Seasonal tower operating at Truckee-Tahoe Airport
A seasonal nonfederal control tower has resumed providing air traffic control services at the Truckee-Tahoe Airport in Truckee, California, following a three-month trial last summer. The control tower will operate from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time until Feb. 28, 2018, the FAA said.
Operating frequencies are 120.575 MHz for the tower, and 118.3 MHz for ground control, according to a letter to airmen issued by Melissa Holmes, air traffic manager of the FAA’s Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center.
He noted that the airspace upgrade will not appear on the next edition of the San Francisco sectional chart scheduled for March 1, 2018, meaning that there will be at least a five-month delay until the airspace is charted.
“Pilots will be notified of Class D airspace activation via notices to airmen as well as a chart bulletin published in the chart supplement,” he said.
The airport’s board voted for another trial period for the tower, which is operated by Midwest Air Traffic Control Service, after concluding that an initial trial operating period that ran from June 1 to Sept. 15, 2017, “proved successful in improving Airport safety, and staff is confident that it will make more improvements to noise and annoyance in the future,” according to an item published in the airport’s newsletter, Connected. The report added that “pilots overwhelmingly felt that the tower improved safety at the Airport, a feeling backed up by Airport statistics gathered this summer.”
Duke noted that the airport, which sits at an elevation of 5,900 feet msl in mountainous terrain, 12 miles from Lake Tahoe, often has high traffic volumes, and he urged pilots to check in advance with the fixed-base operator about parking availability.
