Gerrits Tagebuch Vol. 25: Flughafenfeuerwehr am Knuffingen Airport

Let's how the take-off goes.
The poles need to come out, the poles!
I think it's sliding off the poles.
Welcome to Gerrit's Diary.
We'll talk about the airport's fire brigade and the construction of vehicles.
Jens, Axel and I have visited the airport's fire brigade
to learn about the vehicles and blue light frequency.
It's cold in Hamburg but the heart is warm. It's a lot of fun.
I hope you'll have fun, too. Let's start with the construction of the vehicles.
This is the first of our airfield fire engines.
We'll need five of them, one as a reserve,
because the airport shouldn't need to shut down if one has a defect.
This model has one advantage. It's made by the company Ziegler.
So the construction wasn't a great challenge for us.
With other vehicles we spend days building the actual model.
That's why it's great for showing the construction of a Car System vehicle.
Normally, every Car System vehicle starts with the construction of the chassis.
The drive technology comes first.
When we build a vehicle for the first time, such as here with the
double front axle, then a lot of time is spent on development.
The challenge with the double front axle is
that the front and rear axle need different radii for reliable driving.
We use many original parts made by the company Faller, who basically invented
the Car System, because those parts are very reliable.
But we use chassis made of brass because we drive up to
10.000 Km, which wouldn't really be possible with plastic.
First, we need to make lots of room in the chassis
for our technical requirements.
The brazen base frame is also useful because the weight of it
creates more pressure on the street to make it drive more reliably.
After the brass part is inside the chassis, we can start to implement the periphery,
such as the axle bracket, motor mounting bracket and the drive sprocket.
Everything has to be exact to a 10th of a millimetre.
Listening also helps: After switching on the motor,
you can tell with a little experience if the sound is right or not.
After the vehicle has done enough rounds on our test route -
it contains wide and tight curves, crossroads and changes in direction -
if it works there, then we know the mechanical part of the job is done.
Now it's time for the electronical part, for example the lamps and the processor.
After Tobi has finished his chassis, the vehicle goes to Axel and Felix.
They do what I always loved so much: Lighting and connecting everything.
Hopefully I'll have time to build cars again after the airport is finished.
Axel and Felix have to implement 60 to 70 Lamps inside of the car.
That's why we gathered information about the number of lamps,
the purpose they serve and how we can use them in our scenarios.
What's realistic? What isn't possible to recreate?
That's how we decided on which ones to use.
They are built into the most impossible places.
The vehicle needs exterior mirrors because we use those for charging.
That was a real challenge because this car has only windows
and no sheet metal part. It wasn't easy to find a solution.
Of course there's also a rechargeable battery. The weight of it is quite helpful.
The car needs to be heavy to drive better.
If you have the room, a large battery creates an advantage for the driving physics.
The little things, such as an on/off switch, are really a blessing.
Large wires, easy to solder, the opposite of these small lamps.
Sodering these small SMDs is exhausting and tricky.
Sometimes one breaks.
In the end, there are about 150 wires that need untangling.
Finally the mainboard is connected.
It has 27 outputs that we can program with various
flashing sequences and behaviour types.
And there, everything needs to be hooked up and is brought together.
We try to reduce the number of wires, for example by using serial connection.
Everything leads to the control board.
The on/off switch shows if mistakes were made or not.
Then the vehicle is programmed at the main computer.
Part of the last step is, of course, a test drive.
As with the airplanes we need to find speed levels,
so the processor inside the vehicle is able to handle different circumstances.
Then the lights need programming.
Similar to the plane, there are basic outputs such as the light or the turn signals.
The frequency and the brightness is set.
I can accomplish this with the basic settings.
And I can tell the system which functions are at which outputs.
These are the roof lights for the taxiways.
Every vehicle that wants to enter the taxiway needs to turn on these lights,
so an approaching airplane may see it from above.
That's why we studied it closely
because this vehicle has so many emergency lights
that are either a double flash or modern emergency lights.
We tried to emulate this and it looks very much like the original.
As soon as the control software knows where the lights are,
and the vehicle knows how the lights work,
what the speed types are and when to enter the charging station,
we may start.
We put it on the layout and begin our first mission.
First up is the scenario "firedrill".
The Knuffingen Airport has its own airplane for this,
just like the Hamburg Airport, to train their firemen.
The plane has caught fire after an emergency landing
and the fire department is activated to train for this scenario.
This is the first fire brigade,
consisting of a command vehicle and four large airfield fire engines.
They take care of the fire-fighting procedures.
The second fire brigade is ready for deployment.
Because this is only a drill, any kind of air traffic has priority.
That was another thing to consider while programming.
The first brigade advances and begins with the fire-fighting.
The deployment of vehicles adheres to international rules
which regulate where each vehicle has to stand.
We have programmed three missions so far.
They need extensive testing so the timing is right,
the fire diminishes at the right time and the smoke clears.
That still needs to optimising, this is only our first attempt.
We still need the rescue staircase in this scenario.
This will be difficult to build.
We saved that for last.
Jens is searching for a compromise for the model because we need
to implement the battery and technology and this car is loaded with stuff.
It will drive to the back door in this scenario to save lives.
But this is just a drill, of course.
The next scenario is an emergency landing.
We will have two aircrafts that are going to attempt an emergency landing.
One is receiving a paint job at the moment, the other is in construction.
In case of an emergency landing at the Hamburg Airport,
the airport's fire brigade gets ready and 40 vehicles of
the city's fire service are alerted.
It's the same in our case, the fire department of Knuffingen is now arriving
with full force here at the airport and gets ready for action.
The first brigade drives up to the middle of the taxiway
and the second brigade goes to the end of the taxiway.
The fire brigades are now deployed and ready for any emergency.
The airport is closed at this time.
Later we'll have a propeller plane for the emergency landing
where two propeller will have a malfunction.
The machine has landed safely.
Next, the airport's fire brigade will inspect the plane
to see if there's any damage.
For this purpose the vehicles are now moving out.
The plane is inspected now.
They will find that everything is alright.
This means that the city's fire service is relieved
as well as the second brigade, responsible for rescue operations.
Next, the aircraft is assigned to a parking place
so it can be checked in detail.
The first brigade accompanies the plane to its destination
and takes care of final inspections, so the airport may reopen.
Our visit to the airport resulted in some useful information.
The airfield fire engines have blue lights
and yellow rotating lights on the roof.
When driving with right of way, they use blue lights.
When standing at the parking position of an airplane,
they switch to yellow lights for warning.
And that's it for our special fire brigade and Car System episode of Gerrit's Diary.
The next episode follows after the opening.
We have so many things we have to do until then.
Of course, even after the airport's opening on the 4th of May,
Gerrit's Diary will continue.
Especially one or two weeks after the opening, of course.
We still have much to do but we have finished something last week:
The cover is so far working to our satisfaction and is complete.
We are testing two different types of cover
to find out which one we like best.
We have more ideas for the future but none will be realised before the opening.
I hope we'll have everything done until the 4th of May 2011
and of course, especially the terminals.
But we are right on schedule. Most likely everything is finished just one week
before opening. It makes me a bit nervous but bit's still a lot of fun.
I'm looking forward to the next episode. Thank you and Goodbye!
When you're inside this thing, you'll believe it can fly, too.
There must be about 80 buttons.
One of our dreams: De-icing.
We would love to be able to starrt up cranes
and spray some de-icer agent, that is fog, over it.
But I guess you need some dreams for the future.