[Peetwo]

Scarecrows and bird-pooh.

I wondered, who pays for the services of the airport scarecrows? The reason being that ‘the expense’ of this operational necessity is often mentioned in despatches.

ABC [Phil Shaw] from Avisure, the company contracted to keep birds away from Gold Coast Airport, said remnants of a bird had been found on the runway.”

Seems as though the operators of Coolangatta airport do; in this instance;

“A report released by the ATSB in February this year found the level of bird strikes in high capacity operations have increased dramatically in 2014-15.The largest increases were found in Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Sydney and the Gold Coast.”

A suspicious mind, one used to the venal thinking and profit driven motivation of the modern aerodrome operator may entertain thoughts of minimum service to minimum costs. It is not enough that operators must pay for use of the airport but now must bear the costs of turn back, engine and airframe repairs – dodging drones and birds – all part of the cost imposed SOP.

"Strategic Aviation Solutions chairman Neil Hansford, who consults with commercial airlines and airports, said the explanation from AirAsia X was suspicious, especially when airports spend large amounts of money to keep birds away from the air strip."

On the other hand, I can agree that the Air Asia alleged ‘strike’ is bloody suspicious; just don’t believe the birds done it, or that the ‘large ‘amount being spent’ is for a full service option.

The carefully constructed barriers around passenger safety are not crumbling, so much as being slowly eroded away; dollar saved here, penny pinched there; all very clever until someone else discovers that whilst safety is expensive – accidents cost a shed load more.

No matter; I’m sure Darren 6D has a solution for us – probably want to use drones to scare off the birds – which ain’t such a bad idea; when you think about it. Mind you, being so PC and all, he’d probably invite the anorak’s to bring their drones and ‘assist’.

Toot toot.

Excellent OBS & post "K"...  

Very much related with several references to birds and birdstrikes it was with some amusement I read the following well written article by Joanne McCarthy, courtesy the Newcastle Herald: 

Travel is a wondrous thing, until you're stuck in an airport
Joanne McCarthy
30 Jun 2017, 3 p.m.

Only a toddler knows how to deal with plane delays.


THE toddler walked past as toddlers do - dragging her feet, bored, trailing a little bag.
Her mum and dad were slightly ahead with what looked like the toddler’s older sister. They were walking slowly, also trailing bags.

Everyone was trailing bags that night a few weeks ago, or sitting beside bags, or on bags, or dozing with their heads on bags, because we were all stuck in an airport and most of the departure boards carried one depressing word - “Delayed.”

Everyone was trailing bags that night a few weeks ago, or sitting beside bags, or on bags, or dozing with their heads on bags, because we were all stuck in an airport and most of the departure boards carried one depressing word - “Delayed.”

The message beside my flight was slightly different. It said “Delayed for 79 minutes but probably for heaps longer”, or something like that. I started taking notes during those hours of sitting around but I lost them, or ate them, or made paper planes out of boredom with them because I can’t find them anymore, so the exact detail comes from memory. But I remember the toddler.

She first came to my attention while doing the circuit. She and her little family walked slowly past the cafes and food outlets with their cold, dry $13 sandwiches in crinkly plastic, or their giant fizzy confections for $12, or coffees – good, mind you – that set you back $7 or so.

They walked slowly past the shops with the koala souvenirs, Australian flag t-shirts and ugg boots. They walked past the toilets and the luxury cosmetics shops where the beautiful assistants leant languidly and elegantly against the shiny counters, because customers were thin on the ground.

People like me who’d already walked the circuit of the airport’s shops about 20 times, and checked out all the books and magazines in the newsagents, and tried on a few lipsticks, had settled with our bags by then. All except the people with kids who kept circling as a way to hold off tantrums.

So the toddler went past.

Her father trailed his carry-on bag with its little wheels slightly ahead of her.
As I watched from a stool at a cafe the toddler - bored and possibly tired - decided she’d hitch a ride on her dad’s bag but he didn’t know.

She started to climb, he lost his grip, and toddler and bag fell down with a thump.
It took the toddler a second or two to respond but when she did it was wonderful.

She was tired and bored and three or four years of age and she’d just had a shock and a bump. The wail went up and even the sound from the overhead advertising big screen that had been droning on about “Travel to Tahiti” for hours was suddenly drowned out by a toddler’s outraged howls.

And because I related to her tired, bored, I’m-stuck-here-in-an-airport-and-this-is-so-unfair-because-I-just-want-to-get-home mood, I shared her pain. If I could have got away with it I would have rolled around on the floor and thrown my arms around dramatically, too, out of the sheer injustice of having to wait for a plane to fly.
But I didn’t. I was wearing a frock.

Look at any travel brochures or advertisements and everything’s glossy and gorgeous. People are smiling. Every destination looks fantastic. Every experience is photographable.
And it’s true up to a point. I love travelling. I love the thrill of arriving at any place that’s a long way from where I live and a lot different. When the plane door opens and you get the first whiff of a new country, or the first feel of its weather even before you step off the plane, it’s exciting.

And then there’s the reality of travel – the queues, the cost, the petty bureaucratic hassles, the delays and cancellations. But we keep doing it.

I love travel stories. This week a story popped up from China about the elderly passenger who tossed coins into her plane engine for “good luck”. True.

The airline even put out a statement to confirm the woman, 80, was seen tossing coins into the engine of the Airbus 320 before her flight from Pudong to Guangzhou to “wish a safe flight”.

Everyone had to get off. The engine was inspected. It took hours and hours. The airline helpfully stated that the woman had no known mental incapacity. She just hadn’t flown before and thought a positive gesture was called for. 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau sends me regular bulletins about all the plane crashes and near misses it’s investigated in the previous few months.

On Thursday it sent me a report about the flight from America to Sydney in October that experienced abnormal vibration and noise above the left wing after take-off, and what the crew and airline did in response.

It wasn’t until the plane touched down in Sydney that the source of the trouble – a birdstrike that “sheared a landing gear door strut resulting in the door not closing” – caused “turbulent airflow and in‑cabin vibration”. Good to know.

The ATSB seems to leave its regular reports about birdstrikes at Australian airports until I’m just about to get on a plane to fly a long way away.

Between 2006 and 2015 there were 16,069 birdstrikes reported to the ATSB, most involving bigger passenger jets. And just so that you know, both the number and rate of birdstrikes per 10,000 movements of bigger capacity jets “have increased markedly in the past two years”, with Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, the Gold Coast and Sydney recording the biggest increases.

But have a nice trip anyway. And don’t read the book Sully, or watch the movie of the same name about the birdstrikes that put a passenger jet into New York’s Hudson River.

We eventually got onto the plane that night a few weeks ago, after Sydney airport was hit by a thunderstorm that knocked out a lot of its systems. We flew thousands of metres above the ground and safely down again and thought nothing of it, despite how wondrous that really is. 

Choccy frog Joanne -


MTF...P2