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Crews descend for airport training Workers all over NWT in Hay River to learn new skills
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 24, 2013
HAY RIVER
Hay River's Merlyn Carter Airport played host to almost a dozen maintenance workers from smaller airports all over the territory for a 10-day training course beginning on June 10.
"Hay River is perfect for this," said airport manager Kelly O'Connor. "We're one of two big-six airports with a gravel runway, and we have two runways, so we can shut one down during the day."
O'Connor said the airport has been hosting the course - offered by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) in partnership with the Department of Transport (DOT) - for the past seven years. This year, men from Tulita, Paulatuk, Jean Marie River, Deline, Gameti, Ulukhaktok, Sachs Harbour and Wekweeti learned how to run graders and other machines needed to maintain airstrips in the summer months.
While the course does focus on practical and technical aspects of runway maintenance, some of the participants said just getting together with other people on the job was a learning experience in itself.
"We get to meet operators from all over the North," said Justin Gon from Gameti.
"Hay River also has a lot for the guys to do in the evenings when they're done," said O'Connor. "Some of them come from communities with either one or no restaurants, and I think they have a good time going out while they're here."
Participants spent three days on the runway and seven in a classroom with instructor Ralph Sanguez, learning things like the proper protocol for speaking on the radio and the difference between a crowned and cross-fall runway.
Beyond the airport's capacity, Hay River has an advantage in that it can commandeer equipment from the Department of Transportation's highways team. That allows more than one participant in the course to practise operating the machinery simultaneously and makes it easier to host larger groups.
"We've trained hundreds of people from the small community airports," O'Connor said. "We used to run the program on our own, but it just made better sense for MACA and the DOT to do it."
The course is mandatory for all contracted airport maintenance staff in the Northwest Territories. MACA and the DOT cover all of the participants of the expenses and travel, barring the participants' wages for the 10 days.
The big-six airports - Hay River, Fort Smith, Yellowknife, Fort Simpson, Inuvik and Norman Wells - require more extensive training for their staff. Facilities in smaller communities with only one gravel runway ask for 20 days of instruction, 10 in the winter and 10 in the summer.
At the larger airports, it takes about three years to be an airfield maintenance specialist (AMS), after having worked as a heavy equipment operator beforehand, and involves an outside certification from another airport. There are currently four trained AMS workers at the Merlyn Carter Airport.
"There are 27 airports in the NWT, so that's 21 little guys," said O'Connor. "Our goal is to get as many of their workers trained up so they can go home and show their guys some of the best practices and skills."
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