Brightwork Polish at Augsburg (EDMA)

What changes at Augsburg?

Augsburg sits at 1515 feet elevation with a single 1594-metre runway (07/25) and operates as a daytime-only field: published hours are 07:00 to 21:00 Monday through Saturday, 09:00 to 21:00 on Sundays and public holidays. Anything outside that window requires a chargeable prior-permission request, so if you need an early departure or an evening arrival to create a brightwork slot, we arrange that PPR with the airport in advance. Traffic here is almost entirely general and business aviation—no scheduled airline waves—which means ramp access and turnaround timing follow business-aviation rhythms, not airline slots.

Customs and border police are on site, so international jets clear directly at Augsburg. Hangar space exists (the airport lists hangars of 75 by 25 metres and 75 by 20 metres, heated and unheated, for aircraft up to 6.50 metres tall and 25 metres long, plus a newer business-aviation hangar from 2014), but free slots are only sporadically available; we cannot assume indoor space and plan most brightwork polishing outdoors on the stand. Augsburg Air Service runs a business-jet maintenance base on the field—Embraer, Citation, Beechcraft, Hawker—so aircraft in for maintenance are a recurring presence, and coordination with the handling agent is routine.

Why does brightwork oxidise faster in southern Germany?

Augsburg's continental climate brings warm summers, cold winters and a fair amount of precipitation year-round. Rain and morning dew settle on horizontal and near-horizontal surfaces—leading edges, inlet rings, the top of nacelles—and if the aircraft sits on the ramp for a few days, that moisture starts the oxidation cycle on bare aluminium or magnesium. Winter brings road salt and de-icing chemicals into the air; summer brings industrial particulate from the Munich metropolitan area to the south-east. Both accelerate corrosion on polished metal.

Brightwork that looks mirror-bright in October will show a haze by January if the aircraft spends time on European ramps. We see it most on inlet rings and leading edges: the surface loses its sharpness, reflections turn milky, and in advanced cases you get white or grey powder in the grain of the metal. A single-stage hand polish removes the oxidation, restores the mirror finish and resets the clock. The sealant we apply afterwards—a hydrophobic polymer—slows the next cycle by shedding water and reducing direct metal-to-air contact, but it is not permanent; two to four services a year keep the brightwork looking as it did at delivery.

How do you coordinate brightwork work with the handling agent at Augsburg?

We are an independent third-party crew, not part of the handling agent's staff, so every job begins with a three-way conversation: your flight department, the handler and our team. The handler confirms the stand, the expected arrival and departure times, any GPU or ground-service requirements, and whether the aircraft will remain under their watch overnight. We then schedule the polish around those fixed points.

Brightwork polishing is a multi-day service—one to three days depending on the amount of bare metal—so we typically start after your passengers disembark and the aircraft is released from the handler's immediate turnaround. If the jet is staying for maintenance at Augsburg Air Service or simply parked for a few days, we have more flexibility. If it is a quick turn, we may polish only the most visible surfaces (inlet rings, windscreen surrounds) and schedule the full leading-edge work for the next longer stop. The handler expects us to stay clear of pitot probes, static ports, avionics bays and any panel the maintenance crew has flagged; we note those no-touch zones in our pre-work walk-around and photograph them for the record.

What does a brightwork polish include on a super-midsize jet?

We begin with a close inspection of every bare-metal surface: wing and horizontal-stabiliser leading edges, engine inlet rings, spinners (if exposed), exhaust and thrust-reverser petals, window surrounds, cheat-line trim and any other bright metal the OEM left unpainted. We photograph the before state, noting any deep pitting, corrosion or paint overspray that will need extra attention.

The polish itself is done by hand using a graduated sequence of compounds—coarse enough to cut through oxidation, fine enough to leave a mirror finish without new scratches. Inlet rings and spinners get particular care because they are eye-level and any swirl marks show in direct sunlight. Leading edges are worked in sections, each buffed until reflections are sharp and the metal feels glassy under a clean cloth. Exhaust surfaces—often discoloured by heat and combustion residue—are polished as far as the metal's temper allows; we cannot always restore a perfect mirror on exhaust petals, but we remove the carbon staining and bring back as much brightness as the alloy will hold.

Once the metal is polished, we apply a sealant: a hydrophobic polymer that beads water and slows oxidation. The sealant cures in an hour and adds perhaps two months to the interval before the next haze appears. We finish with a final wipe-down, a second set of photographs and a written note of any areas—paint chips along a leading edge, a cracked spinner dome—that may need paint-shop or maintenance attention. That report goes into your tech log or flight-department file.

Can brightwork be polished in winter at Augsburg?

Yes, though ambient temperature and daylight hours shape the schedule. Our compounds and sealants work down to about three degrees Celsius; below that the sealant will not cure properly and the polish becomes harder to control. Augsburg's winter days are short and the airport's daytime-only hours mean we lose working light by mid-afternoon in December and January. If the aircraft is parked outdoors and the forecast shows overnight frost, we may need to pause work until the metal warms above freezing; polishing cold-soaked aluminium risks trapping condensation under the sealant.

Hangar space would solve all of that, but as noted free hangar slots at Augsburg are sporadic. When a heated hangar is available we can work around the clock and deliver the aircraft in two long shifts instead of three short days. When it is not, we simply build in weather contingency: if the forecast shows a string of clear days above five degrees, we proceed on the ramp; if it shows freezing rain or heavy snow, we propose a delay or move the appointment to a warmer month. Winter brightwork is entirely feasible here—we have done it many times—but it requires more planning than a July polish.

How does Terso document the work for the tech log?

Every brightwork service ends with a written report and a set of before-and-after photographs. The report lists the surfaces polished, the compounds and sealant used, the ambient conditions (temperature, humidity, whether the work was indoors or outdoors) and any findings—corrosion, paint damage, loose fasteners—that we noted during the inspection. The photographs are date-stamped and organised by zone: left wing leading edge, right inlet, nose windscreen surrounds, and so on. If you need the images in a particular format or resolution for your maintenance-tracking software, tell us in advance and we will match it.

The package is delivered as a PDF by email within twenty-four hours of completion, and we keep a copy in our own records for three years. Some flight departments file it in the tech log under "cosmetic maintenance"; others keep it in a separate appearance-history folder. Either way, the documentation provides a dated record that the brightwork was inspected, polished and sealed, which is useful both for resale value and for tracking the interval to the next service. If an auditor or pre-purchase inspector asks when the leading edges were last polished, you will have a timestamped answer with photographs.