Radar approach for Minot area soon controlled from S.D.
By ELOISE OGDEN, Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.comArticle Photos
Fact Box
Air traffic controllers: keeping our airspace safe
Air traffic controllers at Minot Air Force Base's Radar Approach Control are responsible for the safe and on time operations of nearly 18,000 aircraft per year and control 4,800 square miles of North Dakota air space. This small team of dedicated professionals not only is responsible for Minot's B-52H Stratofortress air traffic but the air traffic controllers also control the approaching aircraft of the local Minot International Airport and other area uncontrolled airports. Minot AFB air traffic controllers will be going to Ellsworth AFB, S.D., where a new facility will also control air traffic for Minot AFB and the area.
Source: Minot AFB
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE Radar approach control for Minot Air Force Base, Minot International Airport and other nearby airports soon will be controlled from a facility at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, S.D.
Dakota Air Traffic Control Facility, the first non-contiguous, co-located radar approach control in Department of Defense history, will open later this summer at Ellsworth, according to Staff Sgt. Eric Bolt, of the 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs Office at Ellsworth.
There is a distance of about 305 miles separating Ellsworth air space and Minot air space, which makes the facility and its work unique, according to Ellsworth officials.
Their mission is to provide air traffic services to military and civilian airports from one co-located facility, Ellsworth officials said.
Besides Minot AFB, the Minot base's Radar Approach Control, better known as RAPCON, serves the Minot International Airport and many small surrounding uncontrolled airports, according to a RAPCON official at the Minot base.
"A lot of the Minot folks will come here," Bolt said Monday.
A Minot AFB RAPCON official said 13 people from Minot AFB will be going to Ellsworth to work at the new facility. They will be moving in two phases: the first phase July 9 when four people from Minot AFB will go to Ellsworth. By mid-August, all of them will be at Ellsworth.
"They will do the same thing. You won't be able to see any change," Bolt said.
"They'll move here and control the Minot airport and the base," Bolt said.
Currently, Ellsworth RAPCON provides radar-based traffic service to all aircraft within 40 miles of Ellsworth, both military and civilian, up to and including 16,000 feet above sea level, according to the Ellsworth AFB Web site. Ellsworth RAPCON's responsibility is to sequence arrivals and departures from Ellsworth and Rapid City Regional Airport, along with several other civilian airports in S.D.
Bolt said the new facility at Ellsworth is projected to save $28.7 million in taxpayers' dollars over a 20-year period. He said if it goes as well as planned, it's likely similar facilities will be built.
"It saves time, money and manpower," he said.
The Dakota Air Traffic Control Facility officially opens with a ribbon-cutting ceremony later this summer, possibly in August, Bolt said.
