A presentation from Trex Enterprises appeared on SlideShare.net today. It contains some interesting details on field tests carried out at MCAS Yuma. According to the presentation FOD Finder located 937 FOD items in just 1 hour on the first day of the trial.
Just read an article on the North County Times website, regarding the Trex system (FOD Finder).
The article singles out FOD Finder as being the only mobile system, which in my opinion is also its greatest weakness. While the other 3 systems on the market scan 24/7, FOD Finder is limited, it can only detect FOD when the vehicle is being driven on the runway/taxiway. Given this fact it’s interesting that they also mention the Concorde incident. The metal strip that caused this incident was on the runway for just 4 minutes, the other 3 systems would have had a good chance of detecting the object, whereas FOD Finder would have to have been driven on the runway between every flight to achieve anywhere near the same probability of detection.
There has been a FOD Finder video on YouTube for quite some time, but a higher quality and slightly updated version appeared yesterday. Interestingly the mention of price has been dropped from the latest version.
Before considering a FOD detection system, thought has to be given to where the system can be deployed on the airfield (if it can be deployed at all). For FOD Detect and FOD Finder this is not an issue, FOD Finder is a vehicle mounted system, and FOD Detect is installed in the place of existing runway lights. For Tarsier and iFerret, finding suitable locations can be difficult, not only due to the strict rules imposed by AC150/5300-13, but also by the availability of power and data-links.
Although the Tarsier and iFerret systems both employ different detection technologies (Radar and camera respectively), they are still both bound by the same requirement, they both need clear line-of-sight to the runway, and must achieve this without breaking the rules imposed in AC150/5300-13, specifically, the Primary Surface, the Transitional Surface and the Taxiway Object Free Area Width. (more…)
