APE team evaluates airfields for safe operations

  • Published
  • By Mandy Mullen
  • Air Force Civil Engineer Center Public Affairs
SPOFFORD, Texas --  From keeping aircraft in top shape, to ensuring a safe place for them to land, all Airmen play a role in ensuring aircrew safety. For the Airfield Pavement Evaluation Team, a specialized group with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center's Tyndall Detachment, this includes assessing each airfield and making recommendations to improve airfield quality.

The APE Team, based at Tyndall AFB, Fla., performs airfield evaluations at bases around the world, and is the only team trained and equipped to complete airfield assessments at enduring bases. They test and evaluate active duty and reserve airfields every eight years and Guard locations every 16. During natural disasters or other emergencies, the team can deploy within 24 hours to locations worldwide.

Whether it's a routine evaluation, emergency damage assessment or testing a newly reconstructed runway, as at Spofford, Laughlin Air Force Base's auxiliary field, each airfield undergoes different tests, with each performed at multiple locations.

The first, the SKID or friction characteristics test consists of three parts. Slope measurements, hydro-timer readings and friction measurements obtained by towing a weighted robot behind a moving vehicle are all used to verify adequate drainage and the surface texture.

Greater texture gives better traction in inclement weather, said Senior Master Sgt. Bob Dalton, team superintendent.

"(The SKID) is done to determine the capability of the runway to handle wet weather," said APE Team Chief Capt. Harold Honey, because aircraft landing on slick runways can result in hydroplaning.

Next, a pavement condition index survey, is performed. The PCI is a visual inspection and rating of pavement surface distresses. It count distresses, assigns severity levels and calculates deduct values based on the data collected.

The third test consists of two parts -- a destructive test using a dynamic cone penetrometer and a non-destructive test using a heavy weight deflectometer.

The destructive test is performed using a truck mounted with a coring machine and an automated dynamic cone penetrometer, or ADCP. The coring machine makes the hole and the ADCP measures the soil strength once the core sample is removed. An auger then digs a few feet further to verify the different soil layers. This test characterizes pavement and subsurface soil thicknesses and strengths.

The non-destructive test uses a heavy weight deflectometer. It measures pavement strength and load-bearing capacity without damaging the pavement, and provides a higher resolution of data than the destructive test.

With fresh pavement under a week old at Spofford's auxiliary field, initial readings there indicated low friction values for the runway but that's expected for new pavement, Honey said. He also recommended aircraft wait six to eight months before using the airfield in any type of wet weather since time and usage will give the runway additional texturing and traction.

It's this type of detailed testing that keeps the APE team on the road and busy testing up to 20 airfields around the world throughout the year.

"You get to see some amazing things," Honey said, of their travels. "No matter how similar an airfield might look, every base is different. It's always fun to find those unique challenges and try to solve them."