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robin(at)PaintTheWeb.com
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 Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:07 am Post subject: Airport Tower Closures |
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I was reviewing the published list of 149 airport tower closures and was really surprised that I have landed 26 of the 149 on the list. I was further surprised that one of my home airports Whiteman (WHP) is slated for tower closure. Now I totally understand that if some towers MUST be closed than choices need to be made and I further understand the NIMBY attitude of sure close some towers but not MY towers. That being said let me describe WHP to you and you can decide if this tower closure is a good idea.
WHP is a one runway airport that sits under the Los Angeles Class B veil for LAX. WHP is 4 miles from Burbank commercial airport and 4 miles from Van Nuys airport both very busy hubs if aviation. Furthermore WHP sits near the Newhall pass which is a bit of a funnel for aircraft feeding into and out the San Fernando Valley. Additionally WHP hosts 5 of LA's news helicopters which park and hover taxi maybe 90 feet from the runway centerline adjacent to the 30 run up area. Whitman is also home for the CDF (California Fire Department) heavy lift fire helicopters. Wikipedia says that Cal Fire is "one of the largest non-military air programs in the country that includes 11 UH01H Super Huey helicopters flying out of WHP. I know because they park and take off right behind my WHP hangar. The launch/landing area for CDF is "not visible" from the tower and requires extra tower control care for transitioning in and out of this area. WHP also hosts a modest amount of student training. Not a great deal of student training because costs have driven away many who may be interested in learning to fly. Additionally there is a fair amount of police helicopter activity in the area because WHP is near some major highways 5, 118, 405, 101, 134, 210. Police tent to hover right at TPA for WHP.
So the typical WHP weekend scenario is the student pilot doing T & G's while 3 737's are queued up to land Burbank as Golf streams are rocketing out of VNY with police helicopters hovering over the nearby freeways while the news choppers hover taxi back to their landing pad after their mornings work and small aircraft transition into and out of BUR or VNY. All while CDF heavy lift choppers fly in and out of their compound directly under the Left Downwind but blind to what is happening on and around the active runway. This is all occurring under LAX's Class B vial, under the VNY airspace and in a little carve out of the Burbank airspace (SFC/4800'). All this with mountain peaks covering 180 degrees and within 5 miles of WHP. I have heard the tower chew out oblivious pilots dozens and dozens of times for clueless & illegal transitioning of the airspace. I literally fear what it will be like w/o any control. It is not unusual for me to see 15+ traffic targets on my display.
Last week I flew into WHP VFR but reporting 3 miles and haze. Not that uncommon. I have flown into WHP well over 500 times and it was very difficult for me to pick up the runway 3 miles out even though I am quite familiar with the topography. I am fortunate to have beautiful large PFD/MFD with traffic but I am painfully aware that most aircraft in the area do not have nearly my experience and knowledge of the area or my selection of equipment.
This is just one story of 149. I hope it does not end up a horror story.
Robin
[quote][b]
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acepilot(at)bloomer.net
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| Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 11:33 am Post subject: Airport Tower Closures |
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You could always move to the upper midwest where we have several towers slated for closure that probably won't even be missed. The strangest one on the list to me is Oshkosh. How will they do the big airshow? They just built that new huge tower a few years ago. Maybe they can turn it into an apartment complex for pilots. 
On 3-23-2013 17:06, Robin Marks wrote: | Quote: | <![endif]--> <![endif]-->
I was reviewing the published list of 149 airport tower closures and was really surprised that I have landed 26 of the 149 on the list.
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rwstracy(at)gmail.com
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| Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:32 pm Post subject: Airport Tower Closures |
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There may well be some closed towers that are really needed but I'm wondering why there is no coverage of the opposite side of the story.
Here in Florida we had the most tower closures. I thought for sure the Hernando County airport would be among them as the recently built tower was a waste of money in my opinion. No commercial operations and I've never had to wait for traffic landing or taking off, so light is the use. But nope, Hernando's tower will not be affected.
Tracy Crook
RV-4 1900 hrs
RV-8 130 hrs
Sent from my iPad
On Mar 23, 2013, at 3:32 PM, Scott <acepilot(at)bloomer.net (acepilot(at)bloomer.net)> wrote:
[quote] You could always move to the upper midwest where we have several towers slated for closure that probably won't even be missed. The strangest one on the list to me is Oshkosh. How will they do the big airshow? They just built that new huge tower a few years ago. Maybe they can turn it into an apartment complex for pilots.
On 3-23-2013 17:06, Robin Marks wrote: | Quote: | <![endif]--> <![endif]-->
I was reviewing the published list of 149 airport tower closures and was really surprised that I have landed 26 of the 149 on the list.
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<sig.jpg>
[b]
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vanremog(at)aol.com
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| Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:20 pm Post subject: Airport Tower Closures |
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There certainly is a case to be made for some of these towers to continue with moderate and/or sporadic traffic, if it can be shown that they are highly useful for training purposes. I know my little airport at Livermore CA is a sleepy little place during the week that gets a little gnarly on the nice weekends.
How this situation might be best staffed is really the question. Furthermore, there needs to be some objective way to evaluate these cases for keeping them open other than you happen to have a Senator who is owed a favor, or knows where the bodies are buried.
BTW, I don't think that KOSH is that crowded most of the time and I would think that they have controllers falling all over themselves to work during Airventure week.
-GV
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Bob Collins
Joined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 470
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
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| Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:25 pm Post subject: Airport Tower Closures |
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Is Hernando an FAA tower or a contract tower. Busier contract towers are
being closed before sleepy FAA towers.
Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
-----Original message-----
From: Tracy <rwstracy(at)gmail.com>
To: "rv-list(at)matronics.com" <rv-list(at)matronics.com>
Sent: Sat, Mar 23, 2013 20:31:29 GMT+00:00
Subject: Re: Airport Tower Closures
There may well be some closed towers that are really needed but I'm
wondering why there is no coverage of the opposite side of the story.
Here in Florida we had the most tower closures. I thought for sure the
Hernando County airport would be among them as the recently built tower was
a waste of money in my opinion. No commercial operations and I've never
had to wait for traffic landing or taking off, so light is the use. But
nope, Hernando's tower will not be affected.
Tracy Crook
RV-4 1900 hrs
RV-8 130 hrs
Sent from my iPad
On Mar 23, 2013, at 3:32 PM, Scott <acepilot(at)bloomer.net> wrote:
| Quote: | You could always move to the upper midwest where we have several towers
slated for closure that probably won't even be missed. The strangest one on
|
the list to me is Oshkosh. How will they do the big airshow? They just
built that new huge tower a few years ago. Maybe they can turn it into an
apartment complex for pilots.
| Quote: |
On 3-23-2013 17:06, Robin Marks wrote:
>
> I was reviewing the published list of 149 airport tower
closures and was really surprised that I have landed 26 of the 149 on the
|
list.
| | - The Matronics RV-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?RV-List |
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_________________
Bob Collins
St. Paul, Minn.
Letters from Flyover Country
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