In mid-January, a good story we were working on suddenly hit the wall. Interviews were cancelled and the airport told us the article wasn’t going to happen. Ouch! It was frustrating for us, but the airport’s legal beagles were simply (and understandably) being cautious. Fortunately, we’ll be able to share the story with you once the legal issues are resolved.

In the meantime, we had a hole in our lineup for this edition that needed to be filled. And quick!

A couple days later, I received an email out of the blue from Ken Durbin, assistant director of Aviation at Sugar Land Regional Airport (SGR). “We think we have a pretty cool story to share in an upcoming Airport Improvement issue,” he wrote.

His idea? “We landed on a way to make the business case and define what it was we were looking for in an autonomous (mower) capability.” Not tugs or other ground service equipment, and not snowplows, but lawn mowers! Hmmm.

It took me all of a nanosecond to pick up the phone to find out more. We knew a few big airports were experimenting with autonomous lawn mowing equipment, but none have been implementing it like SGR. For Ken and his crew, it’s not just a trial, but an earnest launch. Sometimes you really do have to tip your hat to the GA airports for coming up with super-innovative ideas and acting on them. Hope you enjoy the article, which begins on Page 56.

This innovative story from SGR reminded me, and I hope reminds all of you, that suggesting a story idea for Airport Improvement is open to everyone in our airport industry.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers!