"Jay Honeck" wrote:
That's my point. After ten years and 1400 hours, we're far more
comfortable
flying into busy non-controlled airspace than we are flying into so-called
controlled Class D airspace. That is a clear indication that Class D is
not
working properly.

My Class D airport works great and would be less safe without the tower, IMO.
It gets extremely busy at times with a mix of industrial helicopters,
military training, freighter heavies and GA jets and props. It has an FAA
tower with contract controllers; a veteran crew with solid techniques for
handling the peculiarities of the local traffic and airspace. I'd hate to
see the tower closed, as its controllers have always been better at calling
traffic than the local TRACON folks. Now that they finally have DBRITE
they've gotten even better. We kid them that it's taken all the fun out of
their jobs because we can't sneak up on them anymore.

When the airspace is
dead (as it usually is at a Class D tower), everything works fine --
although certainly no better than in "non-towered" airspace.

It's only when traffic picks up that things can get hairy -- which is truly
absurd when you consider that there wouldn't even BE a reason for a tower
except for those busy times.

I have negligible experience at other Class Ds, but my experience where I'm
based has been just the opposite.
--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM