“You take off from the airport, you’re talking to the tower. Their job is to watch and talk with planes across entire states. Then there are centers for air traffic control, the top part of the cake, that sits above the approach. Approach control is the middle part of the cake, and that’s from the surface to 12,000 feet and about a 60-mile radius around the airport. The air traffic controllers talk to pilots on the ground and talk to the planes landing and taking off. The small portion is the tower, roughly the surface to 3,500 feet and about five miles around the airport. Vick said the best way to describe the mission is to take a three-tiered wedding cake and turn it upside down. We’re on pace to run over 400,000 movements this year just out of the radar facility and 125,000 to 130,000 from the tower.” “Fort Hood is kind of unique where we sit in Central Texas for a military approach control. So, you got Fort Worth and Houston Center, and then we touch Waco Approach Control, Intercontinental Approach Control, and Austin Approach Control,” Vick said. As Vick explained, it’s part of their job as approach control to ensure all aircraft flying over Central Texas do so safely and efficiently. Inside that area is a mix of military, restricted and presidential airspace, along with 12 military and civilian airfields. Robert Gray Army Airfield is a part of the National Airspace System and holds responsibility for a 60-mile radius, from the ground to 12,000 feet. However, most people don’t know about the intense coordination that air traffic controllers here do to orchestrate that dance in the sky.Īs the air traffic control chief for Fort Hood’s Directorate of Aviation Operations, Mark Vick is responsible for many airspaces. (Photo Credit: Eric Franklin, Fort Hood Public Affairs) VIEW ORIGINALįORT HOOD, Texas - Watching a plane or helicopter over the skies of Central Texas may seem almost effortless to the untrained eye. This is a view from the air traffic control tower, which is on pace to oversee more than 125,000 aviation movements this year. Robert Gray Army Airfield at Fort Hood, Texas, is part of the National Airspace System and is responsible for a 60-mile radius, from ground to 12,000 feet.
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