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   Vol. 15  No. 4
Wednesday January 13, 2016

Where Snow Is Not Just Another 4-Letter Word

Snow Lightbox

     In April the Northeast Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives (NEC/AAAE) will hold its International Snow Symposium in Buffalo, New York. It’s the 50th time this event has been staged since it took off in 1966.
Nino Sapone      Holding a snow event in Buffalo is always a good idea—it snows all winter in BUF, a result of both the natural path of the winter weather and the “Lake Effect” snowstorms that blow in off of the eastern edge of Lake Erie.
     Attendees can rest assured that even in late April (23-27), when the snow show takes off, the region will still be held in thrall of the requisite weather, with traces of the white stuff still lingering as manufacturers and others at the International Snow Symposium wheel out mammoth snow blowers and other light and heavy equipment for sale to beat the winter weather.
     “It’s history in the making.
     “Those of us lucky enough to attend the IASS event at Buffalo Niagara Convention Center April 23-27, 2016, will witness what will surely be the most exciting, the largest, the best Snow Symposium ever,” declares President of the Northeast Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives Nino Sapone.


Fifty Years

     Looking back for a moment, we recall the pioneers who advanced the idea of a Snow Symposium while also sharing some favorite pictures of “old man winter” and the airports and airlines at work in the deep freeze.
Wilfred Wiley Post     Wilfred “Wiley” Post (right) was a founder and served as General Chairman of the International Aviation Snow Symposium for 20 years.
Bernt Balchen     Bernt Balchen, (left) USAF Ret., was also Founder and Honorary Chairman of the International Aviation Snow Symposium.
     Mr. Post was an airport manager; he named himself “Wiley” after the famed aviator who flew around the world in his Lockheed Vega “Winnie Mae,” debarking from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933. Balchen was an expert navigator, aircraft mechanic, and aviator as well as a Norwegian-American polar and aviation pioneer.
     I have always found it fascinating that in 1966 someone named Wiley Post founded an organized airport snow event. At the peak of his fame in August 1935, the original Wiley Post crashed and died in the frozen wastes of Point Barrow, Alaska, along with humorist Will Roger. It was a tragedy that electrified Americans, as both men were revered as national treasures.
     In any event, every year there is the annual “Balchen/Post Award” recognizing the airport(s) that best handle snow removal. It comes as a surprise to no one that snow-beaten airports like Chicago O’Hare and Midway Airport usually win.

Willey Post and Will Rogers

Snow Plow Rodeo

     Attendees at IASS Snow Symposium 2016 can sled out from the hotel to the airport for the annual Snow Plow Rodeo and BBQ to watch the big rigs maneuver obstacle courses that mimic the issues encountered during snowy weather at airports.
     Some of the movements include backing into a dock area, plowing around a radius (inside and outside), a serpentine obstacle, plowing close to a fixed object, and a final challenge may be dropping the plow as close to the finish line as possible.


Baryshnikov On A Bulldozer

Kenny Ippolito      However, the greatest of these plow operators may not be at this event.
     The thousands of unheralded hourly workers who come off their construction site bulldozers in cities all over the world to labor as temp snow plowers on airports after the big storms hit will not be in Buffalo.
     In New York a guy named Kenny Ippolito used to build highways in the summer and during the winter would shift over to the airport on day and night shifts at LaGuardia.
     Kenny could make a giant snowplow pirouette like Mikhail Baryshnikov on the dance floor.
     In Buffalo, as you eat BBQ and drink glögg in the snow, that kind of action is standard viewing.
More: http://snowsymposium.org/
Geoffrey

FT111715
Vol. 15 No. 1
Lightbox for January 5, 2016
Ethiopian Kassa Your Kassa
Ralph Arend: White House Lens

Battered Image For Thai
Chuckles for January 5, 2016
Importance of Jan Meurer
Letters To The Editor

FT111715
Vol. 15 No. 2
United Heats Up The Cool Chain
Pradeep Star Of India Rising
IATA WCS Kicks Off Show Season

Chuckles for January 7, 2016
Air Cargo With No Regrets
Saying Goodbye And Hello