marchapril2021 - 39

AIRFIELD MAINTENANCE
In order to effectively alleviate the impact of winter weather while
simultaneously remaining in compliance with the upcoming GRF
requirements, forward-thinking airports are turning to advanced sensor
technology to monitor snow and ice, as well as assess and report runway
conditions in real time.
ISTOCK

ICAO's New GRF
Requirements Add New
Responsibilities
Increasing the level of challenge, the
new ICAO GRF regulation will begin
to be enforced on Nov. 4, placing
new demands on airports, pilots and
other personnel at all ICAO-registered
international airports.
Adopting many practices from the
Federal Aviation Association's Takeoff
and Landing Performance Assessment
(TALPA) initiative, the new GRF
enhances safety by expanding the
TALPA framework into a universally
consistent method of assessing and
reporting runway conditions that impact
aircraft performance when landing or
taking off, thereby affecting safety.
Alongside obvious risks to passengers
and crew, overruns and runway
excursions - especially incidents
resulting in hull loss and fatality - pose
significant safety- and efficiency-related
problems that can threaten airlines
and airports with economical losses
and damaged reputation. As a matter
of fact, statistics from Airbus reveal
that, between 1999 and 2019, runway
overruns and excursions accounted
for 36 percent of hull losses and 16
percent of fatal accidents. Recognizing
the insufficiency of current mitigation
strategies and technologies, the new
GRF addresses these dangers by creating
standardized assessment methods and
runway condition reports, with two
sections: aircraft performance calculation
and situational awareness assessment.
The upcoming GRF includes the
following changes:
* Reliance on observed contaminants
rather than friction measurements on
each runway third.
* Assessments must take place whenever
there are significant changes to runway
conditions, not just periodically.
* Reporting is mandatory around the
globe, even in locales with no freezing
weather, with the U.S. and Canada
continuing to adhere to TALPA.

The aircraft performance calculation
includes runway condition codes from 0,
worst condition, unusable runways, to
6, best condition, clear and dry, for each
runway third; contaminant coverage
assessment; depth of contaminant layer(s);
and generalized condition description,
with 15 standardized choices. The
situational awareness assessment involves
the description of snowbanks, chemical
treatments, runway length reductions,
etc. and includes the option for freeform remarks.
In spite of these added
responsibilities, new sensor technology
can support compliance of the regulation
and empower airports, pilots and other
personnel with more meaningful
data, improved awareness and better
decision-making.

How Mobile Sensor
Technology Helps with
Compliance
When it comes to runway management,
the ideal GRF-compliant solution
deploys sensor technology and an
integration platform for consolidating
data, reporting and alerts.
This kind of solution makes it much
more simple to convey actual runway
condition information to pilots in
terms that directly relate to expected
aircraft performance. Using only
manual methods of runway condition
assessment can lead to inefficiencies in
the assessment and reporting process.
Moreover, as those assessments depend
on individual inspectors evaluating the
runway surface state, the consistency of
the outcome may become suboptimal:
The challenge with this manual approach
is that people are different and, as such,
can come to different conclusions
regarding the same conditions. By
enabling different inspectors to assess
and report on runway conditions
consistently, sensor technology also frees
them to concentrate on other condition
factors and accelerate the normal GRF
workflow, increasing efficiency.

Advanced mobile sensor systems
use real-time measurements of runway
contaminant types and layer depths to
improve assessments and create outputs
that are aligned with GRF reporting
standards. With high-precision laser
technology, modern mobile sensors
can assess contaminant types and layer
depths with unmatched accuracy,
creating representative data sets
everywhere an inspector drives, not just
in a few spots along the runway.
Plus, mobile sensor technology is
exceedingly fast and can make reports
available as soon as the assessment has
concluded. By minimizing the amount of
time inspectors have to spend conducting
assessments on runways, sensors help
improve airport capacity through
shortened runway traffic disruptions,
aid in maintaining normal operations
and save staff resources. Even better, by
minimizing impacts to aviation traffic
flow, airports gain operational safety and
improved efficiency as well.
Perhaps best of all, mobile sensor
systems can be compact and extremely
robust, which means they can be
mounted on any fleet vehicle to measure
virtually all reported contaminant types,
including dry, wet, frost, ice, slush,
standing water, etc. By leveraging realtime weather measurements on runway
surfaces and employing software to
process sensor data, modern sensor
systems deliver accurate, reliable data
that can be converted into the ICAO
GRF-required text-based format that
pilots and airport personnel can trust
under all conditions.
While each airport's preferred
assessment methods and technologies
will vary based on climate, funding
and capacity considerations, most
airports will soon need to adopt the
shared language of GRF, making
end-to-end sensor solutions more
important than ever before. At the end
of the day, airports want to stay open
and stay safe. By employing advanced
sensor technology solutions, airports
are empowered with the immediate,
accurate and reliable reporting on
runway conditions necessary to not only
improve winter maintenance operations
but stay compliant with upcoming
ICAO GRF regulations, gain efficiency
and improve decision-making. 

MARCH/APRIL 2021 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 39
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