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During my tenure with Sightline as a consultant, I have come across many markings that are plagued with one issue or another. As a matter of fact, amongst our team we refer to markings as being "dead" when retroreflectivity is diminished to the point where they are no longer effective during darkness or in low visibility situations. Dead markings are useless to pilots and others navigating the airfield. Under ideal visibility conditions, those same dead markings often look and function perfectly. However, there are few, if any, operations that maintain ideal conditions at all times. Therefore, airports dependent upon proper function of airfield markings should essentially bring out their dead. My estimation is ninety percent of airfields in the United States with nighttime operations have some dead markings. That my friends, is an epidemic - so how does our industry go about curing it? Here are just a few ways to cure and prevent markings from becoming dead before their times:
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I am a long-time fan of the Monty Python comedy troop and their silly antics. Like many, I watched their most well-known
film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and subsequently began to devour the rest of their productions. The Holy Grail, set during the
bubonic plague epidemic, begins with Eric Idle walking through a village ringing a triangle and repeatedly shouting, "Bring out your dead".
With corpses stacked high on his wagon, he gets into a debate with a peasant who is attempting to drop off an elderly man who is "not
dead yet". Hilarity ensues; I highly recommend it.
Markings have a life cycle, ultimately they will die. Even the most durable marking materials available airfields have a life
expectancy associated with them. So don't mourn their passing on to that big airfield in the sky; instead focus on how to improve on your
current marking system. 