Hammer Time
By Mike Speidel

The "honey-do" list is not a list; it's a constantly growing, changing, living thing. Just like my wonderful wife, the moments I think I've figured it out, I'm wrong. So I keep hacking away at it, but it just never stops multiplying, which may explain why we have two rules for the list:

1. Don't get it wet.
2. Never feed it after midnight.

As you can imagine, I have collected several tools and subscribed to dozens of DIY YouTube channels over the years... honestly, I don't know if we ever really "lived" before YouTube.

Social media aside, what if you didn't have the right tools at your disposal? Imagine you began each of your honey-do's by opening your toolbox and finding a single tool: a hammer. You use the hammer for everything from planting a tree, to changing the oil in your cars, to putting together frustrating furniture that keeps showing up from IKEA. No matter what the job calls for, you're reaching for that hammer, because that's the only option you're aware of.

That's why it's counterintuitive that the aviation industry has traditionally been limited in the toolbox when it decides to maintain airfield markings. At many airports, the typical (and often only) method of marking maintenance is painting over the old markings. It's hard to believe that each year (or each cycle) the airport reaches for that hammer as its only known option.

To quote Mark Twain, "There's nothing more dangerous than an idea if it's the only one you have".

As we stress during our training, just repainting is rarely the best solution. You can easily add more tools to your toolbox at the Airfield Marking Symposium, or have them delivered to you with your IKEA furniture through our On-Site Training.

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