Raleigh airport could test virtual control tower technology » Today's Front Page » The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

 

How is it going to know when to speak, or when not to? What if it talks over an important communication and results in a Cessna 172 re-enactment of Tenerife?

 

“But ultimately, you are going to be responsible for providing your own separation from that other traffic, which is the way it is now, with existing control towers. The controllers at these smaller facilities are not vectoring airplanes to turn left or turn right or giving them ground instructions from the ground. They merely issue a conflict alert".

Are you kidding me? Pattern entry instructions, sequencing slow airplanes with fast airplanes, coordinating with the overlying radar facility and the center traffic management, working with snow plows, wildlife (speaking of which with ads-b and decommissioning of radar anennas, geese don't have a transponder, even when they fly in that 30 mile mode c veil), and most importantly, dealing with aircraft in distress.

They will never (in our lifetimes) be able to take the humans out of air traffic control.

 

Sounds just as bad as automated airliners.

 

Anybody that has actually been to Raleigh Co. airport will find humor in how this article and the Guy developing the technology makes it sound like the airport is an incredibly busy uncontrolled field.

Used to fly in there regularly... I can count on one hand the number of times I had to extend or maneuver to avoid or sequence with other traffic.