North Jersey Chapter Airmarkings
irmarkings are identifying symbols painted onto airport blacktop. The symbols can include the airport name, a compass rose symbol, or other forms of identification. For more information regarding airmarking, see the airmarking page on the 99s International website.
Airmarking the Lakehurst Naval Engineering Station
August 1, 2006
Bev Weintraub, Airmarking Chair
The North Jersey chapter is back in the airmarking business! After a layoff of about a decade, a group of eleven women descended on the Lakehurst Naval Engineering Station the weekend of July 8 to give the test pilots there an accurate, functional yet decorative compass rose. It was quite an undertaking, and the chapter was more than up to the task.
No matter that it had been a long time since our last airmarking; we jumped back in big time. The Lakehurst compass rose, which was to be painted over an existing one that was way out of date (scary how much magnetic variation shifts over time), ended up being 120 feet in diameter. The manager at Lakehurst had done a new survey, but the surveyor had left nothing but small red dots for the pilots to line up with. They needed something big and obvious to help them calibrate their compasses. And that's what they got.
Bev examines the plan.
The red dots were laid out in a huge circle every 15 degrees, and it was the job of the first day's crew - Joanne Campbell, Rosanne Isom, Jan Kent, Jean Scibetta, Cathy Vajtay and Bev Weintraub - to connect the dots, so to speak. We had to find the center of the circle, snap chalk lines connecting each dot to the center, snap diagonal lines to make the rays of the compass rose and draw concentric circles for placing the interlocking 99s logo in the center.
First on the agenda was weeding. Lots of weeds and grass had pushed up through the cracks in the tarmac, so while one crew laid out the center lines and drew the circles using chalk, twine and a nail in the ground, the others pulled the offending foliage. After that, it was just a matter of snapping all the other chalk lines and laying down masking tape for clean paint lines.
Then the painting started. We painted the white center that would eventually contain the blue 99s logo, and half the triangles that form the rays of the compass rose. It is amazing how tarmac soaks up paint - some sections had three coats of white, and still didn't look properly covered. We also mixed up some gray paint - "eraser," Jean called it - for covering up parts of the old compass rose, and any errant paint lines.
Work in Progress.
Highway paint dries so fast - especially in July. It wasn't as warm as it could have been, because there was cloud cover and a nice breeze. But it was still hot, sweaty work. The people at Lakehurst made it much easier for us by mixing and pouring paint, providing us with a cooler full of water and soda, having an air-conditioned RV standing by for rest breaks, and even grilling burgers and hot dogs for lunch.
After eight hours, we decided to call it a day, have dinner and take a field trip to Home Depot.
Day two was the really fun part. In addition to the day one crew, Caitlin Burns and her mom, Cathy, Barbara Feldman, Lesley Miller, Shirley Onacilla, and Marilyn Patierno came to help. It was hotter than the day before, so there were lots of sun screen and water breaks. We put the finishing touches on the white areas, and then painted the blue sections. It really started looking like the compass rose on the front of the International directory! Meanwhile, Jean, Rosanne, and Shirley worked on marking "N," "E," "W," and "S" at the cardinal points, and painting black boxes at each 15 degree radial for the numbers.
Then up came the masking tape, and out came the templates for the interlocking 99s. Thanks to Mardi Drebing of the Central New York chapter, we had templates to copy, so we didn't have to make them from scratch. When put together, the cardboard templates make up one-quarter of the 99s logo, so they have to be put down, outlined in masking tape, then flipped, flipped and flipped again to make the entire design. Then we painted the blue on the white circle, and it was truly a work of art. Cathy Burns lent her steady hand and wrote our chapter name and the date in the center, so everyone will know who gave Lakehurst their wonderful compass rose.
The Finished 120' Compass Rose.
Thanks to everyone who gave up a beautiful summer weekend for the project, especially Jean for her mathematical know-how and expertise in how to achieve a perfect compass rose.
Group Picture.
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Last updated : April 14, 2010 |