Yesterday 5 of us went to the Potomac Consolidated Terminal RADAR Approach Control ( TRACON ) and the National ATC Command Center for a tour. We toured the Command Center first. It was mostly about how they manage commercial air traffic into the busiest airports in the US. We got an hour presentation on how this all works and how limited capacity at one airport can cause departure delays or stops at airports feeding those airports. We got a brief tour inside the command center to see how it all works together. There is also a center that monitors space launches. This included how space launches affect air traffic routes. They also showed how MOAs, restricted, warning and prohibited areas affect traffic flows and how they work with the military to open up those areas on high traffic holidays.
The TRACON Tour started with a presentation showing the different areas of the SFRA and Potomac coverage. Basically there are 4 areas. We are in the West area. Potomac TRACON is one of the largest TRACONs in the country and buts up against a lot of the busiest airspace in the US. The areas are broken up into layers and there are lots of handoffs. In some places they have coverage up into the flight levels. We got to go into the OPs room with the controllers and talk to them. We learned you can get the VOR-DME 15 at Martin State if they are landing from the East at Baltimore. We talked to the controller working KHEF and KJYO. He confirmed what we know about flying into and out of KHEF that the SFRA is as much of a pain for them as it is for us.
All in all, we had a great time. If you get the opportunity to do the tour you should take it.
If you are interested in how Potomac TRACON operates, you can check out an overview of Potomac TRACON here and check out the video below!