How often do controllers look out their window and make decisions visually at the airport?
Posted by gillmores@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 17 comments
Than
FrankDrebinOnReddit@reddit
Tower controllers do it all the time, it's their primary source for information about their airspace. TRACONS and centers, in the meantime, don't even have windows.
Middleage_dad@reddit
Are you located on the lower levels of the tower, or in a different facility
FrankDrebinOnReddit@reddit
I work from home. No, I'm not an ATC. TRACONs are often located in the interiors and lower floors of towers or colocated with en-route centers in nondescript office buildings.
2018birdie@reddit
I cannot think of a single tracon that is colocated with a center.
Tracons are either at the base of the tower (could be an up/down or it could be separate facilities) or in a standalone building (could be at the airport or it could be up to hundreds of miles away).
Noble_Gas_7485@reddit
Honolulu and Guam.
2018birdie@reddit
Fair fair. Those two are. Too far west for me to think about đ
Noble_Gas_7485@reddit
I get it. Not places that spring immediately to mind!
Go_Loud762@reddit
I thought there has been a push over the last decade or so to consolidate different regions into a central office.
For example, the Boston Consolidated TRACON, is in Merrimack, NH, and controls several airports in the region.
TheDrMonocle@reddit
There has been pushes and even building built for such things but very few have outside of some smaller approaches
WarthogOsl@reddit
Lol, I'm instantly reminded of the scene from close encounters of the third kind, where all the atc guys are huddled around a radar screen in a dark room.
ahhhhgeneparmesan@reddit
Local controllers (tower and ground) have massive windows that can see almost everything! TRACON (controls somewhere around 100ish miles within an airport but it varies) donât have any windows and rely on radar. Two instances Iâve heard; one from a tower, âI donât see you, report final finalâ, and from Tracon âgood morning or afternoon, I donât know I just need a windowâ
malcolmmonkey@reddit
More than pilots it seems. The amount of videos Iâve seen of people rolling onto a runway without visually checking the approach is scary.
Sasquatch-d@reddit
Thereâs quite a few examples both ways of runway incursions caused by pilots and ATC. Itâs not a âone is better than anotherâ argument but moreso that both sides need to be as vigilant as possible at all times to reduce errors.
anactualspacecadet@reddit
Theyâre supposed to visually clear final every time they clear you for takeoff and visually clear the runway every time they clear someone to land. So somewhere like ATL probably a few thousand times a day.
wotmate7@reddit
As someone that does it, I can say a lot. Not every tower has a 'radar screen' for the controller so some controllers rely entirely on visual separation. These would only normally be small airfields and also some military airfields I have visited.
A lot of controllers at airports other than the largest don't have a surface movement radar so the only way to know where aircraft on the ground are is to look at them. They would have a 'radar screen' but it cannot be used for as many things as an Approach controller can use their screen for. It is mostly to aid situational awareness to help you identify the aircraft visually out of the window.
In the UK where I am, a lot of procedures tower controllers use to sequence traffic is called 'reduced separation in the vicinity of the aerodrome' which can only be done if you have both the aircraft in sight.
jimdoe696@reddit
I work at an airport without ground radar. When we're running low visibility ops and can't see anything outside, you really start to notice how much you use the windows during normal ops.
EGLLRJTT24@reddit
Constantly? There's a reason why towers are positioned to give the best view of the airfield (even remote towers like at London City) and surrounding airspace