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Hello there, thanks for coming. The other day I had the opportunity to visit Toluca Tracon and Toluca Control Tower. A great experience really. I had visited other control towers and approach control in other cities but this one in Toluca was great. Meeting in person the voices that you hear day by day, getting to know each others faces and as one female air traffic controller said: at the end we are like a big family working at the same time hearing each other so often so it is great you come to visit us.

And it's true. And the visit was reciprocal. As many pilots went to visit air traffic controllers and see how they work what they do and what they live during their shift, also air controllers went to many flights to see how we work what we do and what we live during the flight.

Looking at the terminal radar and how they control was very interesting. It's like a puzzle in three dimensions that they is constantly moving and they are constantly putting in order all the pieces which at the end happen to be aicraft some with a few souls onboard others with ore than one-hundred and fifty souls inside flying at a very high airspeed and all, all of them wanting to land. On of the atc that was there had worked in ACC Mexico before and I asked him what was more work if having control of a "center" or of a "terminal". He said that terminal is like the funnel in which aircraft have to pass in order to land, and having to control the order in which they enter and leave the space of that funnel implies more work. Watching them controlling was great, making decisions in a second to decide which aircraft to land first, which the second, which the third one etcetera.

I also visited tower and ground control. A lot of work as well and really interesting. We talked about when the airport was in CAT III mode and they said of course they see nothing from the tower. And when they clear an aircraft to land in a CAT III ILS they just wait to hear or full thrust if it is going around or just hear the reverses and so they know the aicraft has landed.

Tower is in constant communication with approach to reduce the speed of the traffic coming, if they can shorten the approach o someone, and terminal control does the same with Mexico Center, Mexico City Airport Departure control, Cuernavaca Airport, etcetera.

Hope to visit them gain in the future... and making an even better understanding of what they do and the pressures and stress they are subject to. All my respect to air traffic controlers. Thanks for coming have a gooooooood weekend! Siguiente post será en español.