Last night, I had the opportunity to visit the control tower at the Indianapolis International Airport (KIND) and let me tell you, it is very cool. I should mention that I was able to make this visit with a group from the Greenwood Airport Pilot’s Club. The club puts on monthly meetings and this month they scheduled a trip to the tower. It is likely the only way to get in. It is not, as they say, open to the public.

After being let into the controlled access parking lot, we went inside and checked in. Luckily it was not like boarding a commercial aircraft. We just signed our name. I guess there isn’t much risk in letting a bunch of pilots tour the tower. After a few words about the history of the country’s 3rd tallest tower, we were off.

The tower facility houses both the tower controllers (ground, take-off and landing, and clearance delivery) and the terminal radar area controllers (approach and departure). We split into two groups and my group headed up 300 feet or so to visit the tower controllers. It was dark both inside and outside. It is kept dark inside to help preserve the controllers night vision – which is a good thing. Basically, the only light was coming from the dozens of computer screens and radar displays in the circular room. It was not terribly busy when we were there so we actually got to talk to the controllers a little bit and ask questions about the gear and the job. Speaking of the gear, that building houses some of the most advanced gear I’ve ever seen. From a 10″ square box that controls dozens of phone lines and a dozen radio frequencies to touch screen monitors that control every light on the tarmac, everything up there is state of the art. However just a few minutes up there and you realize that as handy as all of the gear is, it really is up to one human talking to another human to make sure the hundreds of other people on the plane get where they’re going safely and on time.

This is where I would love to show you pictures, but for obvious reasons, no photography was allowed.

After 1/2 an hour or so, we headed back down and visited approach control for awhile. This room is also kept dark. Although current technology allows for there to be much more ambient light in the room while controllers work, force of habit keeps them in the dark. If you fly within 60 miles or so of the Indianapolis International Airport, you will likely be talking to the people in this room. They control all the airspace 13000 feet and below inside that ring. Anyone coming into or going out of KIND or low flying aircraft just passing through are all customers of these controllers.

The guys and gals in approach and departure control sit behind huge radar displays. Take 3 30″ computer monitors and stack them on top of each other and that’s the size of screen they look at. I can’t even begin to explain what it looks like – but I’ll try. The back ground is black and the dominant color on top of that is green. Green is used to indicate airports, runway, approach paths, terrain, towers – basically anything except airplanes. Blue hash marks are planes in the scope of the radar not being controlled by the KIND facility. Yellow hash marks with info tags are planes being controlled by KIND and white hash marks are planes that a particular controller is responsible for at any given moment.

It is incredible to watch. The amount of planning and math and knowledge required to perform the most basic of tasks is amazing. Say you have a Cessna 172 and a Boeing 747 coming in to land at roughly the same time. The Cessna is 9 miles out and traveling 90 knots and the 747 is 20 miles out and traveling 240 knots. Knowing you have to leave 3 miles between planes at touch down point, how much to you have to slow the 747? You have 3 seconds to do the math and tell the 747 – GO! (The numbers in that scenario are completely made up and are possibly not realistic – I’m just trying to illustrate a point.)

If you are a pilot or just want to learn more about air traffic control, I highly recommend you figure out a way to visit a tower. I’ve been to 2 towers and Chicago Center now and I’m still blown away by the system and the people who make it go. So next time your flight is delayed by 20 minutes, just remember it is only 1 of 85,000 or so that the controllers handle EVERY DAY – cut them a little slack

Cheers!!