Avionics News July 2022 - 25

Ulane doesn't think Denver International will ever
have a remote tower, but it may be a good option for
general aviation airports and for airports that have aging
traditional towers that need to be replaced. Massiano
noted that 40% to 50% of towers in the U.S. are 40 to 50
years old and operating beyond their original design life.
Remote tower technology got its start in Europe where
air navigation service providers are, in some cases,
connecting multiple airports to a single remote tower
center, sometimes hundreds of miles away.
Saab, which is providing the system at Leesburg
Executive, pioneered the concept of remote towers when
it established a remote tower center in Sweden in 2015
after years of research. It took 30,000 man-hours of work
to get it approved, and it is currently serving four airports
from one location in Sundsvall.
In June 2021, LFV, the Swedish air navigation service
provider, commissioned a new remote tower center in
Stockholm with Saab equipment and started connecting
airports to it. Two of the airports in Sweden include
Kiruna in the far north and Malmo in the far south.
These airports are 2,000 kilometers apart, but the screen
displays at the remote tower center are 2.5 meters apart.
LFV plans to control 24 airports from this location
eventually.
Avinor, the Norwegian air navigation service provider,
plans to connect 15 towers to a remote tower center in
Bodo, Norway, by the end of this year. A controller can
provide services to up to three low-traffic-volume airports
at one time from Bodo, and one controller can shift to
assist another when one airport becomes too busy. Two
airports with 15,000 to 40,000 annual movements can be
controlled by one controller or three with less than 15,000
annual movements. In case of traffic overload, airports can
be split between several modules. All of this creates much
greater staffing and scheduling flexibility than is possible
at a single traditional tower. How a remote tower center
would be staffed in the United States is yet to be seen.
Alexander Koch of the German air navigation service
provider DFS said last year that he doesn't think any
new traditional towers will be built in the future. DFS,
with the help of remote tower technology company
Frequentis, set up a remote tower center at Leipzig that
started handling takeoffs and landings at Saarbrucken
Airport 600 kilometers away in 2018. Efurt Airport was
connected in April, and Dresden Airport is next. DFS is
talking to Munich about using remote tower technology
there at the second busiest airport in Germany.
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and
Spain are all pursuing remote tower centers to control
multiple smaller airports.
Ulane's office is focused on getting the first remote
tower system in Colorado certified, but he said he can see
" the economy of scale coming where if we can have one
central control facility, then all we need to have at the
outlying airports are the cameras and a big enough data
pipe back to the control room. "
Ulane noted that Aspen and Eagle are the only ski
country airports in Colorado that have traditional towers.
He thinks remote tower technology could improve air
traffic services at some of the airports that don't have
towers. He also noted that air traffic has been growing
exponentially in Colorado after the pandemic hit and
people started working from home. It didn't take them
long to realize they can now work from just about
anywhere, including in scenic Colorado.
Payne said he estimates that it will take at least three
airports to have a remote tower center for multiple
airports make sense. Video transmission is a data hog,
he said, so this can be expensive. The data feed has to be
secure and meet the FAA requirement for five nines of
availability with the video feed being available 99.999%
of the time. " I think the ultimate benefit will be having a
center where there are multiple airports being operated, "
Payne said.
Leesburg Airport is much closer to certification than
Fort Collins. Jim McClay, director of airspace and air
traffic security for the AOPA, said the reaction of pilots at
Leesburg to the remote tower service is generally positive,
but there are some exceptions. " Some pilots who are older
tend to be more resistant to having a control tower and
controlled airspace, " he said. " They don't want to talk on
the radio; they want independence. " He said remote towers
do have a potential to provide a lower-cost solution than
traditional towers, but they won't work everywhere.
A remote tower center for multiple airports is a
possibility, according to McClay. " Eventually, it is likely
inevitable, but I don't know when it will be coming down
the road, " he said.
Before the remote tower at Leesburg had a radar feed,
one pilot McClay talked to said it was little better than
a common frequency radio setup. But now with a radar
feed, it provides a lot more situational awareness and a
better integration with the TRACON, the pilot added.
The remote tower can now issue an IFR clearance and an
initial heading on departure. q
avionics news * july 2022 25
Avionics News July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2022
