On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 15:17:54 GMT, "Steven P. McNicoll"
wrote:

Approach controls ARE associated with airports, that's the reason they were
created.

Let's look at an example of a middle of the road approach control facility;
Madison TRACON in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison approach serves and is
located on Truax Field in Madison. They also serve eight other airports
with SIAPs in the area, but about 85% of MSN TRACON's traffic is generated
by Truax Field. MSN TRACON was created for the purpose of handling
instrument operations at Truax Field. Once it was created it was in a
position to provide services to these other airports and does so, but it
would never have been created if Truax Field was not there. Without Truax
there would be no Madison TRACON and Chicago Center would be providing IFR
services to these other airports on a full-time basis.


I have a side question to this... Is it ever the case that an approach
is created because the combination of many small airports makes it a
good idea/worthwhile? I'm specifically thinking of Cape TRACON in
this instance. It seems to control a mismash of airports, MVY, ACK,
HYA, etc. Or maybe sometime in the past it was more tied to a
particular airport and then as traffic grew it expanded its reach?

I guess those sorts of things are pretty much only decided on the
basis of traffic volume?

aw