Non-towered airport

Imagine if you have a playground with lots of kids playing. Everyone is having fun and running around, but no grown-up is telling the kids what to do. This is like a non-towered airport.

An airport is a place where planes take off and land. At some airports, there is a tower where grown-ups called air traffic controllers tell the pilots what to do. But at a non-towered airport, there is no tower or air traffic controllers, so the pilots talk to each other.

When a plane wants to take off or land, the pilot has to announce it on a special radio frequency that all the other pilots listen to. They also have to be careful to watch out for other planes, especially ones that might be coming in from different directions or at different altitudes. The pilots use a set of guidelines called "right of way rules" to figure out who should go first.

It's like playing with your friends on the playground: you have to make sure you don't accidentally bump into each other or get in each other's way. But since there are no grown-ups telling the pilots what to do at a non-towered airport, they have to be extra careful to follow the rules and communicate with each other to keep everyone safe.