This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
On a VFR flight to Auburn University Regional Airport (KAUO) in Alabama, I picked up the weather at Auburn about 30 miles out, informed ATC I had the weather, and I was ready to cancel flight following. They told me to squawk VFR and frequency change approved.
I switched to the Auburn CTAF frequency and reported my position as I approached the airport.
As I was entering the downwind for Runway 36, Auburn Tower contacted me on the CTAF frequency, notified me I violated their airspace and gave me their frequency to switch to. They gave me a landing clearance and I landed without issue.
This is a flight I have made multiple times and before the flight I updated my sectional chart and checked the airport NOTAMs before departure.
At no point in that process did I realize a tower had been added to this airport.
After landing, I checked the sectional and saw that the airport is shown in Class E/G airspace, with the icon being red, which indicates an untowered field.
The NOTAMs do not warn that the airport is towered, but there are two NOTAMs mentioning times the tower is closed. I must have skimmed over these because NOTAMs mentioning a tower being closed should be irrelevant to an untowered airport.
I told the tower controller that my updated sectional showed the airport as untowered, and he responded that “it’s on there.”
After reviewing it post-flight, I disagree, and I would be surprised if any VFR pilot looking at the airport on a sectional would realize it has a tower.
Primary Problem: Ambiguous
ACN: 2195929
When you click on the link it will take you to the ASRS Online Database. Click on Report Number and put the ACN in the search box, then click Search. On that page, click on “view only the 1 most recent report.”
maybe he had paper charts, maybe the charts were slow updating.
The Notam about tower hours would have been a clue.
PPPPP. if you don’t know the five Ps , look them up.
It can be confusing. KFNL is in Class Echo (E) airspace, and is in a magenta circle, but has had a control tower now for years.
It is confusing – very few of these airports. Occurs when the tower/controllers don’t meet weather certification requirements. Lake City FL was previously like that. It was (assume still is) a maintenance facility for large aircraft. Pilots must follow communication requirements in 91.126 (G) and 91.127(E) – “Communications must be established prior to 4 nautical miles from the airport, up to and including 2,500 feet AGL.”
It is possible, the pilot does not use an EFB and he updated his paper sectionals and about all you can do is make sure the NOTAMs are identified on the chart. With charts changing every 56 days now, the Sectional update section in the Chart Supplement is no longer available or necessary since all charts are updated.
From Wikipedia – “In August 2024, a new Temporary Air Traffic Control Tower building was constructed on the grounds of the airport, transitioning the field from a Non-towered airport to a controlled field during operating hours.” If the pilot is using paper charts and possibly the tower became permanent after his current chart. There would needed to have been a NOTAM giving tower information.
There is not enough information in the ASRS report to know for sure if any of this is close to be right, but you can’t assume the pilot was using ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot or any other EFB and paper will show the airfield blue once a permanent tower is in place.
I’m looking at ForeFlight right now. Clearly a class “D” airport. Could it be the pilot does not know how to update his sectional charts on ForeFlight…..then confirm they have been updated? As a DPE I see this somewhat regularly when I’m told, “it’s automatic”. JCL
Note: we are reading a report today without the date info. The date info given out of the system is 202412. I’m assuming this is 2024 December. So what the current plates show may not be at all what they were back then.
Confusing yes, but on the sectional it shows the outer dash line in magenta but the airport in blue(D airspace)
Skyvector.com currently has typical towered airport airspace – a blue dashed line depicting Class D surface to 2500msl 4nm radius, and the magenta transition area depicting Class E starting at 700agl to 7nm protecting instrument approaches. It sounds like the writer’s flight occurred after the tower was commissioned, but before the chart was updated, which could have resulted in missing some details in the notams as he suspected – “I must have skimmed over these”.
Looking at ForeFlight, I would make the exact same mistake. I don’t see anything about a tower on the sectional. However, in the airport info they provide a frequency and operating hours.
I’m up near HSV, and while I know several AU grads, I’ve never flown into AUO. I too assumed it was uncontrolled. I was scrolling through the AL airports on my LiveATC app one day and saw Auburn, and was surprised they had a tower! Learn something new every day.