Welcome to the new issue of Gerrits diary.
This episode is dedicated to our optical labour.
We have now begun to install the navigation lights for the runway, and our first taxiway.
We have also aged the runway, and we have drawn all the routing lines.
I would like to start with the navigation lights:
It took almost two months of planning for all of this,
and here's the rest telling me what's still in store for us.
We have already installed half of the lights,
and I will show you how.
It was important to install the lights at an elevation
where the aircrafts can run across, and at the same time
to insure that the lights are still visible.
Many co-workers participated, otherwise it would have taken
one or two weeks. It was also essential that the right
colored light is in the right hole on the layout.
Here, a draft for installing the lights in the holes.
So we went underneath the layout
because routinely
I like to check
whether everything
is working the way I planned.
One thing we did differently this time:
Each hole was labelled before the panels were bolted down.
Here, the first things are readily installed,
others are still dangling here, but all in all this looks well-arranged.
A few days ago, when all wires were still hanging down
I thought: "Is this actually going to work?"
Back then, I couldn't see the labelling for all those wires.
Meanwhile it is possible, and I'm curious to see what it looks like.
1600 tiny lamps were pounded into the runway. I had fun with that,
but you were probably pretty annoyed, hm?
The plan is almost finished then?
Did everything fit? "Yes!"
Are some already connected?
Can you show me?
I'll be there in a moment.
1600 out of 3500 lamps altogether for the runway,
are now installed. We have a plan for the lights
so later on, the computer will know which lights to turn on, and when.
Some of the lamps are glowing already, which I will show you now.
I'm so looking forward to seeing this.
Can you switch them on? "Yes!"
Looks really cool!
This was actually the challenge:
We had to pound the lights into the runway in a manner, that
you won't feel any bumps when stroking the surface.
The aircrafts must not jolt when running over the lights, but at the
same time, the lights are supposed to be visible from a flat angle.
I can lie here, and still see those lights.
I'm very happy with this!
And this is only a small amout. I'm curious to see
all of the lamps glowing. It will be like fireworks!
What looks like dirt here, is the result of hard labour.
In the moment I felt that that the technique was working,
we began to cover this with paint.
We made several coatings, and on the last coat
we added some fine-particle granulate
so the aircrafts would have good traction.
After painting, we drew these lines.
At first, we wanted to draw them with pens, but we declined
from that and decided to cut stripes of thin
adhesive foil, and to paste them instead.
The result is marvelous, I am elated!
Even though working on that was terrible.
Of course, it was important that the lines are realistic.
Therefore, it was a long planning phase.
But the result is quite presentable.
One thing about the yellow lines: the concrete paint is sometimes too light.
So the lines have to be lined out with black from underneath
to acheive a higher contrast.
It worked well on this first part, and I'm looking forward to
seeing the first aircraft roll.
So, what else did we do in the last month?
We have activated the elevators.
On our way, I run across this here:
These levels we called our staging airport. After take-off
the airplanes have to disappear underneath the layout, and
park somewhere. Somewhere, they also need to get charged,
and they have to be able to drive around, and change directions.
This is the first rack we will simulate a realistic continuous duty with
as soon as it's ready. Then, we also can remove our planes.
Momentarily, we are only simulating it.
But I was actually talking about the elevators!
Oh, something else I came across on the way.
Only in the runway, there are 600 to 700 little lamps,
which are very delicately installed.
Therefore, we built these special threstles,
so it's more comfotable to
connect everything.
They proved to be useful. After all, we already got pretty far.
But now I'll about the elevators, at last.
This is it! The test panel is on top, and we already
ran it up and down several times. But I promised to
show it to you, which I actually could!
I can run the elevator up and down with the software.
It's ready. The only problem showing it is,
that Stefano, our Sicilian is on holiday. He is responsible
for safety issues. The had run a technical test, and said afterwards
that if I activate this without the enclosure, he would give me
"concrete boots" and throw me into the loading canal.
So I'd better not!
I'm looking forward to the next time when I can present the
elevator, and hopefully even the freight terminal.
Probably, the navigation lights on the runway will also be done.
Looking forward to it, thanks for watching, until next time!
Bye-bye!
