Last Friday 26th of April 2019, CANARD performed the 5th PAPI inspection for AENA. This operation was carried out at Burgos Airport (Spain), as part of the tender that AENA awarded to CANARD in 2017 for PAPI verification and calibration with drones.
The verification of both runway headers (04 and 22) was carried out in less than 1 hour from entering the airside until leaving. The whole operation was after the airport operational closing, meaning that no airport operations were affected at all.
The next morning, CANARD carried out additional activities such as the inspection of both ALS and runway lights. These are services and capabilities already available in our portfolio and can be carried out using the same solution as the PAPI inspection and calibration.
It was also an opportunity to run additional tests for our upcoming solution for inspection of runway pavement inspection (Pavement Condition Index or PCI surveys). This inspection consists of a single drone flight over the runway, taxiway or apron that takes a few minutes. After that, the video is processed by our software and machine learning algorithms to detect and categorise defects such as cracks or weathering following the ASTM D5340 norm (Standard Test Method for Airport Pavement Condition Index Surveys).
CANARD thanks AENA and Burgos Airport and all involved personnel for trusting us and helping us deliver another successful inspection.