August 24, 2003
Best air facilities win honor
FAA: Merrill Field control tower and Kotzebue flight station were mistake-free.
One of my older brothers is mentioned in this article and to me, that's pretty cool. It's rough weather in Alaska, and going mistake free for the year 2002 is a great accomplishment.
The Merrill Field control tower in Anchorage and the Kotzebue Flight Service Station received top honors Friday for being mistake-free in 2002.It was the first time that the control tower and the air station received "Facility of the Year" national awards.
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The Kotzebue station, which is 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle and oversees an area about the size of Colorado, is doing an outstanding job in extremely difficult conditions, he said.
"Kotzebue, what can you say? What a challenge," he said.
The flight service station is a hub for between 25 and 30 villages in Northwestern Alaska. In 2002, it provided 131,447 flight services, an average of 360 per day. Those services included pilot briefings, flight planning and weather reporting.
The Kotzebue facility, unlike Merrill Field's control tower, built in 1999, is more than a half-century old. It is about 30 feet from the Bering Sea, said Earl Valley, assistant manager for air traffic in Fairbanks.
"It is a 1940s building with black specks in the water, a sewer line that freezes in the winter, and they sit around in their Arctic gear and still talk to the airplanes," he said.
Conditions in Kotzebue are so harsh that staff members work 10-hour days on an eight-days on, six-days off schedule so they can live in Fairbanks.
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"They work in some very rough conditions," Valley said.
Alaska is the only state that continues to staff most of its air stations. Stations elsewhere have been computerized and automated.
Linda Couture, Merrill's air traffic manager from January to November 2002, said Merrill is very busy and has a challenging runway configuration, consisting of two east-west runways and two north-south runways. In addition, Merrill has a gravel runway for planes with skis and tundra tires.
More than 900 planes are based at Merrill Field, which also has five flight schools.
Between April and August, the tower averages 20,184 takeoffs and landings a month. During peak summer days, the tower typically handles about 1,300 takeoffs and landings. Controllers, unlike at the larger Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, do not rely on radar to track planes on the ground. They use their eyes.
"This is a look-out-the-window-and-see-what's-coming type of airport," Couture said.
[ Full Story @ Ancorage Daily News ]
Source: Ancorage Daily News
Posted by akvalley at August 24, 2003 02:23 PM | TrackBack