Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackArcher101
To the ATC/Pilots here... question.
What I find odd is that a clearance to cross an active runway is given on the ground frequency, not tower. Isn't it the case in Canada that Tower has master control of the runway and to request crossing you have to key up Tower? Is this not common place in the USA? Having them on the same frequency as pilots would have allowed the pilots to listen in on activity on the runway and possibly recognize something was amiss and go-around.
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Yes, it is also the case in the US that tower owns the runways. However if one guy is working combined ground/tower, generally the frequencies would be simulcast so transmissions are heard on both of them and you're not constantly playing the "change to my frequency now" game, and you don't get 2 planes talking at the same time because they can't hear each other. In Edmonton I'm pretty sure we could combine a third of the damn country into a mega-frequency if you wanted to, and a guy over Whitehorse could talk to a guy over Churchill, MB.
When not combined, ground is allowed to cross guys over an active runway, it just has to be coordinated with the tower controller. They do it at YYZ right when landing 33L with overflow landers on 33R, ground will taxi 33L landers down 6L and hold them short of taxiway E, coordinate with tower if anybody is landing on 33R, then get them through the conflict area.
Super busy airports like ATL and ORD do no bother with this... it's "monitor tower on..." and he calls
you when he's ready to get you over. Much lower ATC workload at the expense of the monitoring pilot having to make multiple radio frequency changes. They're also building as many end-around taxiways as they can to stop planes from crossing active runways but you can't do that at LGA because... LaGuardia.