Airport Business - 24

PAINTING & STRIPING
"When it gets to the point its really
thick or peeling up, that's when it's too
late to do something easy," he said. "That
means total replacement, total removal
and that's the most expensive activity."
Speidel said there's still a challenge
with the minimum reflectivity standard.
While the FAA has put forth a measurable
tolerance, there are inspectors using a
subjective eye test. A proactive approach
means airports can have objective
information to present to an inspector
who may present a subjective opinion.
"A lot of proactive airports understand
if they measure, they can determine what
not to paint," Speidel said. "My job is

to tell you what not to paint. We want
to reduce the amount of paint that goes
down and the amount of labor it takes
to put it down.
"Our goal is to save time and money
at the same time."
Airports need to understand what
options are available to them to lower
costs.
Keating said staff are cognizant of
the current FAA regulations and each
time a new advisory circular is issued
it's made available in print or via an
iPad to share with them or contractors
when performing work. Contractors
are also required to stay until nightfall
when painting to ensure a
minimum reflectivity test
can take place.
Keating said IFP
paints when it needs to,
but given it's an airport
authority, it relies on
consultants for a lot of
work.
Sightline
developed a
program called the
Airfield Marking
Professional (AMP)
in anticipation of
the new training
regulation.
SIGHTLINE

Training programs need to talk about standards to ensure crews
are painting markings properly.
SIGHTLINE

24 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / APRIL 2020

"We don't have the luxury of reaching
out to the city's public works department,
who has a bunch of machines and all you
need to do is escort them to where they
need to paint," he said. "These machines
save us a lot of money by not having to
call contractors out here for everything."
Bell said workers can lessen painting
costs by using inserts. When painting
red boxes, often the white lettering still
meets ref lectivity requirements, so an
insert allows workers to repaint the red
while sparing the existing white paint.
Somet i me s you see people
repainting when they don't need to,"
she said. "Sometimes if they just clean
the markings, they don't have to repaint
and that's helpful over time because it's
less costly to the airport.
Bell also said airports need to be
painting with a machine. Painting by
hand isn't a best practice.
"Best practices are about safety. While
markings are sometimes the last thing to
go down, they're vital to pilot safety and
anyone on the airfield," she said. "These
are highly expensive projects, but when it
comes to doing markings on the airfield,
stencils are probably the least expensive
way to make sure the airfield is safe."
Airports need to make sure stencils
are made to FAA spec for the size of the
airport. You should also consider it a
quality product. 
Airport Business

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