Roehris Aviation Pages - Gallery on the job

A visit in Duesseldorf ATC tower (Duesseldorf, 06.05.2004)
	Today I have check in in the afternoon, and the weather is too bad to do sports, so I decide to visit the ATC tower at Duesseldorf, as it is located next to the airport and the hotel. A quick call, and the friendly people at DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung, German ATC) open their "house" for me, as they welcome pilot-controller exchanges to discuss eventual problems of each. The tower is nearly 90 meters high, and of the "german standard ATC tower" type. Unfortunately the structure starts to swing if the windspeed exceeds 30 knots (for stability/flexibility reasons), so the controllers sometimes have to take sea sickness pills to keep their food in the stomach...
	There was no excessive wind today, so I needed not to swallow any pills... :-) THis is the workplace of the ground movement controller (in front) and the tower controller (behind).
	Quite some equipment: Radar screens for the environment of the airport and ground movement, information concerning the active runways and their navigational equipment status (ILS working, low visibility procedures in use or not etc.), communication panel to talk to other ATC centers, and last but not least the good old spyglasses.
	The tower radar shows the sequence of approaching aircraft on runway 23R at Duesseldorf.
	A view outside the tower...
	...beautiful, ain't it?
	It's close to the look...
	...we usually have from the cockpit...
	..but just after takeoff. We use to get higher than 90 meters. :-)
	The supporter of the tower controller prepares the so called stripes, so the tower controller knows in which sequence the aircraft will be lined up by the Approach controller (sitting in another ATC facility at Langen, Germany).
	This work place is called Delivery. If an aircraft is ready for pushback, the crew calls Delivery, and receives the clearance to fly to the destination. In the same time he issues the clearance, the Delivery controller "activates" the flight plan, so the European Air Traffic Coordination Center at Brussels knows that the flight will take-off soon.
	A big "Thanks guys!" for this very impressive tour and the information we could exchange. It was very valuable to me, and I recommend it to any pilot to visit these guys once!