BLAINE, MINN. – When pilots talk to air traffic controllers, and vice versa, they seldom put a face with the voice unless they personally visit the air traffic control facility. But after 50 years in the Twin Cities metropolitan area directing air traffic, and 58 years in all, it is worth publishing a photo of air traffic controller, Nicholas “Nick” Conom of Hudson, Wisconsin.
Conom will officially retire as a controller on June 7, 2014. He has been working the contract tower at Anoka County-Blaine Airport after first retiring from the FAA in 1998.
Conom joined the U.S. Air Force in 1955 and was a controller at Rapid City, South Dakota beginning in 1956, before moving to Madison, Wisconsin (MSN) in 1960 where he worked the tower until 1968 when he transferred to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). He became a supervisor in 1973, and survived the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike of 1981.
The job has had its challenges, like having to repeat transmissions to pilots more than once, but its rewards have been many.
One of Conom’s most memorable experiences came in 1997 while working at MSP. There was a VFR pilot who took off from Minneapolis Airlake Airport (LVN) in Lakeville, Minnesota at night in low IFR conditions. Immediately after taking off, the pilot called the tower at MSP and asked for help. He was in the clouds 25 miles south of MSP, so Conom gave him a no-gyro approach back to LVN. Once lined up for Runway 30, and one mile from the airport, the pilot broke out of the clouds at 400 feet AGL and landed safely. After shutting down the engine, the pilot called the tower to thank Conom for saving his life. Conom’s response then, as it is today, “That’s our job!”
One of Conom’s last assignments will be to direct traffic during “Discover Aviation Days” at ANE, May 31 thru June 1, 2014.
