Airport to get new tracking system for planes

Pilots flying into Glacier Park International Airport soon will have one more tool at their disposal for keeping passengers safe.

In the next two months, private contractor ITT, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, will install a 55-foot-tall monopole that is part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

That system relies on satellite-based air-traffic management, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. The new technology uses ground stations, on-aircraft avionics and satellite data to paint an accurate picture of what is happening in the sky, according to a recent Airport Magazine article.

According to the FAA, the system will allow pilots entering Glacier Park International's five-mile airspace to see radar-like displays with traffic data from satellites that display in real time and don't degrade with distance or terrain like radar does. The system also will give pilots access to weather services, terrain maps and flight information services.

Pilots will be able to fly at safe distances from one another with less assistance from air traffic controllers.

"Pilots can manage aircraft - they know where they are in relation to objects and other planes," said Cindi Martin, Glacier Park International airport director. "It increases the level of safety and efficiency. Pilots can plot their own courses instead of an air traffic controller saying 'turn here, turn there.'"

Thousands of the systems are being installed all over the United States.

"They feed into a network," Martin said. "Pilots can see everything from earth to a certain altitude. They can see every inch of airspace in this country."

The federally funded red-and-white-striped 55-foot pole will make Glacier Park International's airspace that is not monitored by the Salt Lake City airport radar system visible to pilots.

Glacier Park International does not have a radar system for its control tower

Currently air-traffic controllers "eyeball" planes taking off and landing and communicate by radio with pilots.

Aircraft are tracked by Salt Lake City until they enter Glacier Park's five-mile airspace, at which point Salt Lake controllers hand off control to local air-traffic controllers and aircraft use visual flight rules.

"It is not ill-equipped or unsafe," Martin said of the current system. "ADS-B gives controllers another tool."

The new equipment will undergo testing after it is installed, and Martin anticipates it will become fully operational in January 2010. Planes must have the right equipment to read the data, as many do. By 2020, the FAA will require all planes to be equipped with the technology to enter selected airspace.

Ron Taylor, the president of the Professional Air Traffic Controller Organization, which represents the controllers in Glacier Park International's tower, said the new system will greatly enhance air safety.

"Why should you disappear [from radar] when you enter an area called Glacier Park?" Taylor said.

The airport requested FAA funding for a monitor that would give Glacier Park International a visual radar feed from Blacktail Mountain. The FAA will decide whether to OK the monitor or instead put in equipment that will allow the airport to visually read the new data from the satellite-based system.

Reporter K.J. Hascall may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at kjhascall@dailyinterlake.com