)
The Tower Controller
Tower control lives in the upper part of the control tower
at ~30m height. The outside view is as amazing as getting paid for looking
outside the window all day. The tower controller operates in a control
zone (CTR) which extends from ground to 2500 feet QNH in a radius of approximately
10 kilometers around Luxembourg airport. Above the control zone lies
the terminal control area (TMA) where Approach
control is operating.
The aim of the tower controller is to efficiently integrate departing
and arriving IFR and VFR aircraft into a safe flow of air traffic while
observing all air and ground movements either visually or by surveillance radar.
Diversity in tower control is very high. There are regular, charter, training or
private flights, rescue & police helicopters and a high percentage of VFR flights.
A DFS/UniDo study shows that the most stress occurs in Tower control.
It is fast paced and requires sharp decisions within shortest planning time.
The control zone is class D airspace which allows for some freedom for
VFR traffic in visual meteorological conditions. Approximately 9oooo movements
are handled each year which corresponds to an average of one movement every
4 minutes during the opening times of the airport. Among all the traffic
movements, two thirds are international and one third are local VFR flights.