MI - Bishop radar fix on hold, replacement now due in 2003

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MI - Bishop radar fix on hold, replacement now due in 2003

Wednesday, January 3, 2001

By Ron Fonger

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

FLINT - The replacement of Bishop Airport's 28-year-old radar tower has been delayed more than a year, leaving air traffic controllers continuing to use the current problem-plagued system through at least 2003.

Robert L. Picken, air traffic manager for the Federal Aviation Administration at Bishop, confirmed Tuesday that Flint is now scheduled to put the new radar tower in place in three years.

"These dates are moving ... that's almost a given ... that's inherent in any government project," said Picken. "It needs to be replaced (but) I think we are still maintaining a safe, effective system."

An FAA spokeswoman in Chicago also confirmed the new target date but had no information about what prompted the change.

Early in 1999, The Flint Journal documented dozens of cases in which radar contact was lost with incoming airplanes at Bishop. Six months later, federal officials put Bishop on a fast-track to receive a new radar system by early 2002.

U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee, D-Flint, also pushed the FAA to make the airport a higher priority for replacement radar at the time. Kildee aide Michael Gorges said the congressman continues to push the issue.

"Our office worked hard to get Bishop moved up (on the priority list)," Gorges said Tuesday. "We would be (disappointed) by any delay."

The Journal could not reach local officials for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association for comment.

Controllers began tracking errors in Flint's primary and beacon radars in 1995. The equipment is used by air traffic controllers to identify aircraft as they pass through the region's air space.

A consulting firm told the FAA in 1997 that the existing radar antenna has "significant coverage problems," most likely because of its low height and the growth of trees and other vegetation in the area since the early 1970s when it was installed.

Radar signals representing passing aircraft have been lost by air traffic controllers for 3 to 15 miles at a time, leaving them to use contingency plans to guide commercial and private planes, controllers have said.

When controllers lose both the primary and beacon radar signals, they rely on a "coast mode" signal in which a computer projects where an aircraft should be.

During one 20-day period in 1998, there were 19 reported losses of radar data of some kind, FAA documents show.

Air traffic controllers and technicians have said the system is not unsafe because of precautions that have been taken, but have warned that it causes added stress for controllers and increases the potential for future delays at Bishop.

But at least one unsatisfactory condition report filed by a controller alleged the radar system has been a "hazard to aviation safety."

Picken said Bishop remains a "high candidate for replacement" of its radar but said the FAA has not delivered the systems nationwide as quickly as officials predicted a few years ago.

The Flint antenna was installed in 1972 at its current height of 37 feet -?less than one-half the recommended height of new towers today.

Bishop controllers are responsible for watching Flint's air space - an irregular-sized zone that stretches about 25 miles north, 25 miles west, 15 miles south and 30 miles east of the airport.

Airport Director James L. Rice II could not be reached for comment by The Journal.***

http://fl.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20010103f3a1radart.frm

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), January 03, 2001


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