How do you communicate with airstrip towers?
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Recently I have been trying to create TEs where I take off from the Meggido airtrip in Israel. To my surprise, I realised that these aistrips have neither ATIS nor ground control frequencies!
Most surprising of all, the tower frequency is present on VHF instead of UHF. When I switch to the correct VHF, however, I am unable to communicate for either takeoff or landings.
So far I am taking off and landing frequently without clearance, and the ATC is certainly very mad at me! Is there anything I can do to communicate and obtain clearance from these airstrips?
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You can open your TE in Mission Commander and adjust the frequencies yourself. But more concerning is that ATC does not answer you. This sounds like a bug. I would try other airstrips to see if this happens there too. Does this happen during approach & landings too??
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@PhilFYW BMS airstrips are uncontrolled. They have a Unicom/CTAF of 122.8 for 36/18 and 122.6 09/27. No tower, pilots self announce intentions, positions, and if necessary, deconflict themselves. This is how the majority of airports in the U.S. and much of the world operate. Some of these airports have an ASOS/AWOS reporting station in RL, but not in BMS.
Israel is a bit of a different beast because you are required to be in contact with ATC operating civilian VFR flights as this airfield actually mostly operates today. But looking at the satellite view of Meggido it’s inconclusive if it has a tower and even then if has the structure, if it still operates, or maybe even has a radio relay system for remote ATC. There is no listing for one in the aviation databases I typically use as well.
I would throw out there it was an active IAF base until the mid-1980s, so if ITO 1980, it may have some squadrons based at it and should probably have a tower then.
http://www.megido-air.co.il/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megiddo_Airfield
https://acukwik.com/Airport-Info/LLMG -
@JollyFE When I switch to the tower VHF frequency right now, the options for departure and approach are both greyed out, so I am unable to contact the tower for either departure / approach. So yes it applies to both cases
@Snake122 So the lack of tower control is basically a case of how airstrips operate in general. Interesting! But the airbase does have a tower (in 3D at least) and considering that it has a VHF frequency as well, I’m surprised I wasn’t able to communicate with it.
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Just to confirm your process: In the UI you open up the Data Transfer Cartridge and under the Comms tab you select the Comm Plan button?? And the push Save?
This will put your frequencies into the comm system , and if there is freq’s for the airstrip they should be programmed automatically. This can be also confirmed with Mission Commander.
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@PhilFYW As far as I recall, airstrips will talk to you. But that is as far as ATC goes for those. Like @Snake122 mentions, they will not give you vectors or deconflict inbound flights.
Approach, tower and ground all use a single UHF freq. And they respond on that. Never tried the VHF one. The frequency is the same for all airstrips of the same orientation. In KTO its UHF 233.8 for North-South ones. The frequency matters if you are landing to refuel, since you need to talk to ground for that
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@JollyFE Yes I saved the comms and also visually confirmed that the VHF frequency matches that provides in the briefing. Yet no luck getting the tower to talk to me in VHF.
There are a few funny incidents though where the UHF frequency given in the comms happens to match those of nearby airbases, resulting in ATC asking me to taxi to taxiways that does not exist
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@jayb Thank you for the suggestion! Will try next time - but is there a place where I can find this frequency in ITO? The ITO charts only had the VHF frequency of the airstrip unfortunately…
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@PhilFYW Not sure, I do not have ITO installed. In KTO, you find the airstrip freqs in the KTO_AIP.pdf document, perhaps ITO has a similar document ? It is one of the supported theaters if I am not mistaken