Day 4

FAA Academy – Terminal Class

Day 4

Items Covered Today: Tower Visibility, Airport Conditions, Uses & Lighting, Aircraft

Phraseology Review.

Once again the day started at 0700 local, which meant I was up at 0530, or as I say, O-dark-30. The temperature has gone down a good 10 degrees from the past few days and it actually rained overnight and for a bit this morning, helping to cool things off. Unfortunately, that just meant more humidity during the day.

First thing this morning was our first Block exam, which covered AT Facility Training, overview, evaluation & statistical data, Aircraft Recognition, Tower Cab Equipment, and Disseminating Weather, and finally Introduction to ASOS. After cramming for the first block test all day yesterday and well into the evening last night and literally falling asleep with my Block 1 study guide on my lap, I walked in this morning to a 27-question test that I and nearly the entire class got 100% on.  On the bright side, all that studying worked out and I got a passing score. On the flip-side, I felt like I over-studied for what seemed to be a simple exam, and now I just hope I won’t walk into my next block exam feeling cocky and over-confident.

This morning we covered Tower Visibility, in preparation for the Tower Visibility Exam tomorrow. The exam is issued by the NWS. The test is 50-questions with a passing score being 80% or better. If you fail the exam, the NWS makes you wait 2 weeks before re-taking the exam. If you fail a second time, it’s another 2 week wait, and so on and so on. Once you pass the Tower Visibility Exam, you’ll receive your Tower Vis Certificate which is good for 1 year. You must make at least observation every 60 days to remain current, and receive annual refresher training in visibility reporting procedures. If your tower does not have an assigned NWS office on or nearby the airport, you will also have to observe and record complete weather observations and become LAWRS certified.

The second-half of the day we covered Airport Conditions, Uses & Lighting. This lesson covers who has legal ownership of the runway (hint… it’s NOT the Tower Controller), closed/unsafe runway information, Braking action (Good, Fair, Poor, Nil) and when/how to solicit and report it, arresting system operations, Runway Use Programs, Runway selection procedures, and finally airport lighting operations and procedures.

Finally we covered the Academy Airport Layout. The layout of the airport has changed slightly from my days at UND. Instead of 3 terminals (Alpha, Charlie & Delta), there is now only one terminal. There has been a slight change to the taxiway layout and names. The “Inner” Taxiway is now called “Taxiway India”. The “Throat” is now an extension of Taxiway India. Taxiway India (formerly the “Inner”) no longer extends straight across Runway 16. Lastly, what was the portion of the Inner Taxiway which is West of Runway 16 and North of Runway 10 and North of Taxiway Bravo is now Taxiway Kilo.

Some basic Taxiing instructions for Academy Airport: Not sure if any of the instructors there at UND teach this or not, but I know when I was there, whatever taxi-route we wanted to take planes to get them to Runway 28R/L at Alpha was pretty much up to our own discretion. This was nice at the time, because we had the freedom to practice different things and find out what worked and what didn’t. Today our instructors told us to consider Taxiways Bravo and India to be “One-Way Taxiways.” Aircraft on Bravo should only travel West-to-East, and aircraft on India should only travel East-to-West.

Example: Cheyenne 858PG is at Falcon Air and will be a VFR Departure from runway 28R at Charlie. Here is the proper phraseology: “CHEYENNE 858PG, RUNWAY 28 RIGHT AT CHARLIE, TAXI VIA GOLF, BRAVO. HOLD SHORT OF RUNWAY 16.”

When you [ground control] are ready to have the plane cross runway 16, you say to your local controller: “CROSS RUNWAY 16 AT BRAVO.” Your Local controller will then hand you what is referred to as “the butter stick” (a yellow strip-holder that says Runway 16/34) and tell you “CROSS RUNWAY 16 AT BRAVO.” The local controller hands you the butter stick because at that moment when your aircraft is taxiing across an active runway, you are the controller of that runway. Once the aircraft completes crossing runway 16, you hand the butter stick back to the local controller and say “RUNWAY 16 CROSSING COMPLETE.” The local controller will respond back with his/her operating initials, i.e. “RW.” That leads to another point… when saying your operating initials, you do not have to say “ROMEO WHISKEY,” you just say the letter without the phonetic spelling.

If an aircraft has landed on Runway 28 Right and exited at Delta and is headed to Falcon or Spartan, have the aircraft taxi to Falcon or Spartan via India, Hotel (or India, Juliet, Echo, Hotel) and to hold short of Runway 16. Example: “CITATION 550TA, TAXI TO SPARTAN AVIATION VIA INDIA, HOTEL. HOLD SHORT OF RUNWAY 16.” The same runway crossing procedures should be used as stated above.

Two more little tidbits: If Runways 28R and 28L are in use for departures & arrivals, and you (as the ground controller) have a VFR aircraft request a Runway 16 departure, you must do an Appreq with the local controller. Phraseology: “APPREQ RUNWAY 16 DEPARTURE FOR PIPER 6766G."

Lastly, since military aircraft do not normally have the current ATIS information, we have to issue them the Runway, wind and altimeter when giving them their taxi clearance. When I was at UND, the phraseology was: “SAMP 44, RUNWAYS 28 RIGHT & 28 LEFT IN USE, WIND TWO FIVE ZERO AT SIX, ALTIMETER TWONINER NINER SEVEN. RUNWAY TWO-EIGHT RIGHT, TAXI VIA ALPHA.”

Now the phraseology for military is: “SAMP 44, RUNWAY TWO-EIGHT RIGHT, TAXI VIA ALPHA. WIND TWO FIVE ZERO AT SIX, ALTIMETER TWO NINER NINER SEVEN.” In other words, you no longer need to say which runways are in use and then say the runway to taxi to, it’s redundant.