"It's right over there," Gleason, the airport manager, says, pointing toward the mountains near Springville. "See the blinking lights?" It takes an observer about 30 seconds, staring hard against the snow-covered mountain, to see the tiny flash of strobe lights mounted on the aircraft's wings.

Straining to see airplanes isn't just a test of visual acuity. It's how air-traffic controllers in Provo's airport tower do business.

But some high-tech help is on the way.

The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized a $4 million to $5 million air-surveillance radar system for Provo's airport. The radar will allow controllers in Provo and Salt Lake City to see what's happening in the skies over Utah County, and better manage the increasing traffic in the area.

But the radar system comes with strings attached: Provo has to come up with $2 million before the radar can be installed.

Since December, Mayor Lewis Billings has been working the Legislature, Utah County and neighboring cities to get help in paying the tab. He wants to come up with $750,000, with the state providing the balance.

So far, he said, nobody has told him that Provo should foot the whole bill.

"It's something that needs to be done," Billings said. "This is not just for Provo, but the Wasatch Front."

That's because the airport's runways serve as an alternate landing site for airliners when Salt Lake City International Airport is socked in by fog or otherwise incapable of landing aircraft.

But Provo has to rely on controllers, using binoculars and magnets on a metal board, to track aircraft coming into Provo's control area - a zone that extends 4 1/2 miles from the airport.

Rep. Stephen E. Sandstrom, R-Orem, said pushing for radar was initially a hard sell, but it has gotten easier as people have realized that Provo is fast becoming a regional airport.

"When you explain it to them, they realize the economic factor of having radar at Provo," said Sandstrom, who also is a pilot.

While Salt Lake City's air-traffic control center can track airliners cruising high over Provo or lining up to land at Salt Lake City International Airport, it cannot track planes flying in and out of Provo. That's because Provo sits in a "radar shadow" created by the mountains on the north end of the Utah Valley.

Gleason said the radar dead spot extends to almost 10,000 feet above sea level at Provo - roughly 1,000 feet below the summit of Mount Timpanogos.

Jill Story, air-traffic manager at Salt Lake City's control center, said controllers can still direct aircraft in the area - but only by using nonradar-control rules.

That means planes cannot take off from Provo or Spanish Fork airports unless there is a 20-mile gap between aircraft already over the area.

Having radar in Provo "means we can have coverage in Provo and provide more efficient service," Story said. Controllers will be able to see what is happening.

Pilots who fly in Utah County say radar will make it more efficient - and safer - for them.

"If you have radar, it gives a heads up to the tower and the pilots," said Paul Richards, who regularly flies out of Provo airport. Richards recalls the days before the airport even had a control tower, when pilots had to continually radio the airport office with their positions as they took off and landed.

Richards said the lack of radar means that aircraft around Provo's airport have to be diverted if a plane enters the area unannounced.

He recalled one incident where a 737 was on its approach to the Provo facility and had to be waved off when a Cessna entered the airspace without contacting controllers.

Sandstrom, who keeps a plane at Springville-Spanish Fork Municipal Airport, said air-surveillance radar will allow pilots to get in the air quicker, since they wouldn't have to wait for a 20-mile gap in traffic to take off. Cutting the wait time down from 10 to 12 minutes to five minutes saves fuel.

Then there's the safety issue, especially around an airport with a lot of traffic.

"The potential for an air collision is there," Sandstrom said. "If they have you on radar, they might be able to vector you away from other aircraft."

For example, he said, airport radar might have prevented a crash that took three lives in Utah Lake in 2006.

A plane was approaching the airport in foul weather, and the pilot, apparently seeing a brief opening in the clouds, attempted a visual-flight-rule landing at Provo. The plane crashed into the lake, killing all aboard.

The lack of local radar "was one more strike against them," Sandstrom said. With radar, he said, controllers could have guided them in safely.

dmeyers@sltrib.com

Activity at the Provo airport

The airport had 175,000 flight operations last year, counted each time a plane takes off or lands. The bulk of the traffic comes from Utah Valley State College's aviation program. Million Air operates a terminal for jets shuttling business executives and college football teams in and out of Provo.