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San Antonio, Texas
9 May 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
— FOD Patrol at Hondo Prepares for The Texas Fly-In
—
On
Saturday afternoon, May 7th, anyone observing the
main aircraft parking ramp at Hondo Municipal
Airport would have seen a strange sight: a line
abreast of about a dozen men all walking slowly and
deliberately from the extreme north end of the ramp
to its south end. Every few steps, one or another
of them would pause, stoop or bend, pick up an
object off the concrete and drop it in a plastic
bucket he carried.
These men were hunting for FOD.
The
main ramp at Hondo is parallel to and almost as long
as the north-south runway, which is 6,024 feet
long. That makes the ramp more than a mile long.
The runway is 150 feet wide, but the ramp beside it
is at least six times that wide. Wide enough to
park more than 750 airplanes.
The
ramp is constructed of closely-fitted concrete
blocks fifteen feet wide by twenty-five feet long.
Two hundred twenty blocks per row times 36 rows of
blocks is 7,920 concrete blocks. The Saturday FOD
hunt had to inspect every one of them.
FOD
is the U.S. Air Force abbreviation for Foreign
Object Debris.
Hondo Airfield is the location this May 13th through
15th of the 41st Annual Southwest Regional Fly-In of
the Experimental Aircraft Association, in which
hundreds of home-built and other private airplanes
will take part. A veritable swarm of airplanes will
converge on Hondo, land and taxi across its ramp to
designated parking places. All these aircraft will
have engines and propellers powerful enough to stir
up FOD off the ground and send it flying behind them
as they taxi, potentially flinging FOD into other
airplanes or people, with regrettable results.
It
was therefore imperative that members of the E.A.A.
team busy preparing to host The Texas Fly-In, as the
event is known, should devote a major effort to
finding and removing every bit of FOD from the
parking ramp.
The
bulk of the FOD on Saturday consisted of pebbles.
Some were little bits of the concrete blocks
themselves which have worn away at their edges over
time, but many more were simply native pebbles and
even small, smooth rocks. Where had these come
from? Some were picked up by the tires of aircraft
and automobiles which had taxied over bare ground or
driven on gravel roads before moving across the
Hondo ramp. A few pebbles had worked their way up
through the cracks between blocks. All the spaces
between blocks had originally been well caulked with
asphalt, but over the years a few asphalt patches
had opened, allowing bits of the under-layer of
aggregate to escape to the surface.
A
few pieces of FOD challenged the imagination: how
did this thing get here? Such as a ten-inch needle
of spring steel, rusty but still sharp on one end.
What in the world was it? Other junk was easier to
identify: steel screws and nuts rusted beyond all
use. Chips of plastic from shattered aircraft or
automobile lights. A broken china-marking pencil.
A short piece of broken plywood. A cotter pin.
Panel rivets. Rusted single-edge razor blades.
Naturally, one of the jokers in the group had to
tell the story about a guy who hung around airports
picking up FOD until he’d collected enough spare
parts to build his own airplane. A gag first told
about Model T Fords.
Lots of little things simply fall off of airplanes:
several of the FOD scouts picked up examples of
special fasteners used to lock engine access panels
— easy to spot since they’re stainless and don’t
rust. Anything that can work loose from vibration
on an airplane will do so. To keep aircraft
fasteners from coming unfastened mechanics use
special tough ‘safety wire’ tightly twisted around
itself and the part. Bits of safety wire were among
the FOD.
One
FOD-hunter found a dime. It had lain on the ramp so
long its shine was gone, but it was cash money just
the same. The others cautioned him not to spend it
all in one night. Another fellow came upon a
slightly rusted but salvageable adjustable wrench.
These two items were the only ones of value.
In
nearly two hours the line of searchers walked the
length of the ramp in one direction, turned about
and walked back to where they began. The FOD was
consolidated and safely disposed of, and everyone
felt weary but satisfied that we had contributed
significantly to the safety of The Texas Fly-In.
The
general public as well as pilots who build their own
airplanes are welcome to The Texas Fly-In at Hondo
Airfield Friday, May 13th, 14th and 15th. An Air
Show begins at 4:00 pm Saturday the 14th. The
Sunday Air Show starts at 1:00 p.m. Gates and food
vendors open Sunday at 10:30. Sunday admission is
$5.00 per carload.
###
Contact: E. D. Yoes, Jr.
Secretary, SWRFI
(210) 492-2504
eyoes@stic.net |
