Vehicle Maintenance Facility Project Status: Fill & Download for Free

Great question! Honestly I could write a book on this topic, but for your sake, I'm going cover the highlights and try and be as organized as possible in my response. (There are ATC textbooks out there that will go over this much more rigorously.)First, we need to identify the major considerations when designing any airport layout, whether expanding an existing one or building one from scratch:Available land: Generally, the closer it is to a major urban center or populated area, the higher the restrictions placed on space for number and length of runways, and noise restrictions. At the same time, you want the passengers to have convenient access to the airport.Prevailing winds: Airplanes do not like crosswinds on approach or takeoff. So once the land is acquired, the next consideration should be on aligning the runways parallel to the direction of prevailing winds, or if in an area with multiple wind modes (such as mountainous or certain coastal areas), two distinct runway alignments, usually at 45 to 90 degrees with respect to each other. If there are obstacles on approach or after takeoff, or no-fly zones, those have to be factored in as well.Location of terminals (passenger, cargo, special purpose, general aviation, military complexes, etc.), aprons, hangar and maintenance facilities (if an airline has a maintenance hub there), ATC, emergency services, car parking, etc.Once all of that has been taken care of, we need to decide the runway configuration. There are three main categories of runway groupings:Single, Independent (SI): A single runway that is either the sole runway of an airport, or is located far enough apart from other runways so that its operations are essentially independent from the other runways.Closely Spaced Parallel (CSP) Pair: Two runways that are parallel and closely spaced in terms of lateral separation. Sometimes the two runways are also staggered longitudinally, as that allows for inherent diagonal separation between simultaneous takeoffs and landings on that pair, which would otherwise have to be temporally spaced (a little harder to achieve from an ATCs perspective).Crossing Runway (CR) Pair: Two runways that are not parallel to each other, and intersect at some point along their length. Three or more runways that intersect with each other are considered on a pair by pair basis, unless they all intersect at exactly the same location (which is extremely rare). Often, the intersection is not near the middle of the runway length, but towards the end of one or more of the runways, which allows for more flexibility in operations (e.g. LAHSO, more on that later).Every other configuration you are likely to see is a combination or extension of the categories above.There are weird exceptions of course. Layouts weren't really standardized to begin with: many of the oldest European and American commercial airports grew out of WWII-era airfields, which were notorious for having runways in all sorts of haphazard directions. That was an era of small, light single-propeller aircraft, where crosswind turbulence was of much greater concern than maintaining adequate separation between aircraft.After a string of high-profile commercial airliner disasters in the 1970s, passenger safety started gaining traction. Authorities realized that large, heavy commercial jets were not endangered by crosswinds (unless it was higher than 20-25 kts) as much as by intersecting traffic streams and potential for collisions. Add to that the boom in airline traffic which necessitated multiple runways and separation requirements, and the modern airport runway layout philosophy was born.Now, instead of abstract generalities, let me explain the major tenets of this philosophy via concrete examples:Amsterdam Airport SchipholThe most recent runway construction was 18R/36L. Note how far it is from the rest of the runways, and its staggered location with respect to 18C/36C. This allows it to operate as a SI runway, and ATC can squeeze as many departures or arrivals without having to consider what's happening at the other runways, offering more simplicity and flexibility. For example, it allows simultaneous arrivals on 18R/36L and 18C/36C as independent traffic streams. However, 18R/36L is very far from main the terminal complex as well, so taxi times are 15-20 minutes. Thus, it is primarily used for long-haul early arrivals resulting from tailwinds.Note that there are three runways aligned in the prevailing wind direction, and three others in the alternate direction. Also, the CR pairs (09/27 and 18L/36R, 06/24 and 18L/36R) don't intersect near the middle for at least one of the runways in each pair. This allows LAHSO (Land-and-Hold-Short Operations).What is LAHSO? Let's say 09 (i.e. 09/27 operated in the East-to-West direction) was being used for takeoffs and 36R (i.e. 18L/36R operated in South-to-North direction) for landings exclusively. All the airplanes touching down on 36R would be instructed to complete their braking and turn left into the main terminal complex before the intersection with 09/27. That way, airplanes taking off from 09 do not have to wait until the airplane arriving on 36R at the same time has crossed the intersection before commencing the takeoff roll. This improves throughput and reduces delays. Also, the fact that the intersection is in the middle of 09/27 but at the end of 36R, means that aircraft landing on 36R do not have to worry about potentially crashing into aircraft taking off from 09 or 27 in case of missed approach, because the intersecting aircraft would still be on the takeoff roll on the ground in the middle of 09/27, while the missed approach aircraft on 36R would have already left the ground, giving it vertical separation from the 09/27 stream of departures.Alternatively, let's say 27 was used for arrivals. This would allow uninhibited takeoffs from 18L after the intersection point, which is not a bad tradeoff actually. You lose 10-15% of the available runway length on 18L, but with much higher throughput because you don't have to worry about waiting for arrivals to cross the intersection before you start the takeoff roll (the intersection being behind the departing aircraft on 18L). And since most runways are designed with the upper limit in mind, e.g. what length would a fully loaded 747 require on takeoff on a hot day, it is perfectly okay to trade 15% of that 11,155 ft length of 18L for A320 or 737 takeoffs (that only require 6,000-7,000 ft anyway) for much lower taxi-out delays due to increased throughput. In addition, any potential missed approaches on 27 would not encounter problems with the 18C/36C traffic stream, because the projected intersection point between 18C/36C and 09/27 occurs near the middle of 18C/36C and beyond the end of 27, allowing for vertical separation between the two streams.You can extend the same operational considerations when considering the 06/24 and 18L/36R CR pair. The point is that, for large, complex hub airports with large amount of traffic, the runway layout will reflect the operational history and expectations of ATC, and what would be the easiest to manage while maintaining safety standards and minimizing delays as much as possible.Now let's look at a simpler configuration:Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta AirportGreat! No intersections - just five parallel runways, with one SI and two CSP pairs. This allows nearly independent operations on the SI, the south CSP, and the north CSP pair. The inner CSP runways (08R/26L and 09L/27R) are used for most takeoffs, and the outer ones (08L/26R and 09R/27L) are used for most landings, while the lone 10/28 is in mixed use - cargo takeoffs and early long-haul arrivals (long taxi-in time after touchdown), along with occasional arrivals from Miami/Orlando, due to its relative proximity to the southern approach fix.Note that the runways normally allotted for takeoffs are longer than those allotted for arrivals. In a CSP pair, it is easier and more efficient to manage simultaneous arrival on one runway and departure on another, rather than simultaneous departures or arrivals on both, or mixed use on both.Why would the inner runways be used for departures and the outer ones for arrivals? There are two reasons. The first is historical. Back in the day before GPS and advanced collision-avoidance technologies and systems, it was considered safer for approaching aircraft to be as far away from the terminal and tower as possible, since the riskiest phase of a flight (as any pilot will tell you) is landing.The other reason is congestion and efficiency-related. By having the departure runways next to the terminal, ATC can line up all departing aircraft during peak periods in the parallel taxiway next to the terminal and clear them for takeoff one after the other without considering the status of arriving aircraft. Arriving aircraft do have to cross the departure runways upon landing, but that is not a major issue because they can be bunched 2-3 at a time and pushed through the small windows of opportunity between takeoffs. (This issue is circumvented by end-around taxiways, which you can see between 8L and 8R in the diagram above.)The goal is to trade off departure congestion for arrival congestion, because departing aircraft are heavier (fuel-loaded) and therefore burn more fuel on the ground compared to an aircraft that has just landed, with fuel tanks nearly empty. From the airport operator and ATC perspective, the gate and ramp areas are usually the most congested part of surface operations, so it makes sense to "push out" departures as quickly as possible away from the gate area and "resist" incoming arrivals into the gate area. This also gives ground staff more flexibility to prepare the gates for next arrival, and more room to maneuver the assorted baggage carts, fuel/catering trucks and other ground vehicles in a less congested ramp environment.In general, the trend over the decades has been to favor simpler runway configurations, one which maximizes throughput and minimizes surface delays at the expense of wind/weather operational flexibility.Compare Boston and Chicago O'Hare airports that grew out from WWII airfields......with newer airports such as Tokyo Narita or Dubai World Central and you will see the difference. (O'Hare, as you can see above, is reorganizing its runway structure to reflect this new philosophy.)Well, I hope that was informative and interesting. If you want to learn more, there are books and courses in Airport Operations Management. Have a nice day!

Buckle Up. Long story.So in 2002 I was recruited by an organization to work for a company in Afghanistan. I was to run a very large project with certain security implications and a lot of scrutiny both in DC and abroad. I had three theoretical supervisors: My nominal in-country boss (who was a super guy and very hands-off about my job, as he knew my role and observed I was quite good at it), the owner (residing in New Jersey) of the company with which I had been placed (who was a total and complete moron as you’ll see) and the organization that placed me with the company (who were also hands-off so long as I did what I was there to do. Again, I did it well).Under me, I had about 400 or so local nationals and some US and UK personnel. I was responsible for everything from housing to security or development of the project, start to finish. My role, in my opinion, was to clearly set out the goals and timeline, ensure the staff had the resources they needed to do the job, be the guy them shielded the staff from stupid interference from outside, solve problems they couldn’t, and generally stay out of the way. Many of the guys I worked with were way more experience and much better trained than I was, but we all worked extremely well together, as they were almost all supremely professional and competent.We were operating in a very kinetic environment at the time. Besides the fact that Afghanistan in 2002 was just barely above survival/subsistence level for the majority of the country, there was still significant fighting and instability in most places outside Kabul. We worked everywhere. We also worked without the direct support of the NATO forces deployed there. I could, at my sole discretion, call on direct support from any of the NATO contingents if the heat got so bad we were in danger of catastrophic loss or injury. However, it was HIGHLY encouraged by my placement organization that I do not do so, as it would jeopardize the entire project success, and I was given the tools and leeway to see that we never got ourselves in such a situation. (later I did have an event where I had to call the army in - but that's a different story - link below).Sean Griffin's answer to What's the most desperate situation you've ever had at work?The owner of the company agreed with my placement organization that I theoretically had the authority to do that, but he was just clueless about the conditions and never believed it would come to that. He was of the mind that he alone could solve any problem that came up, but none would because of his name. Yeah… right.Anyway… We lived pretty below the radar. We kept odd schedules, drove really non-descript vehicles and kept to ourselves. We didn’t build some massive compound, but lived in one neighborhood in a series of interconnected and surreptitiously fortified houses.After my first month on the job, I shot a note out to the owner about my impressions of the project along with some observations on what was going well and what could be done better. I sent a list of recommendations and a budget for implementing them. Included in that list were several armored vehicles. Basically this:Level B6, nothing fancy. I wanted plain, basic white. In a pinch I could jam 10 people in it, it ran on diesel and I could get spare parts all day long. I wanted to have 6 or 7, one to be parked at each house and one at the main office. They were not to be used every day, but they were to be driven enough to keep well running.At first, he blew me off. I was told everything was fine, no changes were needed and I was frightened over nothing. Let me state clearly, I wasn’t frightened, I was trying to be prudent. We were operating in a war zone, performing tasks that were in public view and counter to the views of the Taliban, criminals and other destabilizing forces throughout the country. We were operating without security and in soft and semi-soft vehicles and facilities. It was a wonder nobody had been hurt, kidnapped or killed by this point. I wasn’t frightened, I thought our profile and performance was just right, but I figured it was only a matter of time and I didn’t want to make it easy for the bad guys.Eventually though, the environment got worse to a point where bombings were commonplace and word was coming to me that anti-government elements were planning to kidnap foreign personnel in the city if possible. I curtailed staff travel. I sent an email all around detailing the situation, the reasons for my action and a plan moving forward. My in-country boss agreed, my placement organization agreed and the owner ignored it.Pretty soon however, he began to notice payments being made to various and sundry security equipment supply companies for trauma bags, blast film, blast blankets, body armor/helmets, safety and medical training and other stuff. He went ballistic. I got a call one day where he was just apoplectic. He threatened to yank me out, said he wasn’t paying any of the bills and that he would take the money back from me directly for all the stuff. I let him rant on a bit and when he wound down, I asked one question. “Could he please send me a copy of our insurance certificates for Kidnap and Ransom?” He told me no, that I didn’t need that stuff and to just mind my own job. We had it and everything was fine. (everything was not fine, and we didn’t have K&R policies). Then he hung up. I kept the staff off the job.About three days later, he called me back and was very friendly and solicitous on the phone, like we’re the best of friends. My bullshit meter pegged full red. He told me that he liked me a lot, and he understood that I was trying to take care of the people with me, and that he appreciated it. He said he’d had a change of heart about the security stuff, and that he had a surprise for me! He had just bought an armored vehicle. It was the best, and I would love it. He spared no expense. My bullshit meter broke.I allowed that I appreciated him doing so, and that while one vehicle was a good start, we needed more. Additionally, could he please send me the details on the shipping and customs so I could be ready to clear it when it arrived. I assumed that like EVERY OTHER NON-MILITARY ARMORED VEHICLE IN AFGHANISTAN it would transit from Dubai to Pakistan and then be trucked up into Afghanistan by way of Jalalabad. At this point (2002) there wasn’t really much of a special process or licensing thing for the import of armored vehicles. But we still had to go through customs and then get it plated. It was at this point when he started getting defensive again. I didn’t need to worry about it, he had it all handled and he would take care of everything. I said fine, and just let me know when I needed to collect it.Things outside had calmed down a bit and it appeared the threats had subsided. Everyone went back to normal work routines.About a month later, I got a random call from a shipping company, telling me that a charter cargo flight is in-bound from Dubai to Kabul airport. I am not expecting anything, so this is news to me. What’s even more interesting, is that the flight is due to arrive in about a hour, and there’s no ramp or discharge approvals. -Short aside - At this time, NATO controlled all the airspace in Afghanistan. The landing facilities both military and commercial were operated by NATO personnel. As part of my job, I had the run of the airport and ramp access. While I wasn’t the guy who scheduled cargo flights, I knew the process. I had, on a recently previous occasion REALLY PISSED OFF the French Commander of Airport Operations when I blocked the only active taxiway with an AN-124 for about two hours. (whoops, that really was my fault). The AN-124 flight had been properly scheduled and cleared, but still not done well. So they were a little sensitive about me and my folks, and now we had a plane coming that wasn’t even on the schedule.AN-124 Afghanistan.The airport was a mess at the time. There were still active minefields all around it, lots of UXO and only the one runway was working. There was one taxiway and some cross ramps but space was at a premium and the NATO folks worked very hard to keep everything going smoothly. When a cargo flight landed, there was no commercial cargo handling equipment, we had to bring our own. Forklifts, trucks, containers, whatever. getting them screened, cleared on, ready and waiting took several hours and about a dozen NATO folks to babysit. WE HAD TO PRE-PLAN THIS. Different size planes go to different spots to keep traffic flowing.So my arriving plane has not been given any ramp space, nor have we coordinated whatever equipment we need to move whatever the cargo is (I still didn’t know). We also don’t know the size of the plane.Day exploded, I haul ass to the airport and hit the ground ops office. They have a copy of the manifest, which has all the info I need. The French Commander is really pissed. I’m doing it again. All I can do is look him right in the eye and take the hit. He can’t turn the flight away, the worst he can do is divert it to Bagram. I can handle that. I don’t want to, but I could make that work. It’s an hour drive away, but no big deal. But I’d really rather try to get it down here if possible. Luckily, there was room. The airport was busy, but not packed. The passenger flights had already come in and wouldn’t leave for several hours. There were a couple of cargo planes down, but still room for one more. And this time, we had an IL-76. Big, but not huge.IL-76, Kabul Airport (copyright to the respective owner).After about 20 minutes of the French Commander giving me my monthly ration of merde while his staff professionally got the plan done behind him for me (thanks all - they were super great people), I got the approvals. The info was transmitted to the aircraft and tower and we got on to waiting for the flight to land. Remember the manifest? It was the armored car. So, rather than desperately trying to organize some cargo handling equipment, I just went outside and waited. I did wonder if I needed to find some fuel, but figured worst case, we’d just tow it off the plane and deal with the problem later. ISAF ramp staff had a tractor we could use.French Airport Security, Kabul 2002.Airplane lands, ramp comes down. And now we get to see the best armored vehicle the owner bought, sparing no expense. It was a pimp-mobile. I got a pimp car. What rolled off the ramp was a joke.I’ll summarize:USED solid black GMC Yukon short wheel base with aftermarket brush guards, only one rear passenger door that opened (on the passenger, not driver’s side), SUNROOF, “L” shaped rear seat, VHS player and TV, PRINTER and cocktail bar.It had room for two small suitcases in the cargo space due to the armored bulkhead in the rear, and a 10.5 gallon PREMIUM gasoline tank. *I had, once upon a time, some pictures of the damned thing, and I cannot for the life of me find them. If I ever do find them I will edit this story to add them.It had a normal street suspension and brakes, and, so far as we could tell, a normal automatic transmission. Someone had taken and modified a regular Yukon into a DIY armored car. Regular street tires, no additional wiring for 2-way radios, GPS or anything else. One set of keys. ONE.There was no such thing as premium gasoline in Afghanistan at that time. At least not commercially available. There were no spare parts for a used GMC Yukon in Afghanistan. There were very few paved roads of any quality.It had been up-armored, but I had no paperwork to describe to what level, or by whom. It was heavy, and squatted on those silly street tires like a toad. We were going to stand out like a bunch of idiots or the American Embassy if we ever took this abomination anywhere.We towed it off the ramp and out of the way, and sent the plane off. We got some gasoline and drove the thing back to the office. It wallowed through every hole and lump in the road and the check engine light came on before we pulled into the office lot.I got out, locked it and carried the paperwork upstairs. As I went through all of the paperwork it became apparent what had happened. The owner of the company had a cousin who owned a used car dealership in Las Vegas. He (the cousin) happened to find at auction this used “armored SUV” and described it to the company’s owner, who decided that he rather liked the idea of having his own “look how important I am limo” status symbol for when he came to Afghanistan to visit. It got bought and shipped over. It wasn’t for us, no. It was for him. When I called to say it had arrived and that it wasn’t going to be suitable (and he had broken the customs rules by flying it in to the base and bypassing customs altogether), he got pissed and let the cat out of the bag. Between the “you’re so ungrateful” diatribe and the “you’re just a crybaby wimp for wanting armored cars” screed, he admitted we weren’t going to be allowed to use it anyway, since it was just for him when he came over. I laughed and said “thank Christ for that!”. I had the title, all the cost information, the airway bill and everything. I knew to the penny what this cost and it wasn’t less that what I had originally asked for, truck for truck. Yeah, I wanted a couple, but this was no bargain.Needless to say, I was already on the horn to the placement organization to let them know what was going on. Their advice was to get rid of it if I could and get what I wanted. It was up to me. The board of directors of the company had placed me and given me my authorities, so I could do whatever was within my remit without need for additional permission.At this time, there weren’t many folks driving US-made vehicles in Afghanistan. The embassy had a few, and a couple of contracting firms had a handful, but there really weren’t many, and the market to sell was non-existent.Enter General Karl Eikenberry. “Eikenberry served two tours of duty in the war in Afghanistan. His first tour in Afghanistan, from September 2002 to September 2003, he filled two positions—his primary duty was as the U.S. Security Coordinator for Afghanistan and the second position was the Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan (OMC-A).” (wiki).Gen. Eikenberry worked at Camp Eggers in downtown Kabul, very close to the Presidential Palace. From time to time, I had business at Camp Eggers. One day, not too long after I got the black beast, I happened to be walking along the main thoroughfare in the camp called “Gator Alley” when I noticed that there were a number of Chevrolet Suburbans parked there. This was the moment I thought all my problems were solved.This photo was taken by me a few years later (2009), but this is the spot in Camp Eggers where they would always park the Suburbans and later, Ford Expeditions.I approached a soldier standing by the vehicles and asked whom I needed to speak to about them. He directed me to an office next door and to ask for Major ***. Turns out, Major *** happened to be General Eikenberry’s special projects guy. We spoke for a bit, and I asked about perhaps organizing fuel and maintenance and parts through them for my beast. Major *** said that probably wasn’t possible, and why did I have such a vehicle in the first place? I gave him the sad song about the Yukon, and how I wanted to get rid of it.He sat for a minute and then told me to wait. He got up, went inside his connex office for a few minutes and then came back out. Guess who was in the market for a fancy armored vehicle? Could I bring it by the next day for him to have a look at? Could I? Oh hell yes I could!Next morning, bright and early, I’m up and having the boys wash and shine our black beast. I drive it over to Camp Eggers and motor down Gator Alley. There’s Major *** waiting to have a look. He hops in, heads out and returns a few minutes later. It’s perfect for General Eikenberry’s needs. Something he can use real quick to get between the Embassy, Eggers, the Palace and the Airport. Slightly upscale, and just right for impressing various Afghan military leaders and tribal officials. How much?I look Major *** right in the eyes and name, to the penny, the exact cost of the truck, shipping and the fuel we put in. It came out at just under $104K. He didn’t even haggle. We signed a bill of sale, I gave him the keys and paperwork and we went to the contracting office to collect my cash.I was pretty proud of myself. I got rid of a totally unsuitable vehicle at break even, made the army happy, and didn’t have to worry about that albatross any more. Good day’s work.About a week later, I got word the owner of the company was flying over. He’s going to spend a week in the office to see how things are going, visit some family and generally lord around town as a rich and powerful man. He’s excited because he has a fancy ride to cart around in. We hadn’t told him it had been sold. When asked what to do, I said just get him as normal in a regular vehicle and I’d meet him later.Apparently, when he exited the airport to find no new armored limo, he was pretty pissed. So pissed in fact, that he didn’t go to the house to unpack and rest, but came straight to the office to find and scalp me.So I’m sitting in my office, minding my own business when the owner screeches in and starts yelling. And I mean yelling! Like, people down the hall poking their heads out to see whats up yelling. Afghans don’t yell in public. Not in anger. It’s just not done unless you want a fight. If you’ve done something wrong, it’s time to hold hands and have a quiet discussion over tea. That’s how you know an Afghan is upset with you, when he takes your hand and sits you down for a talk about what a fuck-up you are or have made. This guy was having none of that — he was full on screaming at me.Now, in my office there were three people normally. Me, the in-country boss and a finance guy. We were all there. I take the abuse for a bit, never moving from my chair and then the owner takes a breath and asks where his truck is. He knows the answer, I sold it, but he needs to hear it from me. I oblige. “I sold it”.“Get it back” he says.“Not gonna happen”, I respond.He then proceeds to lecture me and the other two guys in the office (who have been fully read in every step of the way) that I had no right or authority to sell the truck, and that he was sure I lost money because it was very expensive, and he would find out who I sold the truck to and get it back and I was in very deep trouble.I stood up, went to the finance guy and instructed him to open the safe. I pulled out a box, took it to my desk and dumped it out. In addition to copies of all the paperwork, were bundles of brand new $100 bills. I told him I knew exactly how much the truck cost, including shipping, and I even got the money for the tank of gas we bought. It was all there, to the penny.He got silent. He turned red. He looked around the room and by god, my two co-workers were staring at him, dead silent and smiling. He looked back at me and said “you didn’t make a profit”. I told him no, I didn’t and that was the point. I didn’t try to. I just wanted to erase his mistake and do the right thing. He could take his money back, but he wasn’t getting the car. The US Army owned it and he wasn’t going to bluster them into returning it to him. I went back over what a shitty vehicle it was for what we needed and that I would be more than happy to brief him on why, personally. I didn’t make a profit because he would have taken the wrong lesson from the result.He stayed quiet for another long minute and then said, this isn’t over. With that, he turned and left the room. The door hadn’t latched before all three of us left were laughing out loud.A month later, I was home on leave. My return date was fast approaching and I still didn’t have a ticket back over to Afghanistan. I called the office in NY a couple of times and left messages, but hadn’t gotten a call back from anyone. So I finally called my placement folks the day before I was leaving and they said go ahead and get my own ticket and I’d be reimbursed.So I’m at the Atlanta airport when I get a call on my cell. It’s the NY office of the company. Bag in hand, I take the call. It’s the assistant to the HR lady, who tells me that I will not be returning to Afghanistan as the company has decided to replace me. I didn’t know this person, and I had nothing in writing. I was literally in the airport ready to board my outbound flight to Dubai via Paris. I was going. She told me I couldn’t, and I replied that until I heard from someone with authority to remove me, I was going. I explained that I had called the office several times with no reply, I had paid for my own ticket, and my contract wasn’t up. If I were going to be let go, there were steps that had to be taken and a phone call from a receptionist wasn’t one of them. I was polite, but that's the way it was.We hung up and I continued on to Paris. By the time I arrived, there were a number of voicemails on my phone from the home office. Additionally, in my email there were a series of urgent notices and forms for my attention. They had officially gotten around to letting me go in accordance with the terms of my agreement. But, actually, they hadn’t. The added complication was that my placement organization had some authority over the terms of my contract. I was actually their employee and not one of the company. Further, they were on the board of the company (albeit silently) and were the primary funder of the company. They had a lot of sway. I had been doing an excellent job, and the work product was top notch, beyond all expectation. My staff was happy and productive, we had no major security incidents, cost were low and the end client was pleased with the result. All of this information was in other emails waiting for me in Paris.At this point, I called the placement organization and they said keep going. They would sort it out. So on I went to Dubai.There were however, other factors at play.In the end, Dubai was as far as I got with that company. My placement organization determined that they had another situation that could use my help. The company came up with some ludicrous reasons for my termination, which I accepted, along with several pounds of flesh.In the final document, it was stated that “I had an underappreciation for the cultural complexities and nuance of interpersonal communications with Afghans, making me a poor fit for leadership within the firm”. (I sold the owner’s toy and he got mad).I was back in Afghanistan within two months and stayed for 11 additional years.

Today i will tell you some good project ideas for web apps.1. Augmented reality app that helps you design your roomOne of the concerns while buying furniture or any interior decoration item is whether the product will suit your room and where would it look the best. An AR app helps you style your room by permitting you to use your camera and place 3D models of various items and furniture in the virtual space on your phone and see how it would look. The app can even partner with various shopping sites and facilitate user to order it directly from the app.2. Scan and convert to pdf appRather than going to a shop to get your documents to scan and then converting them into pdf. A scan and save it to pdf app can help you keep important records such as receipts, documents, report cards, notes, whiteboards etc., on your mobile securely. This app permits you to quickly scan your documents in high quality and store or send them as multipage PDF or JPEG files.3. Health check-up and food planner appThis app checks your health day by day and suggests you proper meals that you should consume in order to remain healthy. It connects you to the numerous healthy-recipes that are provided by professional chef-bloggers. You can set your content to be provided as per your health situation, for e.g. if you are heart patient, you’ll be recommended recipes made of ingredients that are heart-healthy. The app can partner with groceries to deliver healthy items online directly from the app.4. Railway tracking appCitizens of metropolitan cities are heavily dependent on trains to get to their destination. It can be incredibly disruptive if the trains are late and you have no way of knowing if you should wait or consider an alternative way of getting to your destination. A railway tracking app can give you the exact time of where the train is, so if you have an emergency and the train is late you can take a bus or a taxi.5. Language learning appThe language learning app that helps users with some beginner lessons on different languages in one of the most brilliant app ideas for 2020. The app can have different levels of difficulty with the first level being alphabets and basic letters to the advanced level containing full-fledged conversations. The app can enable voice so the learners know how words are pronounced.6. Voice translation appOne of the primary concern of travelling abroad is not knowing the language of the country and the struggle of trying to communicate with the natives. An app that can translate your voice will be a revolutionary way to communicate for travellers. The words can be spoken to the phone which will be translated to their desired language. The app must also work both ways where other languages can be translated to your language in real-time.7. Bike servicing appA door-step bike servicing platform and application which will use technology for the convenience of two-wheeler owners by providing them a transparent connection with high-quality vehicle maintenance providers. The platform can provide assisted door-step pick-up and drop, an in-built inventory management system that enables reduction of waiting-time, smarter stock allocation, an order management system etc.8. Call recording appThere are many victims today suffering from harassment, prank calling and phishing. They can download this app and if there is a spam call harassing the user, they can use the app to record the call so that it can be shown as evidence later.9. Scan to shop appsThese type of app will let you scan the items that you find desirable and find them or their closest substitute on online shops so that you can buy them instantly.10. Mall navigation mapA digital mall navigation map stores the digital map of all the shopping malls in the area and can be used to navigate the mall as well as directions leading up to it. It is particularly helpful for larger malls where with the help of the app the user can find the exact store or even status of the restaurant, parking spot or crowdedness of the mall.11. Criminal alert appSeeing a missing person or a wanted criminals’ face once on the television is difficult to remember. Plus, there is also a chance of meeting a stranger who turns out to be a criminal that you don’t know about. An application idea is such that the app will alert you of criminals in your area- so that you can save a life as well as help in catching a lawbreaker.12. Fitness AppA healthy lifestyle web application targeting health conscious people to track their habits assisted by registered nutritionists, pathologists and health coaches in order to ultimately lower the risk of lifestyle disordersThe application would be equipped with several charts that help the user manage their overall health- like weight, sugar, heart rate, blood pressure etc. User is also equipped with individual meal charts, lifestyle plans, nutrition plans as per their condition. It will also be integrated with chat facility that allows users to talk with the community as well as health professionals read more…..