Pan Am Clipper Walt Helmer departs for a flight to Sanford International Airport in Florida.
Staff photo by
Rich Beauchesne

Sunday, April 30, 2000

Controllers link air traffic to nation's highways in the sky

By RICHARD FABRIZIO, Portsmouth Herald Staff Writer

PORTSMOUTH - Pease tower: Clipper 001, you are cleared to the Sanford airport.

Pease tower: Clipper 001 taxi to Runway 34.

Pease Tower: Wind 270 at 16, gusts 27, cleared for takeoff.

A blue and white Pan Am Boeing 727-200 roars north on the runway of the airport at Pease International Tradeport. Its wheels leave the ground less than halfway down the 11,300-foot runway. The plane is airborne into a blue sky yonder, taking as many as 149 passengers away from the bitter windy cold of Portsmouth's early spring to sunny Sanford, Fla..

The 727 and other planes of similar size begin their takeoff at the very end of the two-mile runway. Mark Rowell, airport manager, said the runway is long enough to handle just about any plane flying today.

"There's an old aviation saying," said Rowell, a former Air Force pilot. "There's nothing that has less value than runway behind you and airspace above you."

Pan Am's Clipper Walt Helmer ascends up and away as its roar dulls and becomes a faint echo. The plane reaches an altitude of approximately 2,000-2,500 feet about five miles from the runway in the area above Durham Point. It resembles the size of a model plane as it takes two, 90-degree right-hand turns and double backs north of the runway above South Berwick, Eliot and Kittery.

The Pan Am pilots that morning faced a strong 27-knot crosswind that ran across the runway at about a 45-degree angle. Runway 34, from which planes take off to the north, is the airport's primary departure route because of prevailing head winds at the airport.

Runway 16 directs traffic for a southern takeoff pattern. It is a pattern used when there is a south wind coming in from the ocean. Most planes proceed to between 1,000 and 2,000 feet in altitude before making a 90-degree right-hand turn and flying south above Interstate 95 as they move to their destination route. Planes with destinations north and east of a southern takeoff continue on a relatively straight pattern to the Atlantic Ocean, crossing over the Water Country and Wal-Mart area on Route 1 and Rye.

Air traffic control and airport management provide on- and off-ramps to a booming and vital cog in the global economy. A global market forecast compiled by Airbus Industrie projected passenger flights would increase 95 percent from 1998 to 2018. The forecast also predicted the number of ded

Dalianis being on high court

good for state, good for court

Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, during this week's ceremony, which saw the first woman sworn in as a member of the state's Supreme Court, stated that Justice Linda Dalianis "brings an incredible amount of integrity, fairness and understanding of the process" as part of the reasons she was being elevated to the high court.

It says something about the times in which we live that a word such as "integrity" needs to be qualified by the governor having to say Justice Dalianis has an "incredible amount of" it. It's like something being "very unique" _ of course, it either is or it isn't, and it's the same thing about integrity. You either have it or you don't.

We feel the need to reinforce our own beliefs in today's America, and it certainly is understandable why Gov. Shaheen would choose to underscore Justice Dalianis' background in light of the recent controversy surrounding the court and the impeachment inquiry of Justice David Brock. Dalianis' nomination came about because Justice Stephen Thayer resigned rather than face prosecution for allegedly trying to influence his own divorce case.

Gov. Shaheen also noted that she was happy to be the first governor to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court. This is a watershed event, to be sure, that says as much about Shaheen's commitment to equality as it does about the failure of countless governors before her who could have done this had they chosen to do so.

As to why it is important to have a woman on the Supremer provides a panoramic view of mountains rising out to the west, ocean to the east and the Piscataqua River Bridge to the north. A three-person crew sits inside with headsets on and eyes glued to the field and horizon. While the tower provides a bird's-eye view, technology and humans mesh to get the job done.

"It gets pretty complicated overall," Rowell said. "It's not just done on a whim."

The NHANG has seven full-time controllers. Five of them are retired Air Force controllers and one is retired from the Navy. Each person must complete an initial four-month training program and advance up the ranks from apprentice to journeyman to supervisor status. Enhancement training is conducted throughout an air traffic controller's career.

"Even if someone is in the career for 20 years," said Ron Duffie, Pease tower chief, "they have to go to training for specific airports and instruments."

Controllers must also have at least eight hours of tower work and four hours of ground control every 30 days to remain proficient. Duffie said most Pease controllers meet the hourly requirement through their normal schedules.

Duffie, a retired Air Force veteran, has worked as tower chief for the past two years. There are two controllers and a supervisor in the tower during peak hours of operation, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. One controller staffs the tower in the hours in between.

Pease tower: Clipper 001, contact departure (Manchester).

Controllers at Pease team with Manchester Airport controllers to ensure safe takeoffs and landings at Pease. Clearance for the Pan Am departure came only after local controllers received air space clearance from Manchester Airport.

Communication with the pilots was turned over to Manchester Approach/Departure Control within a half mile of the end of the runway but before it made its right-hand turns.

Manchester Control is the ranking air traffic control operation in the New England Region Mountain Hub. The hub includes airports at Manchester, Pease, Nashua, Burlington, Vt., Bangor and Portland, Maine, and smaller municipal airports in Concord and Lebanon and Sanford, Maine. Manchester Control maintains radio control of flights at and below an altitude of 10,000 feet. The Pan Am plane was at or beyond the outer limits of Manchester Control by the time it reached 10,000 feet and communication was transferred to the next regional air traffic control system. Flights of that nature typically reach cruising altitudes of 35,000 feet.

Tom Benson is regional hub manager and air traffic manager for Manchester Tower. Benson said his traffic control operation takes over communication with Pease outbound flights only after controllers at Pease make an official transfer. Manchester Tower remains in communication with outbound flights until they reach an altitude of about 7,000-8,000 feet, Benson said.

Manchester Control directed the Pan Am pilots to proceed to SCUPP, an airway intersection and pilot reporting point off the coast of Cape Ann in northern Massachusetts.

Flights leaving the mountain region and going south initially transfer to Boston Center, an air route traffic control center (ARTCC) operating from Nashua. The radar system covers a region from Syracuse, N.Y., in the west, to LaGuardia Airport to the south, Nantucket to the east, Presque Isle, Maine, to the northeast, and Burlington, Vt., in the northwest. ARTCCs cover large geographical areas. There are only 22 in the continental United States.

"After they left our communication," Benson said, "the Pan Am flight to Florida went to Boston Center, New York Center, Washington Center, Jacksonville Center and then to Orlando Approach Control."

Benson said Orlando and Sanford international airports have a relationship similar to that of Manchester and Pease. Orlando sequenced the plane around other air traffic in that area and gave it a vector to final approach at Sanford.

Pan Am's regularly scheduled flight to Pittsburgh, Pa., and Gary, Ind., typically uses the northern Runway 34 takeoff. They repeat a similar process of the Florida-bound crew with Manchester Control directing them onto a westward flight route. The flight would be transferred to Boston Center and then to Cleveland Center.

Pease, Manchester Control and Boston Center combine efforts to assist pilots in avoiding other planes and help them move between interregional air routes known as VORs (VHF Omnidirectional Ranges) or VORTACS (VHF Omnidirectional Ranges and Tactical Air Navigation system). These routes are connected by a series of ground-level radar stations _ which resemble modern lighthouses _ for long-distance aviation navigation. These lighthouses transmit a unique signal allowing airborne pilots to determine their bearings in relation to the stations. The signal allows planes to connect the stations like dots in the sky in order to fly a straight and safe pattern.

There are six VORTAC routes (See Graphic, Page A1) in the area immediately surrounding Pease including VORTAC 167, which parallels the New England coast and includes the SCUPP intersection. Though invisible, these sky highways are essential in the international air traffic control business. The eastern seaboard includes some of the most heavily traveled air routes, linking such airports as Logan International, John F. Kennedy in New York and Ronald Reagan International in Washington, D.C. Routes crisscross one another shooting out from airports like spokes on a wheel.

Incoming planes must receive clearance from Manchester Control before they begin their final descent to Pease.

Clipper 001: Pease tower, Clipper 001, 9 miles southwest of the airport, visual approach.

Pease tower: Clipper 001, Pease tower, roger, report left base, 34

Clipper 001: Pease tower, Clipper 001, left base

Pease tower: Wind is 270 at 16, gusts 27. Check wheels down; cleared to land.

Clipper 001: Roger, cleared to land.

Controllers at each airport that a plane approaches receive a flight progress strip detailing its course as planes enter their air space. Once Manchester Control clears inbound planes to approach Pease communication is switched to the Pease tower.

Duffie said Pease tower typically receives a progress strip about 30 minutes before an inbound plane's approach. A ground-control approach mobile radar unit adjacent to the runway also updates controllers on inbound planes at 15 miles, 10 miles and 5 miles. Pilots and controllers begin communication at about 5 miles out.

"If an aircraft wants to land here," Duffie said, "they're talking to a local controller."

Once planes are on the ground, tower controllers direct pilots to taxi from the runway at the nearest intersection onto the tarmac. Communication is then transferred to ground controllers and pilots proceed to their hangar or terminal.

Pease tower: Clipper 001, turn right next taxi way, contact ground when off.

Pease ground control: Clipper 001, taxi to the ramp.