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He was 5 years old and working on the family farm in Luverne, Minn., when he found himself watching the sky. When an airplane passed, he wondered where it was headed and who was on board.
“I got to where I liked watching airplanes, and I still do,” he said.
Davis’ childhood interest led him into the U.S. Air Force and a career with air traffic control that’s already spanned more than three decades.
“It’s an amazing thing for an airplane just to take flight,” said Davis, 62. “And I enjoy talking to the pilots. There’s a certain amount of bravado and admiration, and it’s mutual.”
As the most senior air traffic controller at the La Crosse Municipal Airport, Davis often works solo in the airport’s tower, ensuring the safe operation of about 100 planes that land and depart daily.
He’s responsible for everything that happens in the airspace around the airport — and on the ground.
“I’m even responsible for a coyote that runs on the runway,” he said.
Davis joined the Air Force two months after graduating from Luverne High School in 1965.
He worked with explosives and munitions for six years while stationed at various bases, including in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. He enrolled in air traffic control school at the Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.
“There was not much call for explosives in the civilian world,” Davis said. “Plus, I found air traffic control to be much more interesting.”
Davis worked as an air traffic controller with the Air Force for 15 years at bases in Utah, New Mexico, England and Italy.
After retiring in 1988, he worked with the U.S. Mission in Berlin. That job was eliminated when Germany re-unified.
Davis returned to the U.S. in 1992. After working in Ohio and other Wisconsin cities, he started as an air traffic controller in La Crosse 12 years ago.
“I asked to come here,” Davis said. “Over the years I’ve grown to really like it here. I have no desire to go anywhere else.”
For 40 hours a week, Davis is perched in the airport’s tower — a glass hexagon 45 feet off the ground with 360 degree panoramic views — accounting for all airplanes under 3,400 feet within a five mile radius.
A pilot will radio Davis on entering his airspace, advising him of the location, altitude and arrival time. Davis informs the pilot of the weather conditions and wind patterns and directs him to the proper runway.
If multiple planes need to land, Davis uses “situational awareness” — visualizing the aircraft’s position in the sky to sequence the landings.
“I have to have all these pictures in my mind where they all are and where they’re going to be in the next three or four minutes,” he said. “It works. You get to be where you’re good at it.”
La Crosse Air Traffic Manager Mel McBride describes air traffic control as “hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror.”
“You will go from absolutely nothing going on to airplanes everywhere,” he said. “And that’s when you just have to step up and go.”
The airport tower doesn’t have radar because the bluffs block coverage. Instead, Davis uses older and reliable VHF radios, telephones and binoculars for his work.
Davis also guides out planes after hearing flight plans from pilots and clearing them for takeoff, while updating the hourly weather recording for pilots and controlling runway lights.
McBride praised Davis’ skill.
“I never question his abilities,” he said.
Air traffic control demands superior multi-tasking skills, constant mental alertness and the ability to handle stress, Davis said. The responsibility for pilot and passenger safety also comes with the job.
Davis said it’s exciting knowing each day will be different.
“It’s sort of like having an adventure every day when you wake up,” he said.
And then there are the days he’ll never forget.
Such as June 16, 2001, when a jet crashed just before the Deke Slayton Airfest, killing passenger Sarah Hanson, 22, of Holmen, Wis., and pilot Roger Simpson of Northville, Mich.
Investigators determined a fuel tank separated from a wing tip, causing the plane to break apart.
It is the only crash Davis has seen at the La Crosse airport.
“It was awful. It was very stressful,” he said. “You’re totally helpless. When something instantaneous like that happens, there’s nothing you can do except call the crash people.”
Davis was working the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the federal government grounded all planes after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
“We had airplanes coming in here left and right,” Davis said. “Every air traffic controller in this country that was on that day worked their butts off.”
When he’s not in the tower, Davis enjoys collector cars, especially his 1966 Chevy Impala and 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass, traveling with his significant other, Ann, and spending time at their log home on nine acres outside Galesville, Wis.
Davis doesn’t plan to retire from air traffic control any time soon.
It’s the air shows that excite Davis, when Blue Angels and Thunderbirds descend on La Crosse.
“They are the fastest, most powerful, most impressive and most maneuverable,” he said of the war birds. “They are just so awesome in what they can do. You never get tried of watching them.”
After all his years around planes, Davis still flirts with the idea of getting his own pilot’s license.
He started to in the 1970s, but was transfered to a base that didn’t offer pilot training and never finished the course.
“I never have completed that training, which I regret,” he said. “I may yet do it.”
Anne Jungen can be reached at (608) 791-8224 or ajungen@lacrossetribune.com.
Myturn wrote on Aug 18, 2008 7:07 AM: