CYRP (my home airport) is just outside the Ottawa control zone, so we fly under the wedding cake north to the practice area, dipsy-doodle around for an hour, lose the appropriate altitude on the way home, circuit, land and we're done. No contact with ATC required.
So the school arranged a tower tour for this afternoon. Sunday is quiet, so having a bunch of wide-eyed students tromping about wasn't an incursion.
We started with a chat in the theatre with the shift supervisor where we got the real-world perspective of how things really work, then went up to the tower itself. We had a tour of the hardware, looked at the screens, enjoyed the view and chatted with the controllers on duty.
No more plastic strips being juggled and passed along like in the old movies... everything was computerized, aircraft existed on the computer screens only, and were passed along by using the touch screens.
One Eagle flight waiting for Philly had been sitting and parked for an hour - most of the eastern US seaboard was under weather. They were sent on their way while we were there, winging off to their destination and hour behind schedule before they even got wheels up.
The tour was an excellent idea. Thanks to this tour, entering a CZ is something I won't approach with apprehension.
About Me
- Jim
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- I'm a husband and father who always loved flying, and always had a reason to not go do it - mortgages, young kids, unemployment, whatever. For my 50th birthday my family, having heard enough, told me to go do what I should have done long ago (see the Feb 10 2006 post). This is my "Dear Diary".
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