I like my privatized airport :)

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!

Heck they even volunteer to the ground schools and give tours when the FAA
allows!

Just thought i'd throw that in

--
-byron

// Totalsimulation.com // Flight Sim Resources!

"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.

I'm based at THV (York) so I get in and out of LNS quite a bit. The
controllers there are indeed very helpful, but I never realized it was a
contract tower. You live and learn, I guess. How would one go about
confirming whether another airport was a contract tower or not, I wonder?

--
Mike Granby, PP-ASEL,IA
Warrior N44578
http://www.mikeg.net/plane

"Mike Granby" writes:

"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.

I'm based at THV (York) so I get in and out of LNS quite a bit. The
controllers there are indeed very helpful, but I never realized it was a
contract tower. You live and learn, I guess. How would one go about
confirming whether another airport was a contract tower or not, I wonder?

Call then on the landline and ask?

Trenton-Mercer, NJ (KTTN) is a contract tower, AFAIR. When I was
working on my instruments at PNE, TTN was one of the places to go for
low approaches. I would have had no way of knowing that tower was any
different from others if my instructor didn't tell me.

Ari.

"Mike Granby" wrote in message
...
"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.

I'm based at THV (York) so I get in and out of LNS quite a bit. The
controllers there are indeed very helpful, but I never realized it was a
contract tower. You live and learn, I guess. How would one go about
confirming whether another airport was a contract tower or not, I wonder?

On the sectional or other chart it says "NFCT" for Non-Federal Control
Tower.

"Tom S." wrote in message
...

On the sectional or other chart it says "NFCT" for Non-Federal Control
Tower.


Do you know of an example? Not that I'm disputing it, it's just that I
don't know of any current NFCTs that I can check against a sectional. The
only two I was readily familiar with were UES and GYY, but they're both now
FAA Contract Towers. "NFCT" was removed from the sectional chart legend
about ten years ago, but both of those airports continued to be designated
NFCTs in their airport data blocks for several years after that. I don't
know when they joined the FAA contract tower program.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Tom S." wrote in message
...

On the sectional or other chart it says "NFCT" for Non-Federal Control
Tower.


Do you know of an example? Not that I'm disputing it, it's just that I
don't know of any current NFCTs that I can check against a sectional. The
only two I was readily familiar with were UES and GYY, but they're both
now
FAA Contract Towers. "NFCT" was removed from the sectional chart legend
about ten years ago, but both of those airports continued to be designated
NFCTs in their airport data blocks for several years after that. I don't
know when they joined the FAA contract tower program.

MRB, New Century (Olathe), Kansas (IXD)...do a Google search for
"non-federal control tower", there's a bunch.

"Tom S." wrote in message
...

MRB, New Century (Olathe), Kansas (IXD)...do a Google search for
"non-federal control tower", there's a bunch.


Neither of those is designated as an NFCT on the current sectional. My
A/FDs are from 2001, but IXD is designated as an FAA Contract Tower, MRB as
an FAA tower.

Nashua, NH (KASH) is a NFCT.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"Tom S." wrote in message
...

On the sectional or other chart it says "NFCT" for Non-Federal Control
Tower.


Do you know of an example? Not that I'm disputing it, it's just that I
don't know of any current NFCTs that I can check against a sectional. The
only two I was readily familiar with were UES and GYY, but they're both now
FAA Contract Towers. "NFCT" was removed from the sectional chart legend
about ten years ago, but both of those airports continued to be designated
NFCTs in their airport data blocks for several years after that. I don't
know when they joined the FAA contract tower program.

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

"Ray Andraka" wrote in message
...

Nashua, NH (KASH) is a NFCT.


It's not designated as an NFCT on the current sectional, my 2001 A/FD
indicates it's an FAA Contract Tower.

"Tom S." wrote in message ...
"Mike Granby" wrote in message
...

I'm based at THV (York) so I get in and out of LNS quite a bit. The
controllers there are indeed very helpful, but I never realized it was a
contract tower. You live and learn, I guess. How would one go about
confirming whether another airport was a contract tower or not, I wonder?

On the sectional or other chart it says "NFCT" for Non-Federal Control
Tower.

There is a differece. NFCT does mean Non-Federal control tower, but
very few contract towers are NFCT. NFCT signifies that the tower is
contracted by the airport owners/managers. In other words, the FAA
has no involvment in procuring services for the tower. A "contract
tower" is where the FAA has contracted with a private company to
provide ATC services. An NFCT usually exists where a municipality
wishes to have a tower, but there are not enough annual operations on
the field to justify the FAA paying for it. The municipality is free
to pay for their own tower and contract.

So, all NFCTs are contract towers, but very few contract towers are
NFCTs. I recall that either Glendale (GEU) or Goodyear (GYR) in the
PHX area used to have the NFCT designation on the sectional, but it's
not there anymore. Looks like both have enough operations for the FAA
to foot the bill for the tower contract now.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)