JLJ shares, today, about his experience at #MDT324:
My
friends tell me I’m a nut. You see, at least twice a year I take a three to
four-day weekend for the sole purpose of planespotting, trying out a new
airline, adding lines to my flightmemory,
flying just to fly, or in most cases, some amazing combination of these. It
turns out there are lots of folks out there like me, avgeeks, propheads,
milerunners, aerophiles, really, it’s all the same. We are folks who love
everything about aviation. Planes, airports, runways, airlines—We love ‘em all.
My
most recent aviation-themed weekend involved a multi-legged trip to and from Harrisburg
International Airport for a small tweet-up, that is, a meet up of
tweeters/twitter-ers hosted by the airport. The second annual MDT tweet-up,
affectionately dubbed #MDT324 as a throw-back to the first event’s date,
involved a tour of the airport’s secured and non-secured facilities to include
the administrative offices, baggage handling operations, common areas, and my
personal favorite, the tarmac apron where commercial, private and military
traffic could be seen just yards away.
The
tour ended with awards of swag-bags, containing an assortment of goodies and an
incredibly complex (designed for ages 6-12) LEGO aviation set. We spent a good
45 minutes or so racing to build our airplanes, but we all basically ended up
with duds. I’m sad to report that my blatant disregard for the instructions
coupled with my terrible design skills “won” me the least defined, least likely
to fly hodge-podge of plane parts. All I really needed to complete my hybrid
plane to nowhere was some speed tape, the
aviation industry’s answer to duct tape.
My
visit to MDT was delightful and exceeded expectations. It's clear that the
airport leadership wants to build a facility with passenger experience and
comfort in mind. As a matter of fact, I can honestly say that all but one of
the people I met who were employed directly or indirectly by the airport, its
vendors or airlines were genuinely happy, an odd and terribly uncommon
phenomenon. The exception? A single TSA agent, there's always one, isn't there?
I don't see this as a negative, though. Because of all the TSA staff I
encountered, all but this one were, like the others, genuinely happy.
As
a Business Analyst by trade, I'm always considering how organizations can build
upon what works and address what doesn't. Comparing the strategy and operations
of one company to its industry-peers, and finding pros and cons is what I do
for a living. And, while I'm not in any way involved in the aviation business,
I cannot seem take off my continuous improvement hat while traveling or on
holiday. Strolling through the airport terminal prior to our meet-up I
was able to check everything off of my list of need-to-haves and
nice-to-haves for the perfect airport, this was a fist for me. I won't share my
list, because the contents aren't important. What I will share is that I
generally add one or two things to my list when I visit a new airport, with
this visit not only did I check everything off, I added three.
We
concluded the evening with dinner at a restaurant just off of the Lancaster
Airport’s tarmac. I could write an entire blog just on that experience, but
suffice it to say, it was an excellent way to end a busy and exciting day.
Planespotting at sunset over great food and excellent conversation, it doesn’t
get much better than that.
#MDT324 is an event designed to cater to the most extreme and dedicated aviation enthusiasts, or "avgeeks." We look forward to meeting some newbies and seeing the old crew at next year's event!
#MDT324 is an event designed to cater to the most extreme and dedicated aviation enthusiasts, or "avgeeks." We look forward to meeting some newbies and seeing the old crew at next year's event!
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