Super 64
8th Aug 2011, 03:37
Heathrow's in-house writer, Tony Parsons, walking on air | The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/heathrows-in-house-writer-tony-parsons-walking-on-air/story-e6frg8n6-1226110371212)
Parsons has a lifelong passion for air travel and he regularly passes through Heathrow as he heads overseas with his Japanese wife, Yuriko, and his daughter.
The 57-year-old admits it is the air traffic controllers who fascinate him most.
"You're up in the air traffic control tower and looking at weather systems over the Atlantic and planes coming in from Jakarta and Singapore and San Francisco - you do feel connected to the rest of the planet," he says. "You do feel as though you're plugged into something epic and majestic."
The controllers manage Heathrow's two runways, one for departures and one for arrivals, although Parsons has discovered that these switch at 3pm because of the changing wind. "It keeps it interesting," he says.
He was surprised to find the controllers were all young technology geeks staring at screens. They are not talkative, but Parsons is already weaving stories about them, imagining a romance featuring the "air traffic control tower of love, where the guy loves the way she brings in Charlie Delta and lands it in bad weather".
"But I don't know if I'm going to get enough material. It's quite silent and church-like up there," he says.
Parsons has a lifelong passion for air travel and he regularly passes through Heathrow as he heads overseas with his Japanese wife, Yuriko, and his daughter.
The 57-year-old admits it is the air traffic controllers who fascinate him most.
"You're up in the air traffic control tower and looking at weather systems over the Atlantic and planes coming in from Jakarta and Singapore and San Francisco - you do feel connected to the rest of the planet," he says. "You do feel as though you're plugged into something epic and majestic."
The controllers manage Heathrow's two runways, one for departures and one for arrivals, although Parsons has discovered that these switch at 3pm because of the changing wind. "It keeps it interesting," he says.
He was surprised to find the controllers were all young technology geeks staring at screens. They are not talkative, but Parsons is already weaving stories about them, imagining a romance featuring the "air traffic control tower of love, where the guy loves the way she brings in Charlie Delta and lands it in bad weather".
"But I don't know if I'm going to get enough material. It's quite silent and church-like up there," he says.