As the COVID19 curve has been flattened (far from beaten), it is time to imagine and Plan for the transition to the new normal in all walks of life.
Somethings will look similar to pre-COVID19, many things will be modified and changed, Somethings will be gone for ever such as the handshake. Sanitizing surfaces and our hands will become the every use new norm.
As I ponder the new face of aviation I am remembering being a leader on the Toronto Pearson Central Deicing Facility creation and transition Team.
It was a huge step for the Industry the system of remote Pads and environmental challenges was just not working as gridlock and unacceptable pollution water and soil contamination had forced the need for change. A group of the best engineering and operational minds were brought together to create a solution and transition smoothly to a new normal.
The big scare was that a central facility could become a choke point permanently grid locking the Country’s largest HUB and forcing numerous ground stops at other airports making the problem a national not a local problem. How could we collect and store enough glycol and stream fluid to mitigate the ever increasing ground pollution concern added to the challenges.
I remember standing on Victor Taxiway looking north at a field of hills knolls and gopher holes and told to envision a 6 Pad facility capable of deicing and staging up to 24 aircraft simultaneously! Yah right, I couldn’t even envision the 6 pads let alone a fully operational facility that day.
But that was why we had engineers on the team and architects. I was there for my operational expertise to help plan the movement through the pad and help decide how we would deice planes faster and safer that ever before. How would we collect and stream the fluid. How would we hand over from and to Nav Canada to get aircraft of all shapes and sizes through the Central Deicing Facility (CDF) and launched within holdover safety time-frames.
Well the TEAM resolved everything that needed solving to create the model used around the world as the standard of deicing excellence within 2 years and today over 20 years later the CDF is still maintaining that standard that everyone now views as standard operating procedure.
The seemingly impossible solutions and challenges we overcame then will be applied by other TEAMS today (of which AVCON.WW will be a part) will resolve the impossible task to help the Aviation Communities (Commercial Business and General) grow safer, more economically and environmentally viable, to be bigger and better than ever within the next 2 to 3 years, through a spirit of cooperation and collaboration.
We at AVCON.WW Inc. are proud to be part of the long illustrious history of this industry and to help forge the even better future.