airports should be a top priority.

Overall, the recommendations underscore industry's determination that before airlines agree to wholesale installation of additional equipment, the FAA should do more to ensure more-effective use of the sophisticated navigation and automated flight-control capabilities that already are available on many airliners.

Last week's report comes three months after the FAA, as part of its annual NextGen implementation update, highlighted enhanced weather detection and forecasting capabilities that didn't make the industry's top-level options. The FAA plan also noted that the agency will be able to implement fuel-saving airspace redesigns—plus associated navigation and procedural changes—at only about half of the 21 specific airports initially slated for those enhancements by 2016.

Last week's advisory report put so-called metroplex enhancements in the top tier of pending initiatives, noting the "aviation community has been actively involved and supportive" of the work. But based on the same objective criteria applied to other projects, according to the advisory committee, the airspace-redesign plans should have been relegated to a lower-priority category "deemed to be of medium benefit." 

Source:  http://online.wsj.com

Doug Lewis is control tower Manager of the Year: Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (KITH), Ithaca, New York

Relatively speaking, it’s been a difficult year for the Air Traffic Control Tower up at Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport when considering that federal sequestration nearly forced its closure earlier this year.

But, good news this week: Doug Lewis, manager of the Ithaca Tompkins’ Air Traffic Control Tower, was presented with the 2013 Manager of the Year award during a ceremony at the airport.

Lewis was chosen from a field that included managers from around 40 northeast facilities employed with control-tower workers from Midwest ATC Service, a contract tower company. Randy Walls, Manager of Air Traffic Services, Eastern Terminal Service Area, for Midwest ATC Service, flew in to present the award to Lewis in recognition of his exemplary service as tower manager as well as his dedication to safe aircraft operations. Administrators created Lewis with initiating and conducting annual educational sessions for the region’s private pilots in and around Ithaca.

An Orchard Park native and current Elmira resident, Lewis has worked up at the Ithaca control tower for a dozen years, being named manager in 2007. He began his control tower career in 1967 as a U.S. Navy man and, in the mid-1970s, he was employeed with the Federal Aviation Administration at the Elmira airport. In 1981, he got involved with the air-traffic controllers strike and lost his job along with 11,000 others after President Reagen fired them for failing to return to the job. Lewis said he took a 20-year hiatus from air-traffic control work before settling in at Ithaca Tompkins Regional airport, which contracts with Midwest ATC Service for its five air-traffic controllers.

“It’s always been a passion, I’d say,” Lewis said. “It’s a type of occupation that really challenges you. It’s hardly ever the same, and you rarely get bored.”

The Tuesday award ceremony was a nice surprise for Lewis, who used the opportunity to offer his appreciation for his four fellow controllers. All told, the group’s 85 cumulative years of experience make for a solid, excellent team, he said.

“It’s wonderful to be recognized. I have the good fortune to work at a facility that has excellent controllers,” he said. “I’m kind of a player-coach in that regard. There’s a lot of experience between them, and they make my job easier.”

Early 2013 was a rocky time for a majority of countrywide control towers that contract out for employees. Exactly 149 of the country’s 251 contract towers, including Ithaca’s, were threatened with closure due to a sequestration agreement affecting all government departments. After much lobbying and the support of local and regional leaders, the threat was averted and funding made available to keep all the towers open. The government, senate and house of representatives have all appropriated money in their budgets for full funding of the towers in fiscal year 2014.

Story and Photo:  http://www.ithaca.com

Dubai Air Traffic Control: The sky is safe -- Meet the staff at Dubai International Airport responsible for ensuring 100% safety

 Dubai: Every move, every step, every turn, they’re watching. They’re the people of the tower, tucked away on the tarmac, making sure that every flight that takes off and lands does so with 100 per cent safety.

Otherwise known as the ATC or Air Traffic Control.

Gulf News visited Dubai International Airport to meet its ATC personnel and learn first-hand the effort and energy that goes into making sure that air travel is as safe as it possibly can be, especially with the rapid growth in air travel being witnessed by the UAE.

In the May 2013 IHS Jane’s Airport Review, it was reported: “The GCAA estimates that total flights in UAE airspace will soar from 608,877 in 2010 to around 1.5 million by 2030.”

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), established in 1996, is the sole authority for the control and regulation of civil aviation in the UAE – safety is one of their key focuses.

There are several aspects, departments and bodies that work towards that assurance. Today, we look at the people who take care of ground control and the airspace around the airport for about 4,000 feet.

Air Traffic Control Officers
 
Thani Al Thani, Dubai Tower Team Leader, said: “An ATCO is a person who provides service … is responsible for the safe flow of air traffic, from one airport to another.”

Simply put, but there are many steps that ensure this safe passage. We begin with the filing of a flight plan.

They are documents submitted, usually by pilots, with the airport prior to departure. It includes information such as departure and arrival points, estimated time en route, alternate airports in case of bad weather, and number of people on board, details about the pilot, airway route the flight would be taking and information about the aircraft itself.

This knowledge is used by the ATCO in his or her subsequent interaction with the aircraft, like an identity tag, especially as a code is allocated to each aircraft.

From bay to runway
 
Once the passengers have boarded an aircraft and all checks are done, the pilot calls the Dubai Tower from the bay to get clearance from the ATC to start moving or ‘request for taxiing’. ATCOs then use various systems at hand to ensure that it is, indeed, safe for the aircraft to move out of the bay. They do visual checks and use the ground movement radar to ensure there is no block or impediment in the path.

“We provide information about the weather, runway and other instructions, following which there is a read back from the pilot to confirm. Then we give the go ahead for the push back and the aircraft starts to taxi,” Thani said.

Initially the aircraft would move at a slow speed of about 10 knots (18.52km/hr), till it reaches the “holding point” of the runway.

ATCOs are trained to maintain the safe and efficient flow of air traffic. They apply separation rules at all times to ensure that aircraft are always at a safe distance from each other, be it a horizontal or vertical separation.

The flight is guided to the holding point on the runway, the last point from where the aircraft starts the final taxi. It only leaves when it has been cleared for take-off.

ATCO Mohammed Al Shamsi explained: “For example there has to be certain amounts of time difference in the departure of say an A380 and A320 – at least 3 to 4 minutes. The speed of the preceding aircraft has to be taken into account. It could be a helicopter… need to keep an eye.” They have to make sure that the following aircraft doesn’t catch up because it is lighter, faster. One tiny error and two aircraft can end up being too close for comfort.

Yet again, the flight plan information comes into play. The ATCO checks the size of the aircraft, its ability to climb, and the speed it can achieve and decides when it can start moving from the holding point. And all this is in a matter of minutes.

Dubai Airport currently has the ability to manage about 34 departures and 32 arrivals an hour – an average of 65 aircraft in 60 minutes. “We are looking at improving capacity. Dubai is doing very well … 1,100 movements per day, two years ago it was 700 to 800… progressing very well,” Thani said. They hope to be able to move 90 aircraft an hour, come 2016.

Holding for take off

The job of an ATCO is extremely stressful and they work short shifts of two hours with breaks to ensure that they never switch off. At the end of the week, they get three days off. And while they’re working, an ATCO is not allowed to handle more than a specific load.

Once the aircraft starts moving from the holding point and starts to taxi, the top speed it can hit on the Dubai Airport runway is “250 knots (463 km/hr)”.

Air space, like land has boundaries and jurisdiction. In the case of Dubai, till the height of 4,000 feet, the Dubai International Airport’s Control Tower manages it, beyond that till the height of 13,000 feet Dubai Approach covers it. Both come under Dubai Air Navigation Services or DANS. After that it is managed by the Abu Dhabi-based federal body managing UAE’s skies.

So, when an aircraft enters UAE airspace, its first interaction is with Abu Dhabi, then Dubai Approach steps in followed by the ATC tower at the airport.

The skies themselves have designated airways or highways that each aircraft using an airport has to follow. This is when SID comes into play.

The Standard Instrument Departure is a route for an aircraft from a designated airport onto the airway – something akin to a feeder lane meeting the highway.

After take-off, the tower ATCOs continue to track and guide the aircraft until handover to Dubai Approach. It is imperative now to maintain vertical separation, which cannot be less than 1,000 feet. This is assigned as flight levels (FL). Additionally, pilots are advised of any tall buildings that might be present in the vicinity of the airport. All this is on a good day.

Bad weather

What happens in the event of fog or haze – inclement weather conditions?

“We’re trained to handle every difficulty or type of emergency. Each emergency has a category assigned to it with appropriate procedures. There are check lists in place and we help the pilots to proceed in a cautious manner,” Thani said. This is further facilitated by the presence of traffic collision avoidance systems, which are especially useful at night time to compensate for lower naked eye visibility.

Arrivals

The safeguards that are used in the case of departures come into play during arrivals, too. An aircraft moves in from the airway into the pathway to the airport using STAR or Standard Terminal Arrival Route. Dubai Approach hands over aircraft to the Tower. A conversation takes place with an ATCO that again looks at visibility, separation, speed and other safety factors.

An Instrument Landing System is in place that provides the pilot with a visual electronic glide slope on his or her screen inside the aircraft. Meanwhile, once again ground movement radars are used to check there are no safety hazards, along with a visual evaluation.

The aircraft locks into the glide slope; the ATCO provides the necessary information such as weather conditions and guides the pilot through the process. He or she needs to make sure the aircraft is not coming in too fast or too slow, is not going to over-run the runway or enter restricted area.

Once the aircraft has landed, it eventually gets guided to a bay and a journey comes to an end, only for the next cycle to begin.

Facts and figures

65

Average number of aircraft that can be handled in an hour by Dubai ATC

18.52

Km/h is the average speed of aircraft, as it starts to move out of the bay

463

Km/h is the maximum speed of aircraft on runway, while taking off
 
Story and Comments/Reaction:   http://gulfnews.com

Air Traffic Control Tower Up For Vote: Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (KLAL), Florida

LAKELAND | The on-and-off plans for a new $4.3 million air traffic control tower at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport are back on.

On Monday, Lakeland city commissioners will vote on whether to spend 20 percent of $579,000, or about $115,000, on the design phase of a new air traffic control tower. The remaining portion of the design will be funded by a Florida Department of Transportation grant.

Earlier this year, plans for construction of a new tower were put on hold while federal funding of the tower at Lakeland Linder was expected to stop to accommodate automatic spending cuts required by Congress.

That decision to stop funding has been delayed. Funding for the tower at Lakeland Linder is in the 2014 federal budget, but it's unclear whether the budget will pass.

Gene Conrad, airport director, said the tower will remain open regardless of whether federal funding stops in the future. Airport officials plan to use $250,000 to $300,000 of the airport's own money to keep the tower open if funding stops.

The FAA pays $500,000 a year to staff the tower at Lakeland Linder. The tower has seven workers from RVA Robinson Aviation, which contracts with the FAA at airports throughout the Southeast and Southwest.

"We think the federal government has an obligation to fund these," City Manager Doug Thomas said Friday during an agenda study meeting. "I don't think the airport would be safe without it."

Conrad said state officials don't want to wait any longer for the project to build a new tower. He said if the city were to turn down the funds, they would be used for another project in the state.

Conrad has said the current tower, built in 1981, will have line-of-sight issues when the runway is extended from 8,500 to 10,000 feet in coming years.

In addition, the tower is not up to FAA security standards, and the inside is cramped when 15 air traffic controllers work during the week of the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In.

The tower will be nearly three times the size of the current 50-foot tower. The new tower is expected to be located about 2,000 feet northwest of the current tower, which eventually will be demolished. Construction should begin in the summer of 2014, Conrad said.

Commissioners voted 6-0 in February to accept $3.4 million in funding from the Department of Transportation.

The City Commission meets in regular session at 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall, 228 S. Massachusetts Ave. There will be a budget hearing at 6 p.m.

Original Article:   http://www.theledger.com

New Federal Aviation Administration System Targets Air-Traffic-Control Errors: Regulators Attribute Rise in Mistakes Last Year to New Automated System

Updated September 12, 2013, 7:03 p.m. ET

By ANDY PASZTOR and JACK NICAS

The Wall Street Journal

U.S. aviation regulators said reports of air-traffic-control mistakes more than doubled nationwide last year, but they attributed nearly all of the increase to a new automated system that vastly expanded the amount of data collected.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday disclosed that for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2012, an enhanced flight-tracking system helped identify roughly 4,400 midair incidents in which aircraft flew too close to each other. The overall number of events reported in the year-ago period was about 1,900.

FAA officials stressed in a media briefing that the numbers aren't comparable because in 2012, the agency substantially altered its procedures for collecting and assessing controller slip-ups. The changes included implementing automated systems designed to collect more data and identify many minor errors that previously went undetected.

Agency officials said the new computerized system and other changes—amounting to a 10-fold increase in the total number of available reports over the past three years—enhance safety because they more clearly identify budding hazards before they turn into accidents.

Still, the significant jump in overall incidents—coupled with challenges in interpreting the latest data—is likely to spark more questions on Capitol Hill about whether the chances of midair close calls or collisions are falling. Some industry safety experts also have concerns about how the automated incident-tracking system will affect voluntary reporting of controllers' mistakes.

The FAA for years bucked criticism from lawmakers and others about the frequency of controller slip-ups. Now, agency officials argue that given the influx of raw data, many so-called loss-of-separation events—when aircraft fly too close—are inconsequential and don't pose any significant danger to planes or passengers.

Yet critics are still likely to argue that the old system understated the extent of potential dangers, while the new approach makes it nearly impossible to get an accurate year-over-year comparison of critical safety trends.

Over the first eight months of 2012, the FAA received 121,499 mandatory and computer-generated reports of potentially inadequate airborne separation. Of that total, the agency said 4,394 were "validated losses of separation" and 1,271 of those were investigated in depth.

The agency has changed its classification of the most dangerous incidents, identifying 41 "high risk" events in fiscal 2012, including seven that could have been "catastrophic." That compares with 55 that were in the most hazardous category a year earlier. The FAA said it would make comparable, year-to-year data available later in a congressionally mandated report.

Using the latest computerized technology, the official said "we are able to do more, see more and we are being more transparent," in releasing incident rates. The goal is to "proactively address risk," he added, by identifying the most hazardous precursors for potential accidents and then digging deeply into the causes to eliminate the danger.

Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican and former chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said the report signals the urgency of expediting air-traffic-control changes. "That will help us avoid these operational errors that have the potential of turning a near miss into a hit," he said.

The FAA said the new data helped it identify five top hazards, including simultaneous operations on parallel runways and planes abruptly halting landing approaches to climb away from airports. The agency said it has implemented 19 of the 22 recommended remedies.

Another FAA official said the latest data not only provide a "much broader and deeper view into our system," but are part of an unprecedented "cultural shift" meant to enlist controllers, supervisors and others to work more cooperatively to enhance safety.

On Thursday, the FAA also reported that across the U.S. for fiscal 2012, there were 1,150 so-called runway incursions, or incidents in which planes improperly crossed or failed to stop before encroaching on another runway. After years of remaining flat, that number amounts to a 20.5% increase over the prior year. The 2012 count includes 18 incidents in the two most severe categories, compared to seven such incidents in fiscal 2011 and six in 2010.

Over the past year or so, agency leaders have been mulling how to describe, categorize and learn from the barrage of additional information. In addition to cutting-edge software, the FAA has benefited from a new policy to encourage pilots and controllers to voluntarily report operational errors.

In fiscal 2012, the FAA received about 17,000 voluntary reports from controllers, a 7.5% increase over the previous year. The agency also has revised its procedures to most closely analyze only those incidents that appear to pose the greatest risk in coming months or years.

The FAA has long faced controversy and scrutiny over the frequency of controller mistakes. A 53% rise in so-called operational errors—primarily resulting from controller mistakes—occurred between fiscal years 2009 and 2010 and attracted attention from lawmakers. The FAA has said that increase was due in part to the increased voluntary reporting of slipups by controllers.

The Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General said in a report this year that "the increase in reported errors was linked, in part, to a rise in actual errors rather than increased reporting."

The number of operational errors virtually stayed flat between fiscal years 2010 and 2011. But the most serious errors increased from 37 in fiscal year 2009 to 43 in 2010 to 55 in 2011.

The FAA's new software system, called the Traffic Analysis and Review Program, or TARP, automatically identifies losses of separation between aircraft and other objects; it logs the incidents in FAA databases without any input from local officials.

TARP, now fully implemented across the agency's network of radar-control centers, generated about 600 to 900 additional reports of losses of separation daily, according to congressional testimony earlier this year by the inspector general.

Source:   http://online.wsj.com

Federal Aviation Administration faces air controller shortages: report

The Federal Aviation Administration faces ongoing challenges in staffing the nation’s air traffic control towers, Congress‘ chief watchdog said, following a tumultuous few years of several high-profile examples of controllers falling asleep on the job and budget cuts that forced the agency to furlough thousands of workers.

After several air traffic controllers fell asleep on the job — some in the D.C. area — the FAA increased the amount of rest the controllers got between shifts and started requiring a second person to be on duty during overnight shifts.

The second person requirement is costing the agency an extra $1.9 million annually, but the Government Accountability Office said that could be offset by cutting overnight workers at 72 facilities that don’t get enough traffic to justify the after-hours shifts.

Plus, new software has been added that can alert managers if employees try to clock in during their mandatory rest period.

The GAO estimated that only about 1 percent of all shifts include controllers who have not gotten a minimum of eight or nine hours of rest, but said it remains concerned about the issue.

“Ensuring a well-rested, alert controller workforce is essential to the safe and efficient operation of the [national airspace system],” the GAO said.

Still, studies into fatigue are ongoing, investigators said, and the FAA might need to change its policies again as the effects of lack of sleep become better understood.

The nation’s aviation agency is also planning on hiring 11,700 new air traffic controllers by 2021 to replace those lost to budget cuts and retirement.

But investigators are concerned the hiring process is starting to take too long to train new workers.

“The average training time for new controllers rose by 41 percent, from 1.9 years in fiscal year 2009 to an average of 2.68 years in fiscal year 2012,” the GAO said.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com

Claiming Religious Discrimination, Air Traffic Controller Sues Federal Aviation Administration

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employee has filed charges against his employer and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) union, alleging religious discrimination.

Matthew Gray, with the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, claiming that union and FAA officials used his religious beliefs to punish him after he decided to resign from the union.

Gray, a Seventh-day Adventist, currently works at the FAA's Potomac facility. After resigning his membership in NATCA because he believes union membership is contrary to his faith, Gray was informed by a union official on Feb. 6 that he was being removed from his detail and transferred to another in which he would have to work on Saturdays as punishment for resigning from the union.

Instead of standing up to the union, Gray's manager told him he was complying with the union's transfer request because Gray "no longer represent[s] the best interests of NATCA."

A central doctrine of Gray's church is weekly worship and not working on Saturdays. Gray's old position allowed him to avoid any scheduling conflict between his work and religious obligations. By removing him from his old detail, however, union officials are effectively forcing Gray to work on Saturdays, find a replacement every week or lose his job.

Gray told union officials he only resigned from the union because of his religious beliefs and that the transfer would cause a scheduling conflict with his religious obligations. NATCA ignored his objections and went through with the transfer request.

"It's unconscionable that an independent-minded worker was punished for attempting to exercise his deeply held religious beliefs," says Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Workers shouldn't face retaliation for exercising their right not to join or affiliate with a labor union."

"We hope the EEOC and the Federal Labor Relations Authority will quickly step in and safeguard Matthew Gray’s religious beliefs," Semmens adds.

Story and Comments/Reaction:  http://www.charismanews.com

Low flying Boeing terrifies household

A family were left terrified after a plane loaded with enough aviation fuel to fly to the Middle East took off from Southend Airport and narrowly missed roof tops.

The white Boeing 737 jet took off for Jeddah at 3.20pm last Thursday, and passed very close to two homes in Prince Avenue, Westcliff.

A 51-year-old resident, who asked not to be identified, was in his garden when the jet roared above him at 250ft - instead of the usual 450ft.

The resident, whose elderly parents live with him, said: “I live directly on the flight path so I am used to planes going over, but this was extremely low. “I have never experienced anything like it.

“It wasn’t an easyJet plane. It was flying about half what they normally do. I thought it was going to take my aerial off at least! “I have lived here all my life and have never seen any plane fly so low.”

The resident’s 82-year-old father and 75-year-old mother were left in a state of shock.

His mum said: “It really frightened me so much. “I have angina and had to take my medication. I thought the roof was coming off it was so low. I’ve never heard anything like it. It was like a bomb coming down. It was really like during the war.

“I couldn’t stop shaking and every time I hear a plane now I think it’s going to happen again.” The plane had been at the airport for maintenance and was not carrying passengers.

David Lister, operations director at the airport, said: "The aircraft was a 737 that had been undergoing maintenance was flying out to the Middle East. Given the distance the aircraft was flying it had a full fuel load.

“The 737 has different performance characteristics to the A319's regularly seen flying in and out of London Southend Airport, so therefore it used more of the runway length and would have appeared lower than the majority of scheduled flights to people living in houses close to the end of the runway.”

Mr Lister added: “There were no safety concerns raised by air traffic regarding this flight and its routing complied with the airport's noise requirements." 

Story and Comments/Reaction:   http://www.southendstandard.co.uk

Gunmen at Tripoli Airport prevent Qatar Airways plane landing

A Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Tripoli today was reported to have landed instead in Alexandria after an armed group forced air traffic control staff at Tripoli International Airport to deny it permission to land there.

“We tried to negotiate with the armed group but did not succeed,” an airport official said. The plane was then diverted to Egypt because of fears that there might be trouble awaiting it at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport or even at Misrata or Benghazi. There were, the source said, “a considerable number of Libyans on board”.

According to the source, the flight refuelled at Alexandria and then returned to Doha. It is not known if any passengers disembarked at Alexandria.

The incident comes a day after a group of men forced their way into the Qatar Airways office at the airport and ordered staff to leave. The group reportedly said that they intended to prevent Qatari passenger and cargo aircraft from landing in Libya, although they would not say why. According to sources at the airport, they also said that they intended to force the closure of the downtown Qatar Airways office in Tripoli Tower.

Yesterday’s incident was condemned by the Interior Ministry which said that the attackers represented “only themselves”. In a statement, it described it as a “shameful” act that would send the wrong message about Libya to the international community and foreign companies and so hinder economic development and reconstruction projects.

Two months ago, Qatar Airways suspended flights to and from Benghazi after militiamen forced non-Libyans arriving on a flight from Doha back onto the plane and prevented Libyans from boarding it for the return flight to the Qatari capital. According to a Benghazi Local Council member at the time, the militiamen accused Qatar of interfering in Libya’s internal affairs.

There have been periodic protests in Tripoli, Benghazi and elsewhere as well as on social media sites alleging Qatari interference in Libya. These tend to surface at times of crisis. In May, there were anti-Qatar demonstrations in Tripoli, Benghazi and other towns after armed groups besieging the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice in Tripoli in support of the Political Isolation Law. At the time the demonstrators accused Qatar of involvement in the sieges and of backing Libyan Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Qatar strongly denied that accusations and was backed by the Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, who said that there was no evidence of Qatari interference.

Qatar Airways, which has been flying between Tripoli and Doha since 2003, reintroduced scheduled services between Doha and Tripoli in February last year following the revolution. Initially, the route was served three-times a week, via Alexandria, but due to demand the service went daily last August. Flights became non-stop in June.

It is a popular route with Libyans many of whom like to transit through Doha to other destinations in the Gulf and further east. Qatar Airways also flies cargo to Europe from Tripoli.

Source:  http://www.libyaherald.com

Kinston Global Transpark traffic tower facing 2014 cuts

WNCT 

KINSTON, N.C. - They've dodged the axe but they're not off the chopping block just yet. The federal budget allowed the traffic control tower at the Kinston Global Transpark to stay open until October of next year but after that, it's all up in the air. 

 "This tower has been open since 1974. A lot of other towers in this state have been open a lot of years. You just can't shut them down overnight," said Kinston Global Transpark Air Traffic Manager John Greene.

Last January that is exactly what sequestration was forcing the Federal Aviation Administration to do. Greene was one of the first to get the news.

"We were one of the 149 federal contract towers that were due to close right away," said Greene.

If the control tower were to be shut down, that would be more than 10,000 military operations that no longer come to the global transpark.

"The fighters basically said, unless we have a dire emergency, we can't come here without a tower," said Greene.

Greene says it wouldn't just be the military affected. The 11,500ft runway is the longest civilian runway in the state. In fact, it's one of the longest on the east coast meaning 757's and f15's, to forest official's operations, to 911 operations and even Air Force One uses these runways.

All of it managed from a farseeing control tower, now seeing into an uncertain future.

Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy sent a letter to Gov. Pat McCrory calling the loss of the tower a "major detriment to continued growth and development for this entire region."

"What will it take to get it back? That's a serious concern to the economic impact and liability to the future of the global transpark here in eastern North Carolina," said Murphy.

"I think they realized they can't just up and close the control towers like this. The people want them there," said Greene.

The operations of the tower are including in the 2014 fiscal year budget which has yet to be approved. That budget ends Sept. 30th and there is currently no outlook for continued funding.

Story and Video:  http://www.wnct.com

East Hills, New York, to hold aircraft noise meeting

Up in the sky in East Hills is neither a bird nor Superman.

According to village officials, the skies are filled instead with airplanes, buzzing loudly overhead and flying too low for comfort.

The village has scheduled a meeting at its Village Theater on Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in which it plans to discuss the problem with residents and devise a “plan of action” against the federal government, which regulates air traffic control.

The meeting is open to the first 100 residents who register online, but Village of East Hills Mayor Michael Koblenz said in an e-mail sent to residents on July 29 that he urges all residents to sign a petition “requesting the FAA and Port Authority equitably distribute the routes so that the burden is shared fairly by all communities.”

“It’s a nuisance and we’re going to do what we can do,” Koblenz said. “I’m not saying you can stop it, I’m just saying okay, let’s have equal distribution, don’t put everything over Long Island.”

On July 16, Koblenz met with Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and village officials from across the North Shore at Old Brookville’s Village Hall to discuss the flow of air traffic on Long Island.

“I am committed to working with the FAA and local mayors to continue the communication and see that we arrive at an acceptable resolution to this quality of life issue,” Israel said in a statement.

Koblenz has urged residents in attendance at board of trustees meetings in recent months to write letters voicing their discontent with the noise to Israel and state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), and the village created an aircraft noise abatement committee at its May 20 meeting to direct residents’ complaints.

Josh Peltz, who at the time had recently moved to the village, was appointed the committee’s chair.

“As mayor, I can’t really do anything,” Koblenz said. “I can rally the troops as much as I can rally troops, but I’ve already done that. Congressman Israel has been very helpful and he’s done all he can do.”

The village sent an e-mail to residents on July 23 signed by Koblenz in which he said 43 percent of John F. Kennedy Airport arrivals in June were rerouted to runway 22L, which has increased the amount of aircraft flying over East Hills.

Koblenz wrote the FAA had previously agreed that the runway would only be used as a last resort, and the action presents “an alarming pattern which is greatly increasing both noise and air pollution throughout our community.”

Koblenz suggested residents call the Port Authority directly to voice their dissatisfaction with the air traffic, rather than call the Town of North Hempstead’s 311 line, because large numbers of complaints would be noticed by FAA officials and action would be taken.

Efforts to reach the FAA Tuesday were unavailing.

Koblenz said he began writing letters to the FAA in 1999 about air traffic control, and while the noise has improved at times over the years, a permanent solution has not been found.

“We want our fair share of equitable landings,” Koblenz said. “I’m not saying don’t fly over us, because that’s stupid, but maybe don’t always fly over the same place.”

Koblenz last week returned from a family vacation to Europe in which he said his plane flew into John F. Kennedy Airport from over the Atlantic Ocean and did not pass over Long Island on its route.

“Maybe you do a few more of those instead of flying right over your house,” Koblenz said.

Source:  http://www.theislandnow.com

Milton Poised for Long-Term Fight with Federal Aviation Administration Over Logan Aircraft Noise

The Board of Selectmen have declined to pursue an appeal over runway 33L but promised to fight noise from airplanes going into Logan in general.

When Chris Devine moved with his wife and two young daughters from the North End to Mark Lane in Milton last fall, he was expecting a reprieve from the commotion of city life.

Like many residents who live under the relatively narrow air corridors in which airplanes land and take off from Logan International Airport, when the Devines visited their prospective home and then purchased it, they had no idea that they had signed up for a life-changing experience.

Instead of the occasional fire alarm, late-night revelers and car horns of Commercial Street, the Devines now hear the unmistakable and impossible-to-ignore blast of jet airliners sometimes 12 to 14 hours non-stop and often in the dead of night.

"It starts to impact your life," Devine said.

A group of Milton residents, the Milton Citizens Committee on Aviation Impacts, have been pursuing an appeal of the newest flight path, for Runway 33L, which brings departures from Logan Airport above Milton, but are also gearing up for a long-term battle with the Federal Aviation Administration over what they say is an unfair amount of airplane traffic over just one town out of the dozens in the Boston area.

Residents said this week that they will file an appeal with the First Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals in Boston over 33L despite recommendations from the town lawyer and others to the contrary. It is vital to long-term strategy to force the FAA to reconsider what they say are the flawed arguments the agency used to implement the new air corridor last month.

"It makes on impact on them," Phillip Johenning, one of the committee organizers, said.

The deadline to appeal the 33L runway implementation is Aug. 3. Sheryl Fleitman, co-chair of the citizens committee, said the FAA did not consider the full population of Milton in its study, ignoring group settings like schools and retirement homes, did not consider alternative routes and did not listen to public input.

The FAA by law does not have to respond to individual comments about its plans, but residents have complained that the agency has completely ignored their concerns in its bulk responses. But that is also one reason why Town Counsel John Flynn recommended to the Board of Selectmen that they forgo an appeal of 33L.

Last week, the selectmen declined to file their own appeal on behalf of the town. Instead they said they would pursue a strategy that encompassed all of Milton's flight corridors. Town Administrator Annemarie Fagan will send a letter to U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano as a first step.

It would be "difficult" to get an appeals court to overturn the FAA's decision on 33L, Flynn said, in part because of the deference that the courts show to federal agencies. It would also be an expensive undertaking, requiring the hiring of a consultant to appeal the runway addition, and Milton would likely fail, he said.

David Godine, who has fought airplane noise over Milton for more than three decades, urged residents and the selectmen to focus on the bigger picture. More than 50 percent of flights landing at two of the runways at Logan approach over Milton, he said, and more and more are landing every year.

"This is a battle we should give up and concentrate on the war," Godine, an alternate member of the regional Logan Airport Community Advisory Committee. said of 33L. "It ignores the gorilla in the room."

If the FAA does not agree at the urging of residents and town officials to compromise on the air corridors, Godine said, then the town should be prepared to sue.

"There is a problem in Milton," Selectman Thomas Hurley said. "I think we all know there is a problem in Milton."

Other towns disagree with the severity of the problem, though, and declined to join Milton in pursuing the possible 33L appeal. Fagan told the Board of Selectmen that she reached out to officials in Belmont, Newton, Dedham, Canton and Randolph and all said they were not impacted enough to get behind the effort.

Johenning, who lives under the same flight path as Devine, on Parkwood Drive, said that the push to appeal the newest runway is an important part of the long-term strategy because it builds consensus.

"Everybody ignores you if you don't have a bunch of friends," Johenning said.

He moved to his current home in 2009 from Quincy. The noise has gotten worse since then, sometimes to the tune of 400 flights a day. He can often identify the model of aircraft, when it was made and what the landing gear look like.

"This is not insignificant, this is not silly, this is not frivolous," Johenning said. "It's teeth-shaking loud. ... During the Super Bowl, it felt like we were being dive-bombed."

Story:  http://milton.patch.com

Palestinian Authority Pirate Radio Signals Interfere with Air Traffic Controllers at Ben Gurion International Airport

Signals from Palestinian Authority pirate radio stations are interfering with the air tower communication network at Ben Gurion International Airport.

Officials from the Israel Airports Authority turned to the Ministry of Communications on Sunday, asking that the source of the interference be tracked down.

All radio transmissions are regulated by law; unauthorized signals are subject to termination, and their operators can be charged with in connection with the broadcast.

Pirate broadcast signals also interfere with reception of Israeli radio stations throughout Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron), as well as broadcast signals in the northern Negev region.

At some points along Highway 60, from northern Samaria through Jerusalem and down to the southern Judea and into the Negev, the radio band is so thick with signals from pirate Arab radio stations it is impossible to pick up any Israeli broadcast at all. 

At Ben Gurion International Airport, however, the situation is particularly dangerous, as the interference in reception impacts on air tower communication with pilots.

Departures and arrivals may be affected as a result, since the times between landing and takeoffs must be spread out in order to prevent danger to aircraft and passengers, officials said.

Source:   http://www.israelnationalnews.com