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AirportImprovement.com      October 2026
AIRFIELD MAINTENANCE 
BLV
and James focuses on eliminating 
turnover. Staffing is extra challenging for 
Avports because its employees need both 
airfield inspection and ARFF credentials. 
Although BLV maintenance employees 
periodically perform markings 
maintenance, rubber removal and some 
cleaning, the airport hires a third-party 
contractor for more robust maintenance 
about every other year. “We don’t have 
a water blasting truck, so we do what 
we can with the equipment we have,” 
says James, noting that crews use snow 
brooms for cleaning and light rubber 
removal. The airport also owns and 
operates striping machines. 
In-House Oversight
BLV Director of 
Engineering and 
Planning Dan Trapp 
focuses on making 
sure markings 
comply with FAA 
standards regarding 
visibility, reflectivity, 
color, coverage, 
contamination, rubber buildup, peeling 
paint and surface wear. Trapp also 
monitors factors that contribute to wear 
and deterioration such as weather, snow 
removal equipment/chemicals and the 
frequent removal of rubber that aircraft tires 
leave behind when braking during landings. 
The airport and Avports use the 
Veoci platform to document airfield 
inspections, assess operational impacts, 
generate reports and track Part 139 
compliance; while maintenance personnel 
use ManagerPlus for generating and 
administering work orders. The challenge 
is that the two systems do not “talk” to 
each other, which requires reporting in 
two separate places. James and his team 
are currently seeking a better strategy to 
improve efficiency.
Time for Maintenance
Late this summer, Hi-Lite Airfield Services 
spent about 10 days cleaning and 
maintaining BLV’s airfield markings, with 
up to a dozen crewmembers on site from 
its water blasting, paint and thermoplastic 
divisions. Overall, the job was similar to 
work the company performed in October 
2024. This time, however, another firm 
conducted the preliminary markings 
assessment to determine what work would 
be performed. 
While Hi-Lite and other maintenance 
providers often conduct their own 
assessments, some airports prefer to hire 
a neutral third-party 
contractor to establish 
the subsequent work 
scope. Hi-Lite Vice 
President of Business 
Development and 
Marketing P.J. Mills 
recommended 
Sightline Inc. to 
perform the assessment at BLV this year, 
based on his extensive experience with 
the company. 
“Our primary 
goals are to identify 
markings that require 
maintenance, and 
perhaps more 
importantly, markings 
that are in good 
shape,” explains 
Sightline President Mike Speidel, who 
has been in the airfield markings industry 
for more than 20 years. Airports that hire 
separate companies for assessment and 
maintenance often spend less time and 
money to maintain markings, he adds. 
In October 2025, the Sightline team 
spent two days at BLV, evaluating the 
airfield and collecting data to help 
determine the scope of work for the 
following year. 
“The assessment is basically a needs 
analysis,” Speidel explains. “We essentially 
helped prioritize the activities and were 
able to tell the airport what they didn’t 
have to paint.” 
Sightline crews focused on movement 
areas—mainly runways and taxiways, 
which are the FAA’s primary inspection 
areas. The team conducted condition 
assessments to evaluate visibility, 
reflectivity, durability and compliance with 
FAA/UFGS/ICAO standards. That data 
helped determine which markings were 
high priorities for cleaning or replacement, 
and which could be deferred until the 
next cycle. Speidel notes that he writes 
prescriptive maintenance plans as if it 
were for his own airport.
The Results
The follow-up report BLV received 
contained good news—one of the best 
ratings Sightline has ever recorded. “We try 
to do a good job, but we didn’t realize our 
markings were that great,” Trapp says. 
The assessment highlighted a few 
issues, but deemed the large majority of 
markings to be in very good condition—
”relatively excellent among all of the 
markings that we look at,” says Speidel. 
Trapp interprets the results to mean Hi-
Lite’s former services and BLV’s ongoing 
maintenance held up well. 
For most markings, Sightline 
recommended cleaning rather than 
more significant maintenance. “Instead 
of spending the time and money to 
repaint everything, BLV can redirect their 
resources to more critical needs,” Speidel 
explains. 
“We recommended some removal 
in one problem spot on taxiway L 
with adhesion issues—about 10,000 
square feet of removal and cleaning and 
replacing,” he details. Overall, Sightline’s 
DAN TRAPP
MIKE SPEIDEL
P.J. MILLS

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