HAY RIVER - Al Buth drives up and down a runway at Hay River Airport to observe surface conditions.

Stopping for a few minutes, the airfield maintenance specialist enters his findings onto a touch screen and sends off e-mails with the updated information to airlines.

Al Buth, an airfield maintenance specialist at Hay River Airport, uses a touch screen in a truck to send e-mails informing airlines of runway conditions. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Before Buth is back to the terminal building, airport manager Kelly O'Connor is on the radio saying he has also received the report on his computer.

That demonstration on Feb. 6 illustrated one of the main advantages of a reporting system being tested in Hay River for the GNWT's airport system - speed.

"Four minutes is about average for me to get it," O'Connor said.

The airport manager said the system - known as TRACR II, which stands for Touch Screen Remote Airfield Condition Reporting - has many other advantages.

"It's safety driven," O'Connor explained. "The more timely and accurate information you can get out, the safer it can be."

Buth said the touch screen has been set up to record such things as the amount of snow, the kind of snow and whether the two runways are slippery. "There are a lot of different conditions."

Information can also be sent about taxiways and aprons.

The system was installed in August and began operating with automatic faxes in September. In January, it began automatically distributing e-mails after some technical issues were worked out.

"This system is a direct link between the guy on the runway and airlines," O'Connor said.

The equipment in the truck is connected by radio to a computer in the airport terminal.

O'Connor said, using the previous system, it would take much longer to get information to airlines.

"A half-hour easy and longer sometimes," he said.

An airport employee would have to inspect the runways, return to the terminal, fill out a form, and fax it to NavCanada in North Bay, Ont. There, it would be read, edited and put into NavCanada's system for airlines to check. NavCanada still gets reports from Hay River under the new system.

With the old system, a worker would have to remember what he saw, as opposed to reporting directly from the runways.

The number of reports per day depends on conditions and whether they are changing.

O'Connor noted that, under the old system, there were about 500 reports faxed out each winter between mid-October and mid-May. Reports can also be sent at other times of year, for example when there is heavy rain.

The TRACR II system is currently used at about 50 airports around the world, including Toronto and Grande Prairie.

"It's being more and more embraced by airports," O'Connor said.

The test for the Department of Transportation will run throughout the winter.

"Our experience in operating the system will be used, along with air carriers' input, to decide whether we go ahead at other sites," O'Connor said, adding the test has been good so far.

The $35,000 system has already been purchased for Hay River Airport.

If expanded in the NWT, it would likely go to the five other busiest airports - Yellowknife, Norman Wells, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson.

Five people have been trained at Hay River Airport to operate the system.