Hello everyone,
our fearless Chief Instructor, Rhett Kamm, just returned from the Runway Safety Action Team (RSAT) Meeting and brought us his notes. It’s short but includes some good information for us.
Notes May 19, 2020
Hosted by Ron Curry at the KAPA tower.
Some takeaways:
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For this year, at controlled airports alone, there were 1637 runway incursions and 415 surface incidents 61% pilot deviation 18% vehicles 19% controller 2% other (runaway trucks and such)
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In this list there were 340 runway incursions- that is 5.6 events daily!
Of these events, 1146 were wrong surface landings- the is one of the top 3 issues for the FAA.
One would think this would be in inclement weather, but 81% were GA aircraft and 95% were in day VFR So they have a saying “dash through the dash. Stop for the solid”. ___________ ___________ – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Airport OPS:
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Typically KAPA is the 24th busiest airport in the country, but due to COVID 19, and reduced airline operations, currently KAPA is the 5th busiest airport in the country.
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However, May 5, for the entire day, KAPAwas THE BUSIEST AIRPORT IN THE COUNTRY. The next busiest were in order : KORD, KATL, KDFW, KLAX! I was out that day and can verify it was a busy one! Funny, same day, KPUB was busier than O’Hare!
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The FAA is promoting new YouTube videos called “From the Flight Deck” – KAPA will soon be featured. This is a neat program.
Runway incursions:
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KAPA is a key player in this, primarily due to the “very close runways with offset thresholds”
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Of the 24 surface events last year: 8 of them were at BRAVO 8-
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KAPA is aware of this and are talking about restructuring this area to make it less complicated
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12 of these deviations were due to taxiing.
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The talk is also to redo BRAVO 8 with some lighting and re-wording of hold short verbiage.
-Rhett Kamm
General Manager/Chief Flight Instructor