Remote Parking Sightings
This is Part 8 of the Sights & Scenes On My Iloilo To Cebu To Tacloban Flights.
What/Where Is Remote Parking
Being a small propeller plane, our flight was not to dock at any of the gates of T1. It is normal herearounds, and we're all used to this, right? We get ferried by busloads!
Why? Well, I get to see other, derivative, amusing parts of airport/airline operations!
The Scenes At MCIA Remote Parking
Here's a fantastically alluring example scene of many separate activities:
In front is an Air Juan plane. It's a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX. That is their land version (obvious ba?), as they have a seaplane version too. It can seat 9 passengers.
Now look at the rear or tail portion of that plane. You will notice there's some kind of a rod that extends-to (or touches) the ground, as if to support the plane. Indeed it is!
That's an Aircraft Tail Stand. It can be called Tail Support or even Tail Prop - it varies per airline. But as the name suggests, it prevents the plane from tipping to the back.
Juice Ko ano yan kalso? Well, that's "exactly" what it is. Bangil ba!
Not common to many of us travelers, no? But it's a regular "aircraft equipment", and it's not only for tiny little planes. It depends on how stuff are to be loaded/unloaded.
Question: bakit me tao sa taas ng plane? Answer: he is actually not on top of it. He's in-front of the right wing, but up there yes. He is refueling the plane. He is a gas boy!
That's why there's a Fuel Truck. If you look at the photo intently, you should see the hose running from that truck to where Mr. Gas Boy is - naka-tungtung yan sa ladder.
What are they filling that plane with? Blaze, XCS, Diesel Max, Turbo Diesel o gaas as in petrolyo? Ah they call it AvGas, and if you recall we talked about it sometime ago.
Oh I have this second shot that pretty much shows many of what we said above!
Past those two small planes, as we taxied to our assigned parking bay, I saw this.
I was in fact all smiles, grinning actually, at the funny and fun thing I was looking at!
For real? Syempre hindi! Saan ka nakakita ng kuwago na about 5 feet tall? Kaya ako naka-ngisi heheh! It's some kind of scarecrow, to drive birds away from this airfield.
If aware, or if they have sharp eyes, kids of all ages would surely love catching sight of those "birds" lurking in the grass. Eh ako nga tuwang-tuwa na parang bata ehehe!
Because of modern printing technology, those scarecrews are realistic pictures (of owls in this case) pasted unto boards, like the standee adverts that we see at malls.
A bird scare, that's the whole idea. Though I'm not sure if non-moving whatevers are effective in driving them birds away, forever. Well, if MCIA did that, baka epektib. Da!
The tricky part of all that is, MCIA can't go ask the birds if owl standees are effective in any way. Like you approach birds and ask hello birdie-birdies, scared ba you? Hilas!
Why drive birds out of an airfield anyway? Ay, birds (and big animals) are part of the dangerous factors in operating airports/runways. They are unsafe to plane engines.
Imagine: your plane is taking off (that's always at full speed), then a flock of birds or even just one little birdie crosses the takeoff path, it gets sucked into an engine. Ay!
Kraaak kreaik grrzst grrk, your plane engine is ruined, goodbye earth kayo, simba ko!
That is in fact why there are even international laws, standards, conventions on how to manage presence of birds at runway areas everywhere. There are so many ways.
Those fake owls are just one of the tactics, falling under Scaring Techniques. It can be visual scaring with effigies. Oo Effigy ang tawag ng ICAO sa bukaw na yan hehe!
There are many techniques usually in combined use. Some are hi-tech like lasers or sound, others be like sa palayan nyo na me mga kumikinang na tape at lumang CD!
Well yes, you may have seen at other airports in our country, ang gamit nila aso! My friend in UAE is a vet consultant, they use falcons to chase those birds away. Aliw!
Parang sa farm din ang airport 'no?
Aha! Speaking of "farms". Big airports have farms, did you know that?
Farms at Airports
The bigger the airport, the more farms they have. Many of these are specialized and well-contained, well-maintained farms located at various areas around the complex.
At others, their farms would be next to each other but still specialized. Others more have farms where everything is mixed, as in sama-sama, halo-halo, surusaragol na!
I don't really know what they call this, but this is one such farm at Mactan Airport.
Fuel Farms are more secure and clean. JOCASP is an example of that kind of farm.
I'm sure that's NOT a Fuel Farm, although what we see are mostly fuel trucks. Looks like they just parked the big trucks where we passengers could see them - as cover!
Did you see that one fuel truck na plakda ang gulong at mukhang naaagnas na ang pintura sa truck body? Aw, that might also be a Junk Farm - for all we know juice ko!
I'm not sure if that's of MCIA or Cebu Pacific only, since I see other logos, and this:
By the way, these farms are sometimes also called Yards at other airports. Example is Manila - PAL has a Container Yard, Equipment Yard and many similar such yards.
Imagine that? So many curious little things around the 'airport complex' that I get to see, all because my plane parks at a distant parking bay. So, I don't hate it anymore!
Let's move on!
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