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“It was sad,” he said. “It’s just something that kind of stuck with me.”
But what some saw as an unsightly building that might be a candidate for the wrecking ball, Blackwell saw as a challenge.
Shortly after landing the job as manager of the Victoria Regional Airport, Blackwell adopted the orphaned building. Nearly 2 1/2-years and $1.8 million later, the tower is being used for its intended purpose for the first time ever.
Three air traffic controllers are providing advisories to pilots from atop the 70-foot tower. They will be joined by three other controllers in the coming weeks and by the end of July plan to be controlling the air space around the airport.
“It’s something we can all be proud of for some time to come,” Blackwell said. But he refused to take all the glory, giving credit to the commissioners court and airport commission for having faith in him to undertake the project.
He said 95 percent of the construction costs were paid for with federal grants, and the Federal Aviation Administration is paying nearly $500,000 for the controllers’ salaries.
The structure was built by the military 52 years ago and then abandoned when the Air Force pulled out of Victoria without ever using the tower. It was damaged by Hurricane Claudette in 2003 and patched up with sheets of plywood to cover openings left by the broken glass.
It received little or no maintenance after the storm until the recent facelift.
“This is a state-of-the art tower,” said Jack Lill, air traffic control manager. “Some of this equipment we’ve never seen before. It’s very nice.”
Lill was at the Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport, where he had to work with 1985-vintage equipment. “The first time Larry showed me this, I said you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Controller David Mongeau, who came to Victoria from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said he couldn’t be more thrilled with his assignment. He’s 47 and has been an air traffic controller since he was 19.
“It’s the first tower I’ve ever been in that had an elevator,” he said.
Controller Joe Corder, who came from New Braunfels, said the pilots flying into the airport have reacted well to having the controllers there.
“A lot of them are surprised,” he said. “They’re not used to us being here.”
Lill said once all the controllers are working, the tower will have a two-person staff daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. They will control traffic beginning about five miles out and below 2,500 feet.
“A lot of pilots check in normally 10 or 12 miles out,” he said. “When you can coordinate a little farther out, it makes it nice because you might have other pilots inside that 12 miles.”
Lill estimated 60 percent of the air traffic will be military planes that will also buy fuel and boost the airport’s income.
“It’s putting us on the map as far as corporate flights as well,” Blackwell said. “When a pilot sees an airport has a control tower, they know it will have services there.”
That will appeal to pilots flying cross-country and looking for a controlled air space at a small airport without a lot of air traffic to cause delays, he said.
The cab where the controllers sit is equipped with everything from a coffee pot and microwave to touch-controlled runway lighting and communications systems.
Weather equipment been installed at each end of the nearly two-mile long main runway. The controllers are trained to take their own observations if the weather stations fail during a power outage, something that could force pilots to detour to other airports or cancel flights.
Compared to the lifeless, abandoned building the tower once was, Blackwell said, “We’ve come a long way.”
David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com.