Field Trip: Tower Visit at Salem Airport

I was driving to Salem yesterday for a work engagement, and since I was going to be near the Salem airport I decided to give the tower staff a call on my way down, to see if it would be possible to drop in and see how a tower operates. The tower manager, Cindy, took my name and said I could drop by.

When I arrived, she "buzzed" me in the door and I hiked up the stairs to the big angled glass room. Actually, it's not really that big, but it's roomy enough for the three or four people working up there. When the tower is open (it closes at 9 p.m. each day) there are at least two people generally working - One person focused on ground traffic and the other dealing with traffic in the air to and from the airport. A special phone system lets the controllers speak quickly with Seattle Center or anyone else in the system they might need to work with receive or hand off traffic. The ground controller also records the weather and airport information that pilots listen to on the radio (ATIS).

Hanging from the ceiling on some springy lines are the light guns that controllers can use to shine colored light codes to aircraft that they can't contact via radio. The air controller has a power pair on binoculars and is looking out for aircraft to in the area that he may or may not be talking to on the radio.

I asked what information they thought pilots need to know, the things that make their jobs easier and the skies and airport safer. Cindy said that letting them know where you are and where you're intending to go as early as possible is important, and that the accuracy of your position information (distance out and especially direction from the airport) is quite important. There's a big difference between saying you're north of the airport vs. northwest of the airport, for example, when the runways are at 160 and 130 magnetic headings.

It was an interesting quick visit. I think visualizing what air traffic controllers are doing and getting a brief view into their world is helpful in terms of understanding what that faceless person on the other end of the radio is doing, and why. I'd recommend a tower visit to anyone flying who's never done the field trip before. I appreciate being allowed the opportunity in Salem.

My next tower visit will need to be to the one at the Portland-Hillsboro airport. The Hillsboro tower is very busy and is the closest one to my home airport (just a few miles to the north), plus they have radar service there (which they don't have in Salem), so to see some additional and different aspects of ATC.