Contego Systems’ Summer Clean Up

The frequent and even perhaps the “not-so-frequent” fliers may find themselves wondering; what exactly happens to all those very expensive trucks when there isn’t any snow, sleet or debris on an aircraft that needs to be cleaned up? Do they just park all those trucks off to the side and wait for November (or in some places as early as September) for the first signs of snow? Or is a even more expensive storage area required to hold those trucks?  Well our very own Paul Franke, Contego’s former Senior Operations Manager at Denver International Airport explains to us exactly what is done and what goes into the summer “clean up and put away”.

Fortunately for Denver inhabitants, but unfortunately for Contego’s deicing trucks,  the summertime means enduring the constant intense rays from Denver’s rocky mountain sun, as well as wind, rain, dirt, and other natural and even unnatural damaging phenomenon. The elevation of Denver International Airport is over a mile high at 5,431 feet above sea level, where indoor storage space is very limited and costly making storing Contego’s equipment virtually impossible.  But the experts at Contego System thought up an ingenious way of safely and efficiently storing away all equipment for the summer months.

“In order to protect our investment of state of the art deicing trucks and equipment units, we use a durable UV protective layer of heavy 7 mil. plastic. First, the units are deep cleaned, then waxed and polished. Then we line them up and apply the plastic which is shrunk by applying heat for a tight seal. The entire process of cleaning and wrapping takes about 3 days per truck. The actual time to apply the wrap takes about 6 hours.”

Of course this summer preparation process is much more time consuming then parking in a large building and walking away.  But for the Contego family, the ability to not rely on a space-consuming building and making another attempt at decreasing our environmental footprint is reason enough for Contego to take that extra mile in earth conscientiousness. That’s what it means to be “Best in Class”.