lucky
i took 6102H up for a few touch and go’s this morning, which was a great experience - considering the thermals and overall bumpy approaches the summer heat is stirring up. it was fun and i was fortunate to have to opportunity to work on improving my landings in such situations.
after lunch with lindsay, i decided to skip the pile of web work on my plate and swing by the control tower at nashville international airport. von and i will soon start my atc familiarization and i’m been preparing for that day. i thought i’d stop by, since i couldn’t find a number to call, to obtain information on procedures for tower tours. back before september 11, tours could be given to anyone. but now, security is extremely tight and only licensed pilots (or student pilots) have the ability to make such requests from the tower.
i had no idea about the tower - i didn’t even know how to get there (which turns out to be the easy part). it looked like a maximum security prison and i had no idea where i could even initiate communication to obtain the info i was seeking. as i turned around in the flight service stations parking lot, i noticed a man standing outside the tower building on his smoke break. for those of you that know me, i’ll talk to pretty much anyone and one of my goals is to be a friend to everyone i meet. so, i asked the guy, through the fence, what my situation was and what i needed to do to set up a time to see how everything worked… turns out, i asked the right guy.
he let me in, checked me in through security, got me a visitor badge and proceeded to show me everything. by everything, i do mean everything - the radar room, how the system works, where the individuals sat that controlled departure & approach, services atc provides, what everything looked like FROM THE TOWER and more. it was an invaluable experience and one that i will not soon forget.
those air traffic controllers have an amazing job and do it VERY well.