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.
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 (right) was a founder and
served as General Chairman of the International Aviation
Snow Symposium for 20 years.
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.
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
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
