Weeze Tower Visit 26-10-2018

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Zonan
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Registriert: Donnerstag 26. Juli 2018, 15:34
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Weeze Tower Visit 26-10-2018

Beitrag von Zonan »

Hello,
On friday the 26th of October I had the pleasure to visit the tower of Weeze, also known as 'Niederrhein Tower'.
The reason I requested this, is because I will be studying to become air traffic controller in the future.
I got to visit the airport from 09:00 until 16:00 and they also showed me other parts of the airport, thanks to Werner and the other guy (I forgot his name) for this :), it was a great day.

I got to see the main hangar (former V-Bird hangar), with 3 aircraft inside (I couldn't take pictures, sadly).
These 3 were: PH-NDK Falcon 900, D-EFCH Piper PA46 Malibu and D-IUVH Cessna 510 Mustang.
The C510 departed this day as well.
In the hangar they showed me the snow plowers and anti-ice trucks.

Thereafter we entered the runway and drove all the way over the runway to the end.
On the runway he explained all parts of the runway, such as the touchdown zone and threshold.

Then we went to the main apron and I got to see the runway check equipment and Ryanair hangar.
In this hangar Ryanair does small repairs when neccesary.
The runway check equipment are trailers they put behind the car and they will test the friction of the runway.
This information is passed to the tower and they will pass it to the pilots so they know how hard they will have to brake.

After that, we went to the tower, where I met Filip, who was the controller at that time.
Every 2 hours he would change shifts with, I think it was Markus (sorry I forgot his name too).
In the tower they showed me everything that needed to happen for certain flights.

On the far left was the atis screen and microphone.
Atis is Automatic Terminal Information Service and provides weather data to the pilots.
The controller will speak into his microphone and record the current weather.
He will have to update this every 30 minutes. (bigger airports have an automatic system for this)
info in the atis is wind, runway in use, transition level, QNH, clouds, temperature and dew point.

Then there is the flight scedule list, here the controller can see what traffic is expected, but they don't really use it often.

Next to this there is a printer.
when an IFR aircraft is about 30 minutes from landing, it will print a strip with the flight info (callsign, aircraft type, estimated arrival time, etc).

Then there is another METAR screen, which he uses to give the pilots actual weather info. This is the most accurate, because it's the current wind, which updates every second.

Next to that is his microphone to talk to the pilots, which doesn't require explaining, I don't think.

Then we have the airport overview screen.
On this screen is the layout of the airport taxiways, runway and the main apron.
From here the controller can choose what lights are on and off and how bright they are.
There is also a reminder button for himself called "runway closed" which he will press when runway inspection is driving on the runway. This way he won't clear an aircraft for landing or takeoff.

Finally we have the radar screen.
In the middle you can see the so called CTR which is the control zone of the airport.
All VFR aircraft below 3000 feet (about 900 metres) and inside this zone should request to enter or cross this CTR.
There are 2 reference points (November and Sierra) on the east side of the CTR, which the pilots will use to navigate and coordinate with the controller.
On the west side they will mostly use the river "Maas" as reference.

Now for the photos I've made:
BildAirport Overview Screen by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildMETAR Screen by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildRadar Screen by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildAirport Overview by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildAirport Overview by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildAirport Overview by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildAirport Overview by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

BildAirport Apron by Zonan Adolfse, on Flickr

Again, thanks a lot to Filip and the other controller (sorry I forgot your name) for having me.
Their English was great and I found it really enjoyable and informative to be there.
I absolutely hope to be there again sometime in the future.
Also thanks to Werner for showing me the airport, it was a pleasure.

If anyone has questions, feel free to ask me (or maybe a controller will answer, who knows)

Kind regards, Zonan Adolfse
vanti
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Registriert: Donnerstag 30. März 2006, 15:14
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Re: Weeze Tower Visit 26-10-2018

Beitrag von vanti »

Wow, sehr interessante Einblicke. Viel Dank dafür
heinz-w
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Re: Weeze Tower Visit 26-10-2018

Beitrag von heinz-w »

Sehr informativ. Danke.
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