Best Practices on Winter Preparation and Deicing Continued from page 27 samples from the trucks’ tanks and from the nozzles, to make sure noth- ing has been contaminated. I’ve been using Ascent Technologies (now World Fuel) for all my years, and they’ve given me service like nobody else in the country could. You come to rely on those kinds of partnerships.” Bacigalupo also takes special pride in his team’s speed, ef- ficiency, and safety record. The Atlantic Aviation team uses NATA’s Safety 1st training and fol- to incremental improvements, little tweaks here and there, that can make a big difference in the long run,” Myer said. “We’ll make those kinds of changes to our plan over the summer, train everybody on them, and implement them for the following winter season.” Winters are just as long and hard for George Bacigalupo, General Manager of Atlantic Aviation, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “A normal winter here can be seven or eight months of the year, from roughly November through May,” Bagicalupo said. “When the lake effect is going on over the Great Lakes, we’ll get some of that; and it can go on for days. The low pressure system just churns it in there; and it can drop from 25 to 30 degrees one day to, well below zero overnight and into the next, which makes fluid management critical. We go through all the standard sampling of fluids before the winter season, including lows the full United Airlines train- ing program as well as an in-house, hands-on training program developed with special emphasis on deicing. Bacigalupo said: “That training combination is pretty intense, but I think it makes a difference. We have both computer-based training and, in September, our own train- ing where we’ll bring in samples of fluid, talk about the properties of the fluids and how they react on the airplane in different temperatures, go over proper use of all the tools, drill on each of our safety protocols, run a safety check on all the har- nesses...we get really in-depth with it, get the whole group in there, and really get into some good stuff.” Bacigalupo is a propo- nent of open-bucket trucks for his deicing operation. “One of the things I think is important is the kind of trucks we use, with the open buckets, because I really think it’s a much faster and safer operation than with the en- closed buckets,” he said. “I’d guess it’s probably three times quicker for us to deice an airplane with an open bucket than with an enclosed bucket, simply because you can remove snow and ice so much quicker. In an enclosed bucket you’ve got your feet going, you’ve got your hands going...it’s just so much slower to maneuver the whole cab to get the shot. I believe it’s also safer in a couple of ways, because you have improved visibility. A lot of deicing is done in the dark, and when that wind is blowing and the glycol blows back on the windshield you can have real visibility issues. It’s looking out a window that has some smear on it versus a guy right there with a bucket who can actu- ally see the contamination and get it off. You know you’ve done a better job because you can actually see it.” Efficiency is another top prior- ity for the team at Atlantic Aviation. Bacigalupo doesn’t like to waste time or fluids during the deicing process. “In our business, time is money, and our fluids are money,” he said. “I’ve seen other FBOs deice airplanes and it’s a shame how much fluid is wasted and sent into the wind. The customer ultimately ends up getting that charge. Here, we want to make sure they get a fair shake on it. I’ve been doing this for a lot of years and I still go out in the morning and help deice. We’ve had pilots take off, be en- route, and call me back in the truck to say, ‘That was the most incredible deicing I’ve ever experienced.’ We’re pretty proud when that happens.” In Portland, Maine, Northeast Airmotive Vice President Mark Goodwin takes a moment to think about how his team preps for winter 28 Aviation Business Journal | 4th Quarter 2016 Photo courtesy of Heritage Aviation
