airfield mgmt
Airfield and aircraft familiarization are two critical factors that must be understood by rescue/response personnel. Judging by successful attempts to contain and minimize losses, it is readily apparent that crash fire crew knowledge of airfield and aircraft design are interracial parts of perpetual training. Being part of initial response can be an awe-inspiring experience; the initial shock of the situation will hamper normal response behavior. With continued education and unconditional situational awareness we can program our response posture to enable us to approach the scene without delay and armed with a plan. Many aircraft maintainers' experience differing aircraft and airfields daily; situational awareness coupled with learned behaviors allows us to tackle this challenge head on. As an aerospace ground equipment mechanic, I feel my actions of querying aircraft personnel helps me in understanding basic blueprints for aircraft function and design. Airfields on the other hand are almost of cookie cutter design; I spend more time trying to understand traffic flow patterns than any other facet of an airfield/flightline. A more specific explanation will now follow. Airfields consist of runways, taxiways, marshalling a
Airfields are buzzing with many sizes, types and quantities of aircraft. My intentions as earlier stated are to identify what I feel are critical factors that are too often overlooked. Military aviation is my forte so I will place strong emphasis on that subject. As a general rule, know aircraft composition. Whether its depleted uranium in the wing tips of large transports or composites of an F-18 hornet we need to study aircraft composition. Many of today's aircraft seem harmless when launched from a pitching deck or parked on a ramp; nothing could be farther from the truth. While the aircraft is not harmful to the touch a small change in condition could create an overwhelming catastrophe. Case in point, while assigned to the SR-71 program at Beale AFB, I worked in close proximity with a chemical called Tetra-Ethyl Borane ("TEB") it burns an extremely low vapor pressure fuel called JP-7, which was formulated specially for the SR-71. You can put a cigarette out in a dish of JP-7. The scenario stated is avoidable if the aircraft crew briefed rescue personnel prior to the aircraft landing. Due to secrecy at the time of its service life, the SR-71 and it's TEB were not common knowledge to emergency response personnel off station. Notably, by exposure to system operating principles and having the SECRET security clearance, I was able to steer clear and avoid contact with the volatile chemical called TEB. Based on the idea's expressed, I hope to create awareness to aircraft and airfield familiarization. When lives are dependent on your ability to respond there is no such thing as time-out. Rescue and response personnel have very low visibility jobs under regular operating conditions; however, when situations warrant there immediate response they are scrutinized on haw well they perform their duties. You as a response person need to be familiar with as many elements and conditions as poss
Some common words found in the essay are:
, OSH KOSH, JP-7 TEB, Borane TEB, TEB Based, That's TEB, J-58 JP-7, Beale AFB, response procedures, response personnel, situational awareness, traffic flow, traffic flow patterns, military aviation, emergency response, operating conditions, response team, immediate response, airfield management,
Approximate Word count = 1299
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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