With snow falling Monday in USA, crews have been working hard at Albany International Airport to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
It’s more than pushing the snow off the runways, airport officials have to use a special car to test for safety – SARSYS Surface Friction Tester SAAB 9-5 Wagon. SAAB 9-5 Wagon (SFT) are one of the most sold friction tester in the world, around two hundred airports worldwide are using this kind of friction tester today.
This Saab 9-5 called “Test 1″ (T1) and while it may look like a normal vehicle, this car has 5 wheels. Bob Heitz, the operations manager, says it’s important to measure the friction on the runway. He says it determines the breaking action for an airplane before it lands.
“If it’s snowing hard, like it was yesterday, we continually are out there making passes up and down the runway,” he said.
Bob says the sedan is out on the runway from the minute it starts snowing to when it stops. He let NEWS10’s Jennifer Lee ride along with him to test one of the runways at the airport.
And while the computer tries to figure out the condition of the runway, the driver also has to look out for any contaminants that may impact a plane’s landing.
SAAB 9-5 Wagon is a pumped-up front-wheel drive car contributing superlative movability in sequence alongside a satisfying weight class functioning situation for the driver.
The Sarsys Friction Tester (SFT), created into the SAAB 9-5 Wagon, is one of the highest leading friction measuring systems on the market. It is chiefly invented for friction calculating on airport runways and taxiways, but can be further used for measuring on roads. The SFT is prioritized to measure in conformity with regulations issued by authorities such as the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and is invented for both operational and maintenance measuring.
