Byron Miller wrote:

I have been learning to fly and hanging out at KLNS (Lancaster PA) for
years, and it has been a privatized airport tower ever since i've known
about it.

Nicest controllers, safe airport and friendly skies. They're not any more
incompetant than a "guvenment" controller and most certainly they enjoy
aviation and the lifestyle just as much as anyone else could!



I would like to second this opinion based on my positive experiences
flying out of San Carlos, CA (KSQL), a contract tower. They sure are
easier to deal with than the folks at nearby Hayward (HWD), a unionized
tower.

There are two separate issues at play in the debate. First, we pilots
represented by organizations like AOPA don't want to have to pay
anything for air traffic services. Second, federal air traffic
controller employees represented by a labor union want to get paid well
and preserve their jobs. The union would like you to believe that
allowing the government to hire contractors means pilots will have to
pay for ATC, however the two issues are not related in this way.

The choice by the government to employ contractors to run a tower
instead of unionized federal employees is actually a good thing for us
pilots who don't want to pay for air traffic services, because the
contract towers are significantly cheaper for the government to operate,
while actually providing a statistically higher level of safety to
pilots according to a recent government audit from the Inspector
General's office conducted at the request of the ATC labor unions. You
can download the report here and judge the data for yourself:

http://www.oig.dot.gov/item_details.php?item=1161

While there are many opinions on this issue, the data presented in the
report seems clear.
-angus