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How is this tower FAA approved?

F

Fieldtech1

KOLR TV has a 700' tower next door to a general aviation airport. The guy wires actually cross over some hangers and are anchored on airport grounds right near where some planes are parked. KTOZ FM 95.5 a 44kw station is on this tower as well. Besides the obstruction of the tall tower and all the discussion of FM radio interfering with airband communications I wonder how this tower and airport can co-exist.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=37.224151,-93.241884&spn=0.00206,0.00327&t=h&z=19

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyHnZ4MPKSA
 
Wonder how much was paid to certain people for their influence? Sometimes you have to follow the money. Hate to be a cynic, but sometimes when you see a decision like this there's an obvious answer. And then again, it could have been a "shovel ready" project and part of the recent federal stimulus plan. I'm sure there are a lot scenarios we can come up with.
 
My aviation "current events" knowledge is dated these days but let me take a stab at this. This is a PRIVATELY OWNED airport. It is ineligible for any Federal funding so you will probably not be able to make this location a poster child for shooting holes in stimulus money. Some guy owns this real estate. (Harry Cooper) When you look at photos of the airport you can see he has developed or sold just about every square inch if space around the runway possible.

The FAA gets demanding about obstructions (towers?) that affect the ability of aircraft on "Instrument Flight Regulations" flying through fog and clouds getting to "controlled airports" and IFR approved/eligible runways. This is a dinky little airport where maybe as many as 65 or 70 little single-engine private planes are parked/hangar-ed/stored. If you have a farm down in the Ozarks, these are the kind of airplanes you could land and store in your pasture... if you are gregarious enough and willing to take chances on flotsam getting into your prop.

The days for this airport are numbered. If your company has an airplane, chances are your aviation insurance policy may forbid you from using such an airport.... unless you want to land "uninsured".

I learned to fly on a runway about this size and quality. It gives you certain bodily exercises that tone-up your hemorrhoids.
 
From their antenna obstruction report:
"This aeronautical study revealed that the structure does exceed obstruction
standards but would not be a hazard to air navigation provided the following
condition(s), if any, is(are) met:"
Goes on about lighting, painting, etc... This shows the height of 591' AGL for KTOZ and the distance to the airport of 1983'.

GRC: your knowledge and experience never ceases to amaze me!
 
As a pilot, I'd rather see a tall tower like that located virtually ON the airport (to the side of the runway) than see it in the middle of the approach or departure paths. A tall obstruction on the airport itself is a minimal hazard -- if you're low enough and far enough off the runway centerline that you're in danger of hitting it, you've got worse problems than the tower.

The new control tower at the Atlanta airport (KATL) tops out at 398 feet AGL, and it is most definitely ON the airport.
 
Jasper GA has 3 large and very tall unlit water towers within 2 or 3 miles of the airport, yet WYYZ 1490AM has to have their lower height tower lights working.
 
As always thanks for the explanation, I just found it odd to have this large of a tower this close to the runway. Ive heard of much shorter towers being rejected several miles from an airport, much less next door to one, because of hazzards to aircraft. I still wonder though if the pilots experience radio interference, specially since there is an FM on that tower.
 
Fieldtech1 said:
I still wonder though if the pilots experience radio interference, specially since there is an FM on that tower.
Click to expand...

For all practical purposes, there is no use of radio at an airport like this one. They UNICOM at what... 122.8?.... which is "CB RADIO for airplanes" around small airports. There is no control tower at an airport like this. You show up, You do at least half a lap around the airport at the standard altitude (maybe 800 or 1000 feet), doing the standard little rectangular path and anyone on the ground thinking about taking off, or any one in the air planning to also land can clearly see what you are doing, and common courtesy is to stand back and let the guy "in the pattern" have the right of way. From experience of walking around airport like this one, admiring the planes, I'll wager there are at least 20 airplanes based there that have no radio. What's to interfere?

[ I'm still honked off about that guy in 1981. There was snow on the ground so there was no where to get off the little narrow runway, and when you finished your roll-out, you had to turn around and back-track along the runway back to the hanger area. I was in the pattern being very, very precise and text book about all the little details when this clown in a Bonanza (the BMW of small airplanes in that era) zipped in out of nowhere down lower than standard pattern, did a little half circle turn and landed right in front of me. THROTTLE TO THE FIREWALL!!! Dump the flaps. Regain some airspeed and execute a go-around! If he had any concept of how inexperienced I was at the time.. the fact that I might have been dumb enough to think I could safely land behind him and keep my propeller from having his tail-feathers for lunch... he wouldn't have pulled that stunt.

NOSTALGIA: Just for you I have a couple of Florida flight tales to share sometime. ]
 
And I have got you a great aviation classic. Here's to you Cleveland, TN. "Hardwick Field is no place to play, Hardwick Field you'd best keep away, won't come back from Hardwick Field". Hardwick Field is the Deadman's Curve of small East TN Airports. Another vintage country aviation classic hit, "Rockwood International Airport, where the big old pot planes fly" alluding to the 1970's era where planeloads of pot landed at Rockwood, TN Airport, the song is with apologies to Susan Raye.
 
New slogan for the Andrews / Murphy NC airport. No wimpy pilots allowed. You are either good or dead. My former station owner would drive an extra 40 miles to Jasper GA to catch his private jet flight when he had business in Chicago. He said he did not like to look out the window see the squirrels in the trees.
 
1989, the Nassau, Bahamas airport had a wrecked plane visible off the runway...talk about an awful first impression.
 
Secondchoice, that one does look pretty hairy. The 08 approach doesn't look too bad, but God be with you if you have to go around. An approach to 26 with all that high terrain doesn't look like any fun at all. No ILS at either end.
 
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