Radio Group Visit to Exeter Airport
24th November 2009
The following article is from the NLO Newsletter No. 57 Nov 09
As we parked our cars and started to walk toward the terminal building, I commented that we had picked a poor night to arrange a visit, it was windy and pouring with rain and from my checks on the internet there was only one flight departure for the night, so probably not much to see, …………….how wrong I was going to be!
On entering the control tower we were split into two groups, one for the Radar room and the other (my group) to the Tower, the controllers welcomed us and proceeded to explain their duties and procedures. Despite the poor weather I was surprised at the view from the tower, the runways, aircraft stands etc were easily viewed from the lofty perch and we were informed that a few flights were running late. These started arriving and we saw the operation of the radar controller on approach and the tower controller in vectoring the aircraft onto the instrument landing system (ILS) and their final approach and landing. The weather was deteriorating all the time and soon there was a 60 degree cross wind that was gusting to 35+ knots (40-45 mph), at one time the landings were interrupted by a military helicopter ( a Chinook, 8 miles north west of the runway) declaring a technical fault and asking for an urgent landing. This was handled very efficiently by the controllers who held the incoming traffic and vectored the helicopter to made a speedy and safe landing, the fire brigade having been put on runway standby. Soon after this event our groups swapped over and we proceeded to the radar room, here the controller gave us an insight into his job and showed us how the headings that he was passing to the incoming and departing aircraft had to be altered to take into account the strong head or tail winds. By now the winds were howling around the control tower adding to the controllers work loads, we watched the controller working a flight approaching from the north over the coast near Watchet. The flight ( an Embraer 195) was given a bearing to intercept the ILS about 18miles east of the airport. During its approach the controller showed us how the strong crosswinds were effecting the line of the approach. As the aircraft intercepted the ILS we excused ourselves from the radar room and proceeded to the control tower to rejoin the rest of the party and to see the aircraft land, soon the aircraft broke through low cloud to the east of the airfield and descended along the ILS to the runway threshold. During this time the tower controller was calmly passing the wind speed and direction and gusts to the pilot, just as the aircraft crossed the end of the runway and at about 100 feet the pilot decided to abort the landing and go around for another landing, we all stood silent, and possibly with our mouths open as the tower controller calmly handled the situation giving the pilot new bearings and then handing the flight back to Radar who re vectored the approach. We watched as the aircraft approached for a second time and on this attempt made a perfect landing, I’m sure the 59 crew and passengers were as relieved as we were to see the aircraft safely down. We must thank the control tower staff for such an interesting visit, when they visit us we will have to discover a comet and arrange radio contact with the ISS to match their night! As we left the safety of the control building the rain was horizontal and wind later that night was recorded as gusting to 100 mph at Berry Head ……so much for my prediction of a quiet night!…...Dave Lee
Thanks to Jason, Mike Mora and Dan Horan at the Tower for making the night such a success and to Nick Baulf of the NLO Radio Group for organising the visit
