After receiving an invitation from the tower at
Oslo Airport Gardermoen (OSL TWR), we went on a
little visit to the 91 meter tall tower, which is
placed right next to the terminal.
It was exciting to see how things actually work
up where they're playing God. They are really only
making sure the planes get up and down safely, the
airspace above and around is Røykens domain,
but it's still a relatively important job!
After watching as many American movies as I have
done, I pictuered got the image of a big green radar
screens and than paperstrip system with the slidething
that sort the planes that you see in all air traffic
control movies. But the systems where a whole lot
more modern than that. They didn't have any of those
mentally disturbed flight controllers either. I'm
starting to believe that American films don't reflect
the reality. It was quite cosy up there actually,
but I guess it has to be to avoid turning them into
mentally disturbed controllers!
We got a demonstration of the simultaneous capacity
of one of the youngest controllers. He was talking
on his cell phone while he was clearing planes for
take-off and talking to us. All at the same time.
