An airport sign points to more than 15 volunteers who spanned a taxiway Saturday morning during the semiannual FOD (Foreign Object Debris) Walk at St. Cloud Regional Airport. The event, put on by the American Association of Airport Executives, is designed to clear the main runway, 13-31, and taxiways of debris that could get sucked into jet engines or cause other problems.
Photo Credit: Kimm Anderson, tcloudtimes.com
Pilot and volunteer Mikaela Mahoney holds a broken bolt and nut that she found during the FOD Walk.
Photo Credit: Kimm Anderson, stcloudtimes.com
With clear blue skies, cool air and a healthy dose of sunshine, Saturday morning was a perfect time for a walk.
Sixteen members of St. Cloud State University’s American Association of Airport Executives chapter took advantage of that good weather with a walk of their own — up and down the runways of St. Cloud Regional Airport.
The group traversed nearly 2.5 miles of runway looking for detritus during the foreign object debris walk — or FOD walk. While they weren’t logging flight miles or directing air traffic, those that participated said that it was time well spent.
“We do this every semester ... it’s a great experience,” President of the St. Cloud State chapter of the AAAE Christopher Spaulding said. “You don’t usually get to come out and do something like this.”
FOD walks are done regularly at airstrips so debris doesn’t get picked up by planes. Loose debris can cause malfunctions with plane equipment. In the military, FOD walks are a required daily task, Spaulding said.
“I’ve always wanted to do it, but I’ve always been busy,” St. Cloud Sate senior Anthony Luu said.
It was Luu’s first FOD walk yesterday and while pieces of debris were few and far between, Luu — who’s studying to be an air traffic controller — said he enjoyed the experience of being at the airport.
“It’s really cool,” Luu said. “Doing events like this get you out there and gets you experience. I rarely get to come out here and do something like this.”
The beating sun splashing across a group of almost 20 people stretching across a runway looked more like a movie poster than an organizational outing, but there wasn’t much action to be found Saturday. Spaulding said that it’s rare that at a smaller airport like the one in St. Cloud that people would find anything all that significant during a FOD walk. The significance instead lies in the experience in going somewhere that most people don’t get to visit.
“(Students) love it, we get a lot of good feedback,” Shavjive Jeganathan, vice president of the St. Cloud State chapter of AAAE, said. “I think it’s extremely important that while we still can do it, our students get this experience.”
With the school’s aviation program shutting down in the coming years, the group wants to take as many opportunities as it can to let current aviation students experience different aspects of an airport. The group — which has 30 members this year — is open to all majors and caters to people with a “passion for aviation,” Jeganathan said. The group also tours airports and tries to connect students with people in the business. The basic idea is to help people get familiar with the industry and that will continue with the group even after St. Cloud State stops offering an aviation program Jeganathan said.
“I don’t think (the AAAE) will be measuredly affected by the closing,” he added.
“Just because the department is closing (doesn’t mean) we want to keep students from being able to do things like this,” Spaulding said. “It’s just a great experience.”
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