Contract the Tower

That says “ContRact”, not contact. I saw this story on the web yesterday and it reminded me of the whole contract Tower affair.

Serco Awarded Air Traffic Control Top Honors

” The fourth busiest single runway operation in the United States, the Phoenix Goodyear Tower successfully managed more than 190,000 error-free operations in 2007, representing an 86% increase in traffic over the previous two years. Serco's Air Traffic Controllers reported an unprecedented zero errors in more than 1.6 million operations since they assumed responsibility for the tower's operations from the FAA in 1996. “

Zero errors in 1.6 million operations spaced out over 12 years. That’s better than good -- that’s lucky too.

” "The Goodyear Tower manages a blend of general aviation and military operations and is a high intensity training environment that encounters a lot of foreign student pilots," said Serco's Vice President of Transportation Mike Henry. "This tower is representative of our commitment to safety and customer service excellence." “

An 86% increase in traffic, students, foreign students and military operations with no errors ? Wow ! That’s unbelievably lucky. I mean, after all, things like this do happen.

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Data Source:
AVIATION SAFETY REPORTING SYSTEM
Report Number:581005
Local Date(Yr/Mon):200305
Local Day:
Local Quarter Time:0601 To 1200
Facilty ID Nr Aircraft:GYR.Airport
State of Facility Nr Acft:AZ

SYNOPSIS

NMAC IN THE TFC PATTERN BTWN A PA28 STUDENT PLT ON BASE LEG AND ANOTHER PLT IN A BE33 ON FINAL FOR RWY 21 AT GYR, AZ.

NARRATIVE

I INTENDED TO LAND AT GOODYEAR ARPT. AFTER MAKING THE INITIAL APCHED 20 MI S OF THE ARPT, THE TWR CTLR ADVISED ME TO FOLLOW A BEECH BONANZA AT MY L HAND SIDE. I FOLLOWED THE BONANZA ALL THE WAY TO THE ARPT AND INTO THE L DOWNWIND OF RWY 21 BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THAT I SHOULD GO ON FOLLOWING IN THE TFC PATTERN TOO. THEN, THE CTLR ADVISED ME TO MAKE A MIDFIELD XING INTO THE R DOWNWIND. AT THIS TIME, THE BONANZA WAS NOT IN SIGHT. AFTER ARRIVING IN THE R DOWNWIND, I GOT MY LNDG CLRNC AS #2 AFTER THE BONANZA. I CONFIRMED BUT DIDN'T RPT THAT TFC IS NOT IN SIGHT BUT I LOOKED OUT MUCH MORE TO SEE THE TFC. I HURRIED INTO BASE AND SHORTLY BEFORE TURNING FINAL I SAW THE BONANZA ON ITS FINAL, APPROX 300 FT HORIZ AND A LITTLE BIT BELOW MY ACFT. NEARLY AT THE SAME TIME THE TWR CTLR DISCOVERED THE MISUNDERSTANDING AND ADVISED ME TO MAKE A GAR ON THE R HAND SIDE OF RWY 21. THERE WAS ENOUGH TIME TO REACT AND AFTER THE GAR I FLEW AGAIN IN THE R DOWNWIND AND THEN EXECUTED THE LNDG. TO MY MIND, THE PROB DEVELOPED BECAUSE THE CTLR THOUGHT THAT I HAD THE BONANZA IN SIGHT ALL THE TIME, WHICH WAS NOT THE CASE. I DON'T WANT THE CTLR TO BLAME ME BECAUSE I RPTED TFC IN SIGHT SHORTLY BEFORE LOSING THE OTHER PLANE. HOWEVER, MY MISTAKE WAS THAT I DIDN'T PUT EMPHASIS ON MAKING CLR THAT THE TFC WAS NOT IN SIGHT AND THEN TURNING BASE WITHOUT KNOWING WHERE THE OTHER PLANE WAS LOCATED. THE FLT ON WHICH THIS INCIDENT HAPPENED WAS A TRAINING SOLO FLT.

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For those that might not be able to decipher all that, here’s the SYNOPSIS again and I’ll decode it for you.

“NMAC IN THE TFC PATTERN BTWN A PA28 STUDENT PLT ON BASE LEG AND ANOTHER PLT IN A BE33 ON FINAL FOR RWY 21 AT GYR, AZ.”

“Near Mid Air Collision in the traffic pattern between a Piper (aircraft model) 28 student pilot on base leg and another pilot in a Beech 33 on final for runway 21 at Goodyear, Arizona.”

There are a few things I should point out for clarity. First, I don’t know how this incident above would be classified -- who gets the blame. It sounds like it would be pilot error instead of controller error. Maybe. My intent is only to show that stuff does indeed happen and statistics don’t always tell the truth. Second, that report came from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System. Just because you may not have heard of it doesn’t mean it isn’t important. It is vitally important if you want to understand the truth about aviation safety. Before I drift too far afield on that matter, let’s get back to the contract Towers.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has an excellent overview of the program on it’s web site.

”The FAA reports the average operating cost for an FAA-staffed Level I tower is about $450,000 per year, compared to $250,000 for a contract tower (a Level I tower has a traffic density of 0 to 34.99 operations an hour, a measure derived from a formula that includes hours of operation, a specific number of high-count days per year, and other factors). “

There are two things to notice in that quote. What happens when a Level I Tower has an increase in traffic of...oh, I don’t know, let’s say 86% ? Does it become a Level II Tower and the FAA takes it over ? Supposedly, the FAA only contracted out the Level Is. The FAA still runs the Level IIs (and IIIs and IVs and Vs.)

The other thing to notice is that the cost savings come from the controllers. In other words -- just like every other contractor I’ve ever seen -- they’re only there to treat employees poorer than the entity that contracted them out can treat them. AOPA puts it a bit more diplomatically.

”Contractors can utilize part-time controllers, assign controllers to more than one facility, and adjust staffing to reflect seasonal variations in traffic. This flexibility efficiency is not available to the FAA. “

The language can’t disguise the truth. Well, not as long as we have the proper safeguards in place. Things like a competent Inspector General, an Aviation Safety Reporting System and unions. Yes, you heard me right -- unions. Where else would you get to hear this ?

”ARIZONA

I worked for Serco, Inc. about 4 years. I could tell you stories of poor training, being left on position for long hours without breaks (You were told to sign off showing you on break when it did not happen), rushing controllers thru training programs so we could have some time off, if you call in sick you are just screwing your brother, eating on position, doctoring traffic count numbers, little or no refresher training, controllers being checked out by FAA managers who have no idea what the tower procedures were, they were just sent over to certify us, probably more if I really thought about it I hope you can do some good to this horrible system. The controllers are trapped. These monopoly companies have really no one to answer to. The controllers will be fired if they speak up. “

It’s one long document but you might want to at least skim through it.

”NATCA President John Carr's Testimony to House Subcommittee on Aviation 09/24/2003 “

(Hey ! I know that guy.)

”Specifically, NATCA has raised legitimate concerns regarding the safety of a system that relies on single controller operation for extended lengths of time and during busy periods. “

(Anybody remember Lexington ?)

”Although the ASRS reports are of major concern to us from a safety aspect, the greater concern is that these incidents do not appear to have been officially reported or investigated through the mandatory FAA processes outlined in FAA Orders 7210.3 and 7210.56. If this is the case, then it stands to reason that no corrective action has been taken either. “

”The tower was called and he said we landed without a clearance (which we knew). He said he had left the tower to use the bathroom and was planning on using our 2 mile call as his notice to come back up. When he returned to the tower, we were clearing the runway. We apologized, he apologize, ad he stated he wouldnt report the incident. “

(If you think that’s bad, you need to read the controller’s story under the heading “TEXAS”. I assume somebody reading this might be trying to eat. If you are, don’t read that part.)

”As a spokesman for this countrys air traffic controllers, part of my job is to be an early warning system, the canary in the coalmine...

...Too often, the response to early warnings about threats to safety is to simply kill the canary. “

(I hope that one makes you think.)

Don Brown
August 1, 2008