Posts

Showing posts from August, 2021

8.2 Air Traffic Control Entities

Image
     Unfortunately I have zero first hand knowledge besides occasionally contacting the tower on our military flight line to make sure the jet's equipment works perfectly. The tower is in charge of anything to do with landing, taking off and taxing on the line, if you drive to a certain point you even have to request clearance from my experience (Craig, 2021). The second division that caught my attention is what's known as a flight service station, which according to Krug (2019), they perform everything from pilot briefings and reports to weather observation and assistance in searches and emergencies.      I personally believe that they both have an appearance of being very straightforward, however from maintenance I've come to understand that whenever it's dealing with aircraft its never the case that something can be as simple as it might seem. Flight service stations are generally found in more rural areas or smaller airports, but although their domain might technica

7.2 The Airport and the Environment

Image
      I believe the single greatest challenge concerning airport managers is in fact noise from standard operation and its effects on the population. As understood by Visser and Wijnen (2008), there is a common understanding of the tolerance to noise being greater during the day than at night. Keeping that in mind at my particular air base is fortunate enough to be, isolated, host of a massive range, and generally understanding enough about the noise produced during aircraft operation. That is to say, we're not immune or tolerant, just a little more understanding than someone who's house is within range of a newly built airport. However, very recently we had some foreign aircraft stay with us and contrary to our practice, they were not familiar with the amount of noise to be produced and the time of day, and ran up completely around midnight. Needless to say many people were unhappy with their decision, but it was all addressed after the fact.      The FAA in their infinite wis

Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982

Image
     The Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 is what's commonly known now as the Airport Improvement Program, and a cornerstone for the improvement of aviation around the US. According to the FAA (2021), the program is a way to improve aviation safety, security and address environmental concerns as well as provide assistance to any project that falls under three possible categories, publicly owned, a FAA reliever, or having scheduled service with 2,500 annual enplanements.       Among some finer details and requirements or disqualifiers, the whole purpose of the program is to encourage the costly but beneficial features and programs that encompass the runway, its markings, lights, land and environmental studies. If it could be in any way related to the main goal it might be considered for acceptance and help cover some of those costs to gain some peace of mind. With this kind of approach the simultaneous improvement of runways and general flight safety across the U.S. is not

5.3 Team-Based Human Factors Challenges

Image
     Human factors in aviation means to me anything with the potential to suffer from lack of attention or training (Human, 2020). On the other more positive side of the coin, I think human factors provide a framework for what  to  focus on and improve as a process instead of just being a source of error. From experience, I most typically see human factors appear in aviation during maintenance operations, and they present themselves at the most inconvenient of times.       Whether it's an upcoming flight window, a lack of time, improper training or just your general ability to work together, be aware or trust your team the human factor always seems to rear its head. At my particular work center they preach taking your time and paying attention more than anything else, and for good reason. Many times I've seen a group roll out to a job, and it could be the simplest thing that becomes very complicated from carelessness.       The most recent example that comes to mind is an inspe