• Home
• Best Practice Manual
• Case Studies
• Glossary

• Operational Safety
  • Safety Responsibility
  • Safety Considerations
  • Safety Areas
  • Construction Marking and Lighting
  • Foreign Object Damage (FOD)
  • Disorientation
• Security
  • Terminology
  • Responsibilities and Actions
• Handwork
  • Placement by Shovel
  • Lute and Rake Use
• Work around Fillets, Light Fixtures, and Utilities
  • Fillets
  • Light Fixtures
  • Utilities
• Markings
  • Paint Type
    • Waterbourne
    • Epoxy
    • Methyl Methacrylate (MMA)
    • Solvent-Based
  • Retroreflectivity
  • Marking Application
  • Temporary Markings
  • Marking Removal
• Off Peak Construction
  • Project Planning
    • Cost Considerations and Staging
    • Work Hours and Liquidated Damages
    • Roughtness Considerations
  • Construction Practices
    • Weather
    • Lighting
    • Surface Preparation
    • Production and Transport
    • Placement and Compaction
    • Transitions and Cleanup
• Acknowledgements

Disorientation

Honolulu International Airport as viewed from satellite. Navigation across the airfield seems straightforward from this perspective.

© 2007 Google Maps, Sanborn TerraMetrics, NAVTEQ

Honolulu International Airport (HNL) Aerial

Honolulu International Airport (HML) as viewed from the ground on Taxiway C. Navigation is much more difficult and disorientation can happen; which lights do you follow and where will the plane land?

© 2007 Steve Muench

Honolulu International Airport (HNL) as viewed from Taxiway C at night

For large airports, many contractors and airport owners list disorientation as one of the top two concerns in their daily operations (FOD being the other). Large airports typically have several runways (O’Hare International in Chicago has 7 runways) and numerous taxiways. Using a small-scale plan view (see Image) or even the cockpit view from a jetliner (a 737 cockpit is over 12 feet off the ground), navigation across the airfield looks straightforward, however, at typical vehicle eye height (about 8 ft in dump trucks and 4-5 feet in pickup trucks) the perspective is limited (see Image).

It is essential to properly mark truck haul and access routes to the construction site so that inadvertent entry into aircraft operation areas can be avoided.