March 19, 2015 meeting notes


We met again at the Cheney Library and the meeting was attended by  21 members plus our speaker.

Steve won the 50/50 draw.  Bob presented his plans for the Kiwanis Egg Hunt on April 4.

Our speaker was Eric Williamson, air traffic controller.  He has been a traffic controller since 1984, working for 27 years at Oakland, then at Grant County and coming to Spokane International(SIA) as a supervisor in 2012.  The new Spokane tower is 271 feet tall and is the highest traffic control tower in Washington.  The SIA runways are 11,001 and 9,000 feet long and the tower height allows them to see the full length of the runways (fog permitting).  On a clear day they can see Steptoe Butte.  They provide radar control for an area from Ritzville to Deer Park, east of Coeur d'Alene and South to Rosalia and also provide approach control for Missoula.  He walked us through the various levels of traffic control, based on altitude and distance from the airport and said a typical commercial flight can involve 15-30 controllers.  Controllers receive 5 years of training and must retire at age 56.