HOW WE SEE IT: Tower Closing A Necessary Financial Move

When one hears a reference to the term “flying blind,” it’s usually understood to describe the act of doing something new without benefit of help or instructions.

Perhaps the worst place to hear the phrase uttered is inside the cockpit of an operating aircraft.

That, in a sense, is what the Federal Aviation Administration expects the pilots coming into Fayetteville Executive Airport to do. We’re not saying they will literally fly blind, but with news the FAA plans to shut down Fayetteville’s air traffic control tower, pilots will soon ascend and descend at the old Drake Field without the lead of that knowledgeable, calm voice from the ground.

Fayetteville is one of two Arkansas airports scheduled to lose air traffic control towers as a result of cost-cutting measures triggered by the federal government’s so-called sequester. On March 22, the agency announced it will close 149 contract towers around the nation.

Fayetteville’s tower is slated to close April 7.

Contract towers use employees from the private sector under arrangement with the FAA rather than federal air traffic controllers employed by the agency.

That, in part, explains why the agency can move so quickly. For federal controllers, union contracts require a year of negotiation on such decisions. For contractors, there’s no such requirement.

Reactions have been varied. The FAA says the moves can be done without compromising the safety of pilots and passengers. Others aren’t so sure.

“This is just unprecedented,” Spencer Dickerson, executive director of the U.S. Contract Tower Association, told Aviation International News. “It’s an attack on the contract tower program, it’s an attack on general aviation, it’s an attack on rural airports like I’ve never seen before and we’re going to do everything we can to stop the FAA from proceeding.”

Ray Boudreaux, the manager of Fayetteville’s airport, said other cuts could be made without harming air safety.

“Sure we can still operate, but it will be at greater risk without a tower to control the air space at the field,” he said.

Those unfamiliar with aviation might mistakenly believe all take-offs and landings are controlled by a guy in a tower. They’re not. General aviation pilots are trained and expected to know how to land or take oft at the many airports across the nation that do not have control towers. They do so by tuning their radios to a common frequency, announcing their presence near the airport and talking with any other nearby aircraft to coordinate all activities. That system will remain in place.

Of course, pilots and those who run these airports are upset. When it comes to flying, there’s a great comfort that comes with every layer of safety. But we’re not shocked by the decisions coming out of the FAA. In a nutshell, our stance is this: We support all the safety the nation can afford.

This nation has to get used to tightening the federal belt, which is already strained by leadership that cannot get other spending under control. Congress and the present must eliminate some federal spending, and yes, that means losing some programs.

It seems the cuts proposed so far are the easier ones - even if it seems some of them are designed to generate political reaction. The nation hasn’t even gotten close to the kinds of diff cult spending decisions necessary to get this nation back on track.

As for Fayetteville, it would be nice if it could keep its tower. But Northwest Arkansas can hardly insulate itself from all effects of federal spending cuts.

Indeed, there are probably more to come.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 04/02/2013

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