Ahead of the March 8 closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Internatinal Airport, Abuja and in a bid to ensure accuracy, reliability and efficiency of facilities at the Kaduna airport, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has rounded off the routine calibration of the Very High Omnidirectional Radio Range/Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) and the flight commissioning of the Instrument Landing System/Distance Measuring Equipment (ILS/DME). The component parts of the facilities which include Two VOR transmitters, two DMEs co-located with the VORs, two localizer transmitters, two glideslope transmitters and two DMEs co-located with the glideslope all passed the flight calibration test. The flight calibration was handled by Omni-Blue Aviation Ltd along with their technical partners (FCSL of United Kingdom) in collaboration with NAMA engineers who carried out the installation, alignment and parameter adjustment during the exercise. According to the Calibration Manager, Engr. Akeem Ogunmola, the flight exercise which started from Kaduna will extend to Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Bauchi. In Bauchi Ogunmola said the calibration team would be commissioning three systems which include ILS/DME, VOR/DME and Non-directional beacon. Also to be calibrated are facilities in the Port Harcourt and Lagos international airports. Commenting at the end of the calibration exercise, the Director of Safety Electronics and Engineering Services, Engr. Farouk Umar who led the NAMA team of engineers in the installation of the facilities in Kaduna described the calibration exercise as very successful, saying that “Kaduna airport is on full components of navigational aids, functioning at optimal levels. We can gladly report that Kaduna airport can now safely land aircraft even in critical weather conditions as far as Navaids are concerned.
