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Non-towered airport

A non-towered airport, sometimes referred to as an uncontrolled airport, is an airport with no operating tower, or air traffic control unit. The vast majority of the world's airports are non-towered, and even airports with control towers may operate as untowered during off-hours.

At untowered airports, instead of taking instructions from a tower controller, aircraft follow standard procedures. The exact procedures vary from country to country, but they often involve standard arrival and departure patterns, and they may also include radio calls over a common frequency, such as a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Criteria

When the traffic volume at an airport gets too high for safe and efficient operations, or when the mix of aircraft types and speeds becomes too large, an airport may be considered for a tower. However, it is also necessary to find the money to construct a building and pay the controllers' salaries, and in some cases aviation regulations or local opposition may prevent establishment of the unit.

For special events such as fly-ins, temporary towers may operate for only several days each year at fields that are otherwise untowered – one of the best examples is the summer fly-in at Oshkosh Airshow, during which Wittman Regional Airport briefly becomes the world's busiest airport by traffic, requiring the establishment of a temporary but very busy air traffic control unit (involving regular controllers volunteering some of their vacation time). Temporary towers may operate out of an existing airport building, a RV, or even simply a lawnchair (with a portable transmitter and binoculars).

Procedures

Non-towered airports may lie inside or underneath controlled airspace. In that case, some or all aircraft arriving and departing will require clearances from a remote air traffic control unit, such as terminal or centre control, even though there is no control tower managing landings and takeoffs. Pilots may be able to obtain those clearances by radio, by phone, or through a company dispatcher or local Flight Service Station; in some cases, departing aircraft (IFR or VFR) will take off and level out below the floor of controlled airspace, then radio for a clearance before climbing further. Some countries establish low-altitude VFR corridors for non-towered airports in large urban areas, so that VFR arrivals and departures can avoid controlled airspace altogether.

Variations

Even though they do not have control towers, many non-towered airports have radio operations such as UNICOM to assist aircraft arriving, departing, or maneuvering on the ground. These radio operators have no authority to give aircraft clearances or instructions, but they can issue advisories to let them know about weather conditions, runway conditions, traffic, and other concerns.

Danger

A non-towered airport can often be a challenging environment in which to operate an aircraft. Unlike towered airports, non-towered airports do not have any sort of air traffic control associated with operations in the immediate vicinity of the airport, and there are very few legally mandated procedures associated with flight operations. Thus, despite the seemingly casual nature of non-towered airport operations, problems can arise when pilots are left to determine for themselves what is the best course of action when approaching, leaving, or operating within the airport environment.

Dangers can be created by failure to use radios to report positions and intentions when operating within the airspace, which can cause mid-air collisions between aircraft unaware of each other. Some pilots also fail to use the correct runway at non-towered airports. Under almost every circumstance, airplanes should land into the wind, or as much so as possible, but with no air traffic control regulating runway use, pilots may opt to land on the most convenient runway instead. This can lead to aircraft overshooting the runway or missing the runway altogether and crashing due to crosswinds.

Some countries, such as Canada and Norway, use mandatory frequency airports (MF) or mandatory traffic advisory airports (MTAF), which operate like towered airports in some ways: the radio operators (typically a Flight Service Station) still issue only advisories, but aircraft are required to make radio contact with the ground station before operating in the airport's Control Zone.

References

Cordell Akin The Uncontrolled Airport Traffic Pattern. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.. (US-specific)
Aeronautical Information Manual. Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.. (US-specific)