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8.2 Air Traffic Control Entities




Tower Vs  Ground Control


     During aircraft operations, the first 3 people a pilot talks to during a flight is the weather briefer, ground control, and tower. Ground control is a part of air traffic control, but they control the aircraft requesting taxi on the ground. Soon after landing and turning off the runway, the pilot holds short of the taxiway before switching radio frequencies to Ground Control. Everything after leaving the taxiway onto a runway and before turning off the runway is communicated with Tower.
     Separating the two entities frees up radio space on the airport and provides more efficient separation by giving the controller only one area (ground or air) to focus on. Pilots must be in contact with ground control as soon as they cross the ATC line. This rule ensures that ATC is aware of every aircraft moving on the airport in high traffic areas. However, pilots do not have to be in contact with ATC while taxiing in hangar areas or getting fuel.  (Ground Control Points vs. Check Points: Aerotas: Drone Data Processing for Surveyors. (n.d.). )
       Tower frequencies handle pilots while they are taking off, or entering the traffic pattern and landing. Tower also handles the hand-off of pilots to ARTCC while en route when they request "flight following". These two entities are both vital to airport operation and are even split into more frequencies on larger airports. For example, my home airport, KRVS splits RVS Tower into 2 frequencies on busy days (120.3) and (119.2)




References: Ground Control Points vs. Check Points: Aerotas: Drone Data Processing for Surveyors. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aerotas.com/ground-control-points-vs-check-points

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