NORFOLK, Va. — Winter storms can wreak havoc on air travel. Meteorologist Kristy Steward went to the Norfolk International Airport to see what they’re doing to mitigate any delays to your travel plans.
Plans for handling the impact of winter weather at the airport start in the summertime. A snow and ice control plan begins getting revised by airport officials in August. The plan is made to prepare for the worst-case scenario of several days of snow in a row, even though that’s rare here.
“We have the responsibility to continue to remove snow off the airfield. The FAA wants us to continually treat the runways until we have the conditions that are no worse than wet,” says Steven Schell, the Airport Operations Manager at Norfolk International Airport.
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When coming up with a plan that doesn’t disrupt air traffic, the airport is dissected into different levels of priority. So during the height of a snow event, the critical areas that keep operations running are the focus of clearing efforts. A communication plan, training requirements, and needed products are discussed throughout the fall to ensure a smooth sailing operation during a snow or ice event in the winter.
“Here at Norfolk in our airfield maintenance facility, we have about 20 pieces of equipment that do our snow removal: seven brooms, seven plows, five payloaders, and one snowdozer,” stated Lacy Dickinson, the Assistant Operations Manager at Norfolk International Airport.
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The airport also has two deicing trailers that use a mixture of water and propylene glycol heated to 180°, 16,000 gallons of potassium acetate, and some heated sand on reserve to help with pretreatment efforts.
When an event is approaching, airport authorities work closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to figure out how the storm system will directly impact the airport's operations. About 72 hours out, a specific plan is made. Crew size, accommodations, and necessary equipment are figured out. About 12 hours ahead of the event, pretreatments occur.
During the winter event, their heated garage helps keep the equipment in perfect working condition and a tool called the Continuous Friction Monitoring Equipment, or CFME, is broken out.
“...after we’ve plowed the runway and we’ve treated it, we need to know what the friction values of the runway are so that we can mimic, as best we can, the tires touching down of the aircraft,” says Schell of the CFME.
A testing tire is sprayed and tests every foot of the runway to give it a friction value. This lets pilots know how the gripping action is at each third of the runway and helps them know whether to brake or use reverse thrusters in each section.
The maintenance crew also keeps the snowdozer on standby. It shoots snow up to 300 feet away from the runway to avoid important markers and lights being covered up by embankments.
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However, having a well-thought-out plan can only prevent delays and cancellations so much.
Steve Sterling, the Executive Vice President of Norfolk Airport Authority, informed, “In significant events, we can easily end up with both the aircraft and the crews being out of position, if you will, in order for the airline to maintain their scheduled routes.”
Crews have required rest periods and aircrafts can get stranded at other airports. Airlines may cancel flights ahead of time to mitigate stranding crew and aircrafts and have as little disruption as possible to the normal route flow.
Sterling reminds everyone to “pack your patience when you’re traveling during winter weather because it has the ability to result in a lot of delays.”
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