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Tower Closing KGKY? Info from airport MGR

txaviator

txaviator

Well Known Member
Tower Closing KGKY? (NO! Update: it's staying open)

*** I previously posted that the tower at KGKY (Arlington, TX Municipal) was on the list for closure. For some unknown reason, that post was deleted. I only post this in the North Texas sub-section for the sake of information / safety, for someone who may be flying into our airport/airspace, and used to expecting help from our tower. We are in quite busy airspace. ***

Here is the latest letter from our airport manager:

Date: March 8, 2013
To: Commercial Operators and Tenants
From: Karen VanWinkle, Airport Manager
Update - Control Tower Closure Due to Sequestration
The FAA advised us on March 5th that the tower is slated for closure. No date was given, but we?ve been advised by the Contract Tower Association Director that the closures would take place on April 7th. We continue to work hard with our industry organizations and elected officials, but the FAA insists that the closures are necessary. Again, I want to emphasize that if the Air Traffic Control Tower is closed, the Airport will continue to operate 24/7 even if we have to revert to uncontrolled airspace. We also continue to work on a number of options with regard to maintaining air traffic control services, including continuing the contract with Robinson Aviation (RVA) for staffing or City operation of the control tower, with reduced hours. Since 19 airports in Texas are affected, we are also working closely with TxDOT Aviation on some possible cooperatives.
 
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Thanks Gary, good info. Looks like we are loosing KGTW tower services in our area, and more to come in the VERY near future.
 
Of all the towers that need to close, and there are no towers that need to close, Arlington Municipal is the last one on my list. This is a dangerous airspace without traffic control.
With the ridiculous government cutbacks, how is this going to effect flight following?
 
KSMO is on that list as well, but I'm guessing it'll be spared because that's the airport used by Marine One during presidential visits. I seriously doubt the POTUS will put up with rush hour on the 405 in the motorcade.

Even so, running SMO as uncontrolled will be very interesting, given the amount of traffic in the area.
 
GKY Closure

There may be some confusion here. Arlington is a contract tower that operates under the FCT program. This is a program where a sponsor petitions the FAA for a grant to operate a local tower. They are at airports where the FAA has deemed traffic to be such that the cost/efficiency rating does not warrant a federal tower. The program allows the sponsor and the FAA to share the cost with operational oversight by the FAA. The controllers are certified and are 99% retired federal controllers or ex-military.

What the FAA has done with the sequester is to announce they will no longer share the expense at certain towers. Of course if the sponsor (in this case the City of Arlington) wishes to pick up the tab they may do so. They would be fools to do so however because a new favorable federal budget might decide to let them continue to pay if they already proved they could.

Regardless, ultimate "see and avoid" responsibility continues to reside with the pilot. The City of Arlington decided they needed a tower to attract business and were willing to pay. Now there is a numbers crunch and no one wants to pony up.
 
Peterk said:
There may be some confusion here. Arlington is a contract tower that operates under the FCT program. This is a program where a sponsor petitions the FAA for a grant to operate a local tower. They are at airports where the FAA has deemed traffic to be such that the cost/efficiency rating does not warrant a federal tower. The program allows the sponsor and the FAA to share the cost with operational oversight by the FAA. The controllers are certified and are 99% retired federal controllers or ex-military.

What the FAA has done with the sequester is to announce they will no longer share the expense at certain towers. Of course if the sponsor (in this case the City of Arlington) wishes to pick up the tab they may do so. They would be fools to do so however because a new favorable federal budget might decide to let them continue to pay if they already proved they could.

Regardless, ultimate "see and avoid" responsibility continues to reside with the pilot. The City of Arlington decided they needed a tower to attract business and were willing to pay. Now there is a numbers crunch and no one wants to pony up.
Click to expand...

Agreed! And with Grand Prairie's tower/airport only being a couple of miles away, this airspace does get congested! Inbound from the South, the tower has many times alerted me to traffic over Joe Pool lake, that were on a vector for KGPM and not on the Arlington frequency. Sometimes I had already seen them, and sometimes not. See and avoid is absolutely the case as you mentioned, but the tower does help tremendously when their time allows.

Make's me wonder if a private individual wouldn't help pony up the cash for tower controllers? Jerry Jones comes to mind. Since my hangar is on the runway/taxiway, I make it a point to go out there especially on days of big collegiate bowl games at Cowboys Stadium, NFL games, etc. I've never seen so many high dollar aircraft in one place in my entire life. During the Super Bowl, security was high, and the tower communications were constant. Mix all of this in with ATP operating HEAVILY out of Arlington, and I am one person who would love to see them stay in place. We'll wait and see what happens...Thanks for your reply.
 
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KGKY Tower Will Remain OPEN

I just received an email from the airport manager at KGKY (Arlington Municipal Airport), Arlington, TX.

Our airport somehow made it onto a new list of 24-airports, that the FAA has decided to now leave their control towers open & operational.
 I'd post the full list of the 24-airports nationwide, but she sent it as a pdf and I'm not too sure how to copy and paste that into this message.

This is great news for us around the KGKY area- at least in my opinion. Grand Prairie Municipal, only a short few miles away, did not appear on the list. So be prepared to listen for Grand Prairie traffic on their unicom. The two airports share a great deal of generalized airspace (approaching from the south over Joe Pool Lake comes immediately to mind).
 
GKY needed that tower, there is a reason it was nick named ?GO Kill Yourself?! Of all on the Texas list, it should have stayed open and no it is not my home airport and yes mine (KTYR) is on the closer list.
 
The scare list from a few weeks ago had contract and FAA towers on the list. This list is only contract towers. Does that mean that all the FAA towers are to remain open?
 
Both Grand Prairie (GPM) and Fort Worth Spinks (FWS) to stay open as well

Looks like both of the above will stay open for now. Listed under "FAA Contract Tower Cost Share Sites Remaining Open". Based at Arlington (GKY) so this is good news. Lots of traffic under class B airspace over lots of homes and schools so makes good sense.

Gerald
RV-10
 
They're closing Georgetown and Conroe TX while keeping Ardmore , OK open. That is really backwards. KGTU and KCXO have tons of traffic while KADM has almost none.
 
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