Blog Archives
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New Standards for Diesel-powered GSE: Are You Ready?
- Tuesday June 22, 2010January 2011 is when some newly manufactured diesel-powered equipment will have to meet new, tighter standards for emissions. Diesel emissions are a major contributor to airport pollution. EPA’s standards are intended to address long-standing scientific concerns that diesel emissions can lead to or exacerbate serious health conditions, such as asthma, allergies, heart and lung diseases. Diesel exhaust is particularly harmful to the most vulnerable — the young and the elderly. My concern is that GSE maintainers may need to develop new repair procedures, as well as new methods for rebuilding these engines. This all comes at a time of extremely constrained resources. New equipment requires new inventory for new parts, new training... -
Overriding Safety Devices: Risky Business
- Tuesday May 25, 2010I was sitting at the terminal at Boston’s Logan Airport the other day, waiting for an afternoon flight. Like most of us airport types, I while away the time by watching the ground operations going on through the window. I couldn’t help but notice a number of belt loaders and baggage tugs zipping around the perimeter of the apron. They were zipping around at a pace obviously faster than the airport speed limit. As I was watching this, two more baggage tugs – one towing two carts and one towing three – came tearing out of the bag room; they actually seemed to be racing each other. It’s a wonder that the baggage didn’t come flying off! This isn’t the first time, of course, that I’ve seen excessive speeds on the ramp... -
See Something, Say Something
- Tuesday May 11, 2010How many times have people snickered at those ubiquitous post-9/11 posters in New York City proclaiming, “See Something, Say Something”? Well, no one’s snickering now. Two T-shirt vendors in Times Square have proven the importance of those four little words. Two working people saved the day by noticing something unusual and immediately telling a police officer. So Homeland Security, TSA and all the security forces at the airports can only do so much. But security at our airports and on our aircraft depends just as much — maybe more — on the everyday workers on the ramp who know if something is just not right. It’s their trained and experienced eyes and ears that are in many ways a first line of defense for airport... -
Aviation Can't Catch a Break
- Tuesday April 27, 2010Just when the economy started perking up and many of us were feeling a little bit of hope for the future of aviation, the volcano in Iceland (I can’t pronounce it and I sure can’t spell it) spewed ash across the skies of Europe, closing hundreds of airports, with dismaying impact on global aviation. Thousands of flights were grounded to and from the United States. The volcano’s impacts seem like part of a trend that began even before 9/11, but was certainly magnified by that horrendous event. Aviation seems to be in the crosshairs of some diabolical force. If something bad happens in the world, it’s just that much worse for aviation. Skyrocketing fuel costs, for example, hurt a lot of industries, but perhaps none as... -
At What Cost Free Use of GSE?
- Tuesday April 6, 2010Doesn’t it get you when you come in to work in the morning and the equipment you left pre-positioned around an aircraft has been used? And left in an unacceptable condition — like dirty, greasy and out of place? Or when you leave the equipment fueled for the next day’s operations and, lo and behold, you run out of fuel in the middle of your busiest time because someone used it overnight and conveniently forgot to refuel? Used to be that mechanics for the airlines had free use of ground equipment because it was the airline’s equipment and the airline’s responsibility to maintain it. But now, with most ground handling contracted out, it’s the ground handling companies that are responsible for the equipment. But many airline... -
Everything Old is Not New Again — at Least When it Comes to GSE
- Monday March 22, 2010Back when I was running my own FBO, replacing worn out or obsolete GSE meant comparing new to used or refurbished equipment. Original equipment owners — the airlines in those days — were much more likely to replace or upgrade their equipment once it was depreciated. Good quality, used or refurbished GSE was plentiful, although finding it involved old-fashioned phone and leg work. In the days before online search engines made shopping for used equipment a fingertip away, finding primo equipment meant calling or visiting your contacts at different airports and airlines, finding out who was getting rid of what and who had a good reputation for well-maintained equipment. A well-placed contact could be an excellent source for good equipment... -
GSE Emissions Study — You Can Help
- Tuesday March 9, 2010The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) has issued a request for proposals to “develop a tutorial that describes GSE operations and identifies potential strategies to reduce emissions from powered GSE for use by GSE owners and operators and to conduct a representative inventory of powered GSE at airports to help the industry assess the contribution of GSE to air quality impacts at airports.” The TRB is an agency of Congress mandated to study transportation issues. [Full disclosure – I have been asked by a potential bidder to participate as a consultant] Whoever ends up doing the study will be successful only with the full cooperation of GSE operators. Why do I think GSE... -
Airports: The Economic Engines that Do
- Monday February 8, 2010Maybe all the years of noise and environmental complaints have made airport managers publicity-shy, but unless politicians get the message that airports are huge economic engines for their constituencies, they will not get the stimulus money needed to put people back to work in aviation. I have not heard of too many airport projects that were the beneficiaries of much-needed stimulus funds and I am afraid that if we don’t mount a significant campaign to bring attention to the airport jobs that could be created, we won’t get any second-round stimulus funds either. Politicians need to know that many airport projects – such as resurfacing projects – are labor intensive and can put a lot of people back to work quickly in trades... -
Virtual Driver Training: The New Reality
- Tuesday January 19, 2010Whether fueled by low wages, cut-backs in overtime or a myriad other possible reasons, driver turnover on the ramp is a reality and can be costly when inexperienced drivers are left to learn on the job. Many airport drivers get little more than a driving test and some OJT before they start driving in a complex ramp environment. But inexperience, and inattention, of course, can be really costly, with slight dents and dings being extremely expensive to repair. The costs of a serious accident with an aircraft can be staggering. Total ground damage costs globally can run in the hundreds of millions annually. With new virtual airport driver training software, improved driver safety, can be as close as a computer screen. I recently had... -
Safety Doesn't Take a Holiday
- Tuesday January 5, 2010A sad reminder last week that the rush of holiday traffic doesn’t condone skimping on safety requirements. A routine deicing operation turned tragic at Calgary when standard precautions may not have been followed. A worker was found dead of head injuries outside his deicing truck where he had been working alone – perhaps without a safety harness - to deice a 737. The bucket was extended about 20 feet according to press reports. How he came to fall out of the bucket may never be established but it does remind us of the importance of following standard safety protocols: in this case, always wearing a safety harness and always having two-person crews whenever a high-lift device is used, with one person on the ground. In...
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