Centerlines - April 2008 - (Page 38) ON MANAGEMENT TOP MARKS AT INDIANAPOLIS Communication and proactive thinking keys to Part 139 success B Y JODI R IC H A R DS WE try to maintain a good relationship with everybody so that we don’t find ourselves getting at loggerheads over certain circumstances or situations . . . because that’s oftentimes counterproductive to moving things forward. Proactive Philosophy of Safety t Indianapolis International Airport, 2007 marks the eighth year the airport has received a Part 139 inspection with no discrepancies—an accomplishment that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson Tony Molinaro said is not common for an airport of Indianapolis’s size. “For smaller airports it’s more common, but for a larger airport like Indianapolis, it’s a great achievement,” Molinaro remarked. And while at any given time airfields are busy and complicated operating environments, it is worth noting that this safety milestone was achieved while the Indianapolis Airport Authority was heavily involved in several airfield construction projects, including the new Midfield Terminal, set to open at the end of this year. The airport is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority, which also operates five other aviation facilities in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. A Mike Medvescek, the director of airport operations and maintenance, said that some of the key aspects of his team’s success include communication throughout the staff, tenants, and FAA, as well as a proactive philosophy of safety. “The first thing is getting clear direction from the FAA on our Airport Certification Manual (ACM),” said Medvescek. “That was number one because the FAA gives you guidelines; your inspectors have different ideas of what the ACM and the advisory circulars actually say. We’ve had four different inspectors over those eight years, so we talk to our inspector to get clear definition of any rules, CertAlerts, anything that comes out that will be attached to our ACM.” The dedication that Medvescek’s staff shows in combination with the training provided by the airport is a tremendous asset in continuing perfect inspections. “We have a goal that we perform Part 139 365 days of the year,” he Mike Medvescek, Indianapolis’s director of airport operations and maintenance: “When we know top management is supporting what we’re doing here at the airport, it makes it much easier for us to do our job.” 38 CENTERLINES | APRIL 2008 © is to ck ph ot o. co m /m ip an
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