On Thursday, February 11th, Liberty received an unusual yet exciting request from BWI Airport in Baltimore, MD. The airport received a record 79.9 inches of snow in the back-to-back snow storms of early February and quickly needed assistance in clearing the snow from important airfield navigational equipment. So they asked Liberty, referring to us as "snow experts", if they could use one of our snowcats to help with their snow recovery efforts. Excited, thrilled and intrigued Liberty quickly agreed and hauled the PistenBully 600 groomer to the airport on Thursday evening.
Scott Miller, Vehicle Maintenance Supervisor, and Corey Hesketh, Vehicle Maintenance staff member, accompanied the groomer to the airport and prepared it for action under the lights of the runways. Here are some pictures taken by airport staff during the arrival and assembly of the PistenBully 600...
On Friday, February 12th around 8am, Gene Weikert, Liberty Groomer, hopped in the PistenBully 600 and began working on the near 10 acres of land that needed clearing. They cleared and groomed the snow from near the glideslope antenna, a critical component of Instrument Landing System that assists planes approaching and landing runways. Because of the heavy snow, accuracy was affected and planes were unable to land.
After a full day of clearing and grooming snow, the Liberty grooming staff received a thumbs up from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the important navigation technology was back online at the airport.
On Friday, February 12th around 8am, Gene Weikert, Liberty Groomer, hopped in the PistenBully 600 and began working on the near 10 acres of land that needed clearing. They cleared and groomed the snow from near the glideslope antenna, a critical component of Instrument Landing System that assists planes approaching and landing runways. Because of the heavy snow, accuracy was affected and planes were unable to land.
After a full day of clearing and grooming snow, the Liberty grooming staff received a thumbs up from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the important navigation technology was back online at the airport.
Thank you BWI Airport for this neat opportunity and THANK YOU Scott, Corey and Jean for all your hard work!