Not Quite Birds of a Feather
As metropolitan areas grow larger, airports, with their wide open
grasslands, are increasingly sharing space with wildlife. Airport
managers need accurate, up-to-the minute data on the various species
present at locations around airport grounds to spot potentially
dangerous trends. Armed with this data, they can take action against
potential threats that could potentially turn into bird strikes or
collisions endangering the aircraft and its passengers.
To help airport staff effectively manage wildlife and enhance flight
safety, Winfield Solutions created AIRMAN (Airport Information Report
Manager), a safety systems management tool powered by Sybase
PowerBuilder, Sybase PocketBuilder and SQL Anywhere from iAnywhere, a
subsidiary of Sybase.
AIRMAN is the brainchild of Greg Winfield, a former military air
traffic controller who saw the need to provide aviation wildlife
control data to decision-makers in seconds, not weeks as per the manual
way.
Sybase Technology Taking Flight
The original desktop version of AIRMAN, built with Sybase PowerBuilder,
allowed users to enter the data collected on their paper forms directly
into a SQL Anywhere database. Reports could be generated in a matter of
seconds.
AIRMAN’s mobile extension using Sybase PocketBuilder data exchange
pipelines eliminated the need for re-entry by enabling direct data
capture on the device. Once the data has been synchronized with the
central AIRMAN database, it was available for immediate analysis and
reporting.
Winfield knew he needed a robust, maintenance-free relational database
to power AIRMAN. After briefly considering Microsoft Access, his
success with Sybase PowerBuilder led him to the SQL Anywhere
database.
“I evaluated SQL Anywhere and found it to be very stable and
full-featured,” said Greg Winfield, president of Winfield Solutions.
“It required virtually no maintenance, which was also very attractive.”
Making Flights Safer
AIRMAN empowers airport staff to proactively assess threats,
significantly enhancing flight safety. The solution is now deployed at
Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International, Portland International and
about 10 other airports in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
“It has increased the productivity of our wildlife technicians,
allowing them to focus on patrolling the airport and taking timely
action to ensure flight safety rather than spending hours tediously
entering data into the system,” said Sharon Gordon, aviation wildlife
manager, Portland International Airport. “We can also generate reports
much faster. The monthly report that used to take me eight to 10 hours
now takes just five minutes.”
