In spite of the weather, this workshop went ahead last week at Eurocontrol in Brussels and although I speak as one of the main presenters, I think it was at least a moderate success. The fact that most delegates were still there (and awake) at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon must count for something! What surpised me most was that of the 130 people there, none had previously seen the 2009 IATA Runway Excursion Risk Reduction Toolkit CD before, despite 8100 having been distributed... We are currently working on Version 2 of the Toolkit, for release next year - clearly we have to make sure that it reaches a wider audience this time.
The real success of this workshop was that it brought together operators, ANSPs (controllers), airports and regulators to discuss issues like runway condition monitoring and reporting. It became clear that there simply isn't the technology or the resource currently out there to provide pilots with the timely and accurate runway condition information they need to make sound decisions on landing performance. However, it seems that research is on-going in the US to develop automatic friction and braking performance measuring systems on board aircraft, which will at least provide real time runway condition data for following aircraft.
Gates Aviation specialises in air, ground and personal safety, operational and asset security, emergency response, risk and change management, major asset acquisition, loss recovery and legal services but with a network of associates and partnerships around the world we can source solutions to most business demands including recruitment, training, finance, materials and equipment.
No comments:
Post a Comment