Latest News
Every time I read about a FOD walk I’m always amazed at how much stuff they find (usually the Air Force are happy to write about what they find).
To show the importance of conducting a FOD walk, Hood, Sigala and Llerena coordinated a base-wide FOD walk. Each of the classes — more than 100 airmen from the 571st MSAS and Honduran Air Force — participated and collected more than 50 pounds of FOD from the flightline.
Source (Defence Professionals)
Charles de Gaulle Airport, where the Concorde accident occurred over 11 years ago have finally installed a FOD detection system, they have chosen to install a single FODspot unit at a taxiway intersection. I always thought that Charles de Gaulle should lead the way and be an early adopter of FOD detection technology, but they didn’t (luckily another airport did decide to lead the way).
So after 11 years of dithering the end result is a single safer taxiway intersection. Who knows, in 20-30 years they might have a safer runway, I for one won’t be holding my breath.
Download the Press Release (or don’t)
When I set up FOD-detection.com in January 2010 the hope was that the site would not only act as a one-stop-shop for all FOD detection news, but also as a portal for my consultancy work. Unfortunately the market for FOD detection systems (and therefore also for my consultancy work) has not taken off in the way many in the industry had expected.
It has now been 2 years since I held the position of Product Manager for the Tarsier FOD detection system, and I no longer feel that I have the up-to-date knowledge required to offer my services as a consultant (although some FOD vendors have been happy to have a consultant working in this area, and have offered demonstrations of their latest systems, the behaviour of other system vendors can only be described as hostile), for this reason the consultancy section of this site has been removed.
Before leaving QinetiQ I had the opportunity to fill a massive feature gap in the Tarsier system i.e. reporting. When I started as Product Manager there was no automated reporting available to Tarsier customers, no historic data, no maps, no images, no database. In order to fill this gap I proposed the Tarsier Toolbox, a SaaS solution built on Google Maps. It was not an easy task to get the Toolbox built, I had a great technical team working with me and they shared the product vision, unfortunately the project had to be justified to management at almost every stage of development (not something that makes for a particularly positive working environment).
The one thing I did learn from my time working on the Toolbox was that I wanted to continue to help build great SaaS solutions, and that is what I am now fortunate enough to be doing. My current employer is dedicated to building a SaaS solution while also offering a great experience to end users.
FOD-detection.com will continue as usual…but now with videos! The Consultancy section has now been replaced by a Videos section, this area will contain a collection of various FOD related videos from YouTube (I’ve done the searching, so you don’t have to). In the future I hope to add further reference sections to the website (map of current installations, FOD company profiles, FOD related patents etc)
Press Release:
SEPANG – Malaysia Airports today launched the Airside Safety Campaign, a joint safety campaign with the objective to inculcate safety culture, in addition to promote awareness of safe working area and further stimulate safety-conscious to all airside workers.
KLIA in collaboration with the agencies such as Malaysia Airlines, KL Airports Services, LSG SkyChefs Sdn.Bhd, Petronas Dagangan, Shell Aviation, Exxonmobil, Air Asia and Air Asia X, jointly organizedthis apron safety campaign to educate all apron users on the importance of safety while they carry out their duties at the apron area.
Among the activities held during this month long campaign are Safety Model, Play Card Presentation, Safety Talk by participating agencies, Safety Exhibitions, Safety Quiz, Fire Fighting Simulation, FOD Hunt and Blood Donation by Tabung Darah Negara.
During this campaign, the apron users were exposed to proper handling of all equipments used at the apron area so as to safeguard the safety of the aircraft, crew and other workers, hence minimizing the probability of accidents to occur.
Dato’ Azmi Murad, Senior General Manager, Operations Services of Malaysia Airports, who launched the campaign this morning said, “KLIA achievement is not only measured from the number of passengers, aircraft and cargo handled every year but safety aspect in the operations of the airports are also very important and must be in compliance to the regulatory-bodies such as Department Civil Aviation (DCA) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”
He added, “The campaign is themed ‘FOD! We See, We Pick, We are Safe’ as we are calling for all airside staff to mind and pay attention to the foreign object debris (FOD), although it may be small in sizes, but it have potential to cause major incidents. We are giving the FOD a special attention this year although numbers of incidents caused by FOD is still minimal.” Read the rest of this entry »
It appears as though plastic grocery bags are not only a threat to the environment, but also to military jets. There’s an interesting article at the US Air Force in Europe site on the damage to aircraft that can be caused by plastic bags, the threat is so great that the Air Force have been issuing free reusable bags to Airmen and their families.
by Staff Sgt. Daryl Knee, 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
The 52nd Fighter Wing’s foreign object damage manager, in collaboration with base civilian agencies, provided free reusable grocery bags to Airmen and their families at the Spangdahlem Commissary Nov. 15 in an effort to enhance recognition of the dangers loose debris has on the base’s flying mission.
“It only takes one grocery bag to damage a jet,” said Master Sgt. Matthew LaNew, FOD manager. “The agencies on base have donated thousands of reusable grocery bags to get people in the mindset that loose bags truly are a FOD hazard.” Read the rest of this entry »
Just noticed a call for information on FOD detection systems over on the atc-network website, it’s a bit sparse on details, but it appears to be a request for information (not a formal Tender request) from Thailand.
Here’s the link
I recently noticed a bug in the mobile version of FOD-detection.com. When you first visit FOD-detection.com using a mobile browser you will be prompted to run it in “web app mode” this essentially turns the site into an app which can be launched from your mobile’s home screen. Unfortunately, selecting article titles in this mode was opening the articles in the mobile browser, and not in the app. After some help from the developers I’ve managed to correct the error.
You shouldn’t need to do anything, but if the issue persists please delete the app from your home screen, and simply visit the site again using your mobile browser, you will be prompted to install the app again, this should solve any issues.
The iPad version of the site suffered from the same issue, this should also be fixed now.
The ACI World Annual General Assembly Press Conference took place on 2nd November 2011 in Marrakech, Morocco. At the conference, members unanimously passed three resolutions reiterating their intent to promote safe operations in a global regulatory environment. One of the resolutions was based around safety and operational excellence:
In the area of safety and operational excellence, the airport members unanimously passed a resolution on runway safety. The resolution calls for ACI to produce a new Runway Safety Handbook to provide state of the art guidance to airport members. “We understand that some of the contributing factors in runway accidents are under the responsibility of airport operators,” said ACI Director of Safety, Technical and Administration David Gamper. “These contributing factors include runway surface conditions, visual aids, foreign object debris and wildlife hazards. We also believe that Runway Safety Committees are needed at all airports, for all partners (ATC, airlines, pilots etc.) to discuss safety risks and agree on suitable mitigations. ACI will produce a new guidance document based on the existing Airside Safety Handbook, which will present best practices and assist members with abating the causes of runway accidents.”
Read the full article here (Focus on Travel News Website)
I recently commented on a video from Trex (the company responsible for the FOD Finder), I mentioned that I wasn’t keen on the pen input for the tablet device displayed in their video. Grant Bishop (COO at TREX Aviation Systems) has sent an update (see below) to FOD detection.com which describes the latest updates to the FOD Finder system (including the use of an iPad):
by Grant Bishop, COO at TREX Aviation Systems
The 2012 FOD Finder now operates via wireless iPAD operation. The iPAD now controls the entire radar/vacuum/airfield management system. The FOD Finder radar and vacuum are now mounted on a single platform allowing for easy drop-in installation to the bed of any US full size pickup. The vacuum motor provides power to the radar which keeps the entire kit self contained. All the operator needs is the iPAD which comes a simple mounting system that fits any vehicle. Read the rest of this entry »
Aviation week have an article describing Michelin’s manager of customer support engineering, Keat Pruszenski’s efforts to help increase awarness of the dangers of FOD.
“FOD is a ticking time bomb,” Pruszenski says. Without some signs of progress, he fears another disaster on the scale of the loss of the Air France Concorde.
No mention of FOD detection systems in the article.
Source (Aviation Week)
