ANI goes Nespresso

For those who have attended a course at the Interlaken location you will remember that coffee was always taken from that dreadful machine with the keycard. The coffee was dreadful. So I have now bought a Nespresso machine as the hard working students deserve a decent coffee.

Busy summer

Hello All,

Now that the football (!) world cup is over, we can re-focus on less important things, right? We have completed a very good advanced course in Pezinok, using the training facilities of ASAP. Participants from Switzerland (skyguide), United States (MITRE), Hungary (Hungarocontrol), Slovenia (Sloveniacontrol), Slovakia (LPS), Norway (Avinor), Russia (Federal State Unitary Enterprise) and ASAP themselves went through the criteria in APV Baro-VNAV, APV SBAS, RNP AR and Helicopter PinS approach and departures. This was a very interesting course creating a lot of interaction and feedback also back to the IFPP. Click here for some Photo impressions. Thanks Vladimir for the great pictures. After that, another class in PBN/RNAV was held in Tokyo and right now the next basic PANS-OPS course has started.

That's the report from the frontline. Gotta go to the class :-)

...and it's FOOTBALL, not Soccer!

Dear Americans,

All advanced material now available as distance learning

I had the APV Baro-VNAV as a distance learning/online course available for quite a while now. It was purchased by various organisations for a total of 16 procedure designers so far and produced amazing results as far as I am concerned. Obviously distant learning is a good concept especially for flight procedure designer with experience. So I have produced packages for SBAS VNAV, RNP AR and Helicopter PinS Approach and Departures. That means that all level 3 material is now available for distant/online learning.
Of course you can still attend advanced classroom courses if you prefer the interaction (or the chicken wings at the Brasserie 17 in Interlaken) ;-)

Discounted Flight

I keep getting these emails from the airlines I use the most, advertising their specials with low fare in economy class. Okay, that may be great for occasional travelers but I always think: Aren't economy tickets ALREADY cheap enough?? I mean an economy ticket on a long haul is normally not even self-sufficient. An airline actually finances the flight mainly with cargo and with premium tickets in first and business classes. Maybe it's just me but as somebody who flies an awful lot and pay premium fares all the time (I know - it's my personal choice, nobody forces me to do that) I always wonder why they don't make such offers for their customers who pay the expensive tickets. They seem to aim at occasional travelers, cold customers if you want. Would it not be more efficient to please the premium customers who give the airline repetitive business?

Floyd Landis again...

To fully understand this, you need to red my post from August 2006 (!)
Now the guy admits the dope abuse 4 years later. Floyd, do you really think we didn't know that before?!
*shakingheadandrollingeyes*

Is this a cheeky bird or what?

Internet at hotels

Something I don't understand: Why are hotels still charging for internet services? And why are they charging ridiculous amounts like 7 Euros for 1 hours?? Okay, I had a certain understanding back in the nineties when internet was something like "woooow, you have internet in your hotel?!", but not really today when whole businesses are run with internet. Why don't those guys just put 5 Euro on each room rate and then say internet is for free? Or actually, why don't they go to Japan and see how hotels operate there? Internet is never charged. 7 Euros per hour, give me a BREAK! This is literally what you normally pay per month...

Flight Validation Courses are online

As the release of the ICAO guidance material for Flight Validation and Flight Validation Pilot training is imminent, ANI offers a training program aimed at future flight validation pilots. The details are now published on .
The goal is not to cover any of the Pilot's license aspects but those fields of expertise which are required in the flight procedure design domain. A first ARINC 424 module will take place April 6-9 in Interlaken, which can be attended by flight procedure designers as well as flight validation pilot candidates. Corse dates for the other FV pilot modules will be communicated as soon as they are available.

Ridiculous journalism

I once decided that I wouldn't use this platform for political issues, but I came across an article in Newsweek that made me change my mind for a minute. The article has been written by Dennis MacShane, a frustrated and failed Labour delegate who made some headlines with the expenses scandal. MacShane, during the expenses scandal of 2009, was accused in The Daily Mail of having been less than open/honest with his expense claims. The Daily Mail featured a story stating that MacShane had claimed £125,000 over a period of 7 years for his garage, which he used as a constituency office. One fellow Labour MP privately told the journalist that he was ‘very surprised’ at the scale of Mr MacShane’s claims given that he does not have to pay to rent an office. ‘I pay £6,000 a year in rent so if he doesn’t have to pay that, it sounds like a lot of money,’ said the MP.

I am very fed up with the seemingly en vogue Switzerland bashing at the moment, especially when articles are full of wrong statements.

One example: MacPain, aaah, MacShane states that Swiss Germans stopped learning French. Quite strange, as learning French is mandatory at schools in the Swiss German part. He also states that Swiss French STOPPED bothering learning German. Fact is: They NEVER bothered. Furthermore he says trains are running late, although Switzerland has the second best punctuality after Japan statistically. I fully agree that a lot in the country could, should and must be better, but that certainly has nothing to do with banks or taxes.
So there you go Denis, why don't you make sure YOUR life is not a joke before writing factually wrong articles in a well reputed magazine?

Discussion Forum re-launch

Dear All,

Due to an issue with the database structure in the ANI discussion forum and thanks to the really unhelpful database host I had to reinstall the forum and even worse - the database.
That means that all forum members and the existing discussions were lost, but all technical problems are sorted. For those who have been a forum user, please register again, as I could not migrate the user data to the new database and I am not allowed to register for you.
You can access the forum via or .

I apologize for the inconvenience but I hope that the discussions will be more active than ever!

New AIS/MAP course

I am delighted to announce a new member of the ANI Instructor team: Aleksandar Pavlovic who can look back at a long career at ICAO and is very known in the AIS/MAP domain. I will add a summary of his CV to the ANI website soon. The two week course that we start to offer this summer will cover the basic AIS and aeronautical data knowledge according ICAO Annex 15 as well as the aeronautical charting requirements according Annex 4.
We have established the training objective and they will soon be downloadable from the ANI website (soon, because I am currently teaching a course).
As soon as we have the detailed outline of the course that will also be available for download.

I am currently scheduling the course and we are looking at dates in July or August 2010 depending on room availability here in Interlaken.
More to come :-)

Thanks.

It's funny that people have the urge to split everything in periods of a day, a month, a year and at the end of the period they set some goals, look back at the period that has just passed. At the end of the year that is always very much so. Sometimes people act like one could wake up in the morning of January 1 and all problems are solved, diseases are cured and the clocks start from zero. I assume most of you know that this is not the case but maybe it is in the nature of the human being.
So, I will join the orchestra :-) and say thanks. Simply because I have a period of easy going and energy reloading. Thanks to everybody who was part of my life in this year and makes it what it is: Interesting and joyful.

SBAS APV e-learning available

Dear Friends,
After the launch of the e-learning course for APV-Baro VNAV that has already been purchased by some "keyplayer" organizations in the industry, I have now also finished the full package for SBAS APV I/II. The course provides - as all ANI distant learning packages - a detailed step-by-step guide through the criteria. What I am specially happy with is the detailed description of the FAS Datablock and guidance on how to use one specific publicly available software tool that encodes it.

PANADES again

As I have announced in one of the previous posts, the world should prepare itself for the arrival of a new procedure design software tool PANADES. Now the company that developed it has published a website www.panades.jp for it. On the "news" page I assume you will soon see that they will exhibit at the ATC Global in Amsterdam in March 2010.

If you ever wondered about GPS accuracy

Recently I adopted an idea from Maurizio, one of the ANI Geodesy teachers, to record some tracks with a GPS receiver in order to illustrate the tracking accuracy on a satellite image. I didn't have my Garmin with me here in Japan, but I have a GPS application called MotionX on my iPhone. So I did some experiments when I was riding a train and a bus on another occasion and recorded the track. I then exported the track into kmz format which can be opened with Google Earth. It is quite amazing: on the picture here, you see the blue track, which is what the GPS thought where I was going, but obviously the bus was driving on the street.
If you click on the picture you will see a larger version of it. What I then did as a little experiment was that I drew the NOMINAL track (the street) and offset it by 2 RNP with RNP = 0.1. This literally represents the containment area in an RNP AR APCH procedure. Now if you remember that I didn't record the track with a receiver that is certified for such operations and has an acceleration sensor that is a bit more sophisticated (I did it with an iPhone in case I haven't mentioned or you forgot... The antenna of the receiver inside a bus, the signal partially shaded by buildings, multipath etc.), the I would say the result is quite nice.

Software providers, put some warm clothes on!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see the new Flight Procedure Design tool PANADES (PANS-OPS Airspace Design and Evaluation System) from the Japanese company NTT data. Just to let you know what kind of company we are talking about: NTT data is a subsidiary of NTT with 7500 employees (!) and the development team of that software had roughly 35 people available. What do you think is the quality of a tool like that? This company is in a position to invest a lot into development an also does not need to be profitable within the first year or so. They have time...
So right now when we have only one big player on the IFP software market (FPDAM) and just two small players to be taken seriously (PDtoolkit and PHX, all the others: let's FACE IT, it is as I say) the market will probably came to live when PANADES is going public.
For those who are interested in that tool, they will be showing it at ATC global. From what I saw it is a really good tool, with a high degree of automation, but nothing hidden in the blackbox. You can reveal the calculations and obstacle assessment methods at anytime. Furthermore it's the only tool that I ever saw that fully complies with the PBN concept and has automated design functions for RNP AR. They will have a website public in about 2 weeks, I keep you posted.

To all those who invite me to some kind of network:

Whether it's LinkedIn, Xing, Pling, Ring, YorkshirePudding, hi5, hi7 or any other social network: Please stop inviting me. I have made comments on another occasion that I do not want to be a member of 70 different social networks. I have a life. There are 2 communication platforms I use regularly for business and privately and THAT'S IT. If you want to know more about my private life, marry my brother or my sister.

Google Street View

Let me tell you something really absurd: A couple of days ago, Google launched the Street View service for Swiss cities. What a great tool this is! You can virtually walk through streets, check out places you want to go to or you have been to. But Google obviously didn't expect the Swiss privacy paranoia. Street View has a pixeling tool included so faces and car license plates are automatically pixelled and cannot be identified. Now it seems that this protection has some blunders as once in a while a license plate can be read and a face can be recognised. My view: SO WHAT??!! The day you actually were in the street, why didn't you wear a mask then, if nobody is allowed to know that you walked through street XX? Why did you not cover the number plate when you parked that car that day??
The people's view: A scandal! Intrusion of privacy!!
Okay let's think: You parked your car in front of a whorehouse and now that you see it in Street View it pops up in your mind that your wife may not be too impressed and an excuse difficult to find? You are not aware that already a thousand people could have seen the car while it was actually parked there? Well, if you're THAT stupid, then help is difficult.
I find it also quite amusing that people talk about protection of their privacy and personal data, bashing Street View and 2 minutes later publish their holiday pictures on Facebook, buy something on ebay, book a flight online with their credit card and finally close the day by surfing some XXX internet sites. The next day they stick their business card into a box somewhere, because there is an announcement saying, there will be a lottery and the business card that gets pulled wins a Salami...

Corrigendum Nr. 2 to PANS-OPS is available

Dear all,

The first result of the new error reporting process is now out. For those who have no access to the ICAO publications I provide a link to download it:
Corrigendum Nr. 2

Please enter the corrections immediately and log the corrigendum on the page after the cover.

Self Check-in

As many other airlines, Swiss has announced that Economy passengers will have to use the self check-in machines in the future and will not be allowed to use the check-in counters anymore. Now you should read the comments everywhere :-) "was always terrible", "the service got worse and worse and now it's below zero", "just ignore Swiss and use other airlines, they are MUUUUCH better", "they will go down the drain" etc.
A couple of years ago the people probably said the same, when banks said that only ATM machines would be available to withdraw money. Did they go down the drain? Well, yes actually some did, but not because of that...
However, the above statements are probably made by people who fly 1 flight every 4 years. They book Zürich - New York for 550 US Dollars and have the arrogance to think that the airline should unroll them the red carpet. Fact is: either aviation is an exclusive product, then it will be pricy and the service level will be high. Or it's cheap but then flying Economy class is like taking a bus. And I honestly can't remember taking a bus anywhere, where a Stewerdess asks me if I wanted a Newspaper and serving me a drink of my choice. And in the first and business classes where flying is still more expensive, one can't really complain about the service. It may not be as it was 20 years ago, but I have to say that the seats are way better than 20 years ago. And to me that is what counts in the end. Because if I want a good meal, I either cook it myself or I go to a good restaurant.

Something about traffic

Maybe you have heard of the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. I mean the Gotthard Road Tunnel not the one for the railway. It is the third longest road tunnel of the world (16.9 kilometers, roughly 10 statute miles). It was built between 1970 and 1980 and it is one of the three major transit axis through the alps and part of the shortest motorway link between Hamburg an Sicily. So you can imagine that everybody who thinks it's not to be topped to spend summer holidays together with 2 Million other intellectually challenged at a beach in Italy has to pass that tunnel (and back). That's nothing special except that the tunnel back then was built with one lane per direction only. The motorway leading to the tunnel has 2 lanes each direction. What does that mean? Right, traffic jams. Now, since 1980 this is pretty much predictable: you don't wanna go there southbound at the beginning of the easter weekend, the ascension day weekend and the pentecote weekend and you don't wanna go northbound at the end of those weekends. Furthermore you don't wanna go anywhere near that tunnel during the summer school holidays, neither south- nor northbound. So far so good. Now if you listen to traffic reports you hear about traffic jams of 4, 5, 9 and sometimes 15 kilometers in front of both portals. 5 kilometers means roughly two (TWO) hours of waiting time... Now here is what I don't understand: What exactly do those people think? Something like "you will see, there was ALWAYS a queue on this weekend for the last 29 years! This year they will all go on Friday and we will go on Saturday and it will be FREEEEE" ? Or what? Fact is it doesn't matter what day you go, IT'S ALWAYS BLOCKED! So my conclusion is those people just don't care and don't mind sitting in their cars on a motorway for 4 hours in the heat with the kids in the backseat moaning. But when I think about it now, it probably doesn't male a difference: Those guys just spend 4 hours on the motorway together with the same 2 million of idiots they will see again at the beach in Rimini or Jesolo.

How many social networks does one need?

Interesting... I mean my main communication platform is iChat. It has the best video quality that I have ever seen on any platform and it is a native mac software. Furthermore I can videoconference with 4 people with the same quality. Then of course I use skype quite extensively. It is useful to make calls to landlines or have my family call me in skypeIn when I am on the road. MSN messenger? Hardly ever. Yahoo Messenger? Used to use it to contact a friend of mine in Hong Kong. Other wise there is Facebook that is quite popular. But there is Myspace, Twitter and I dontknowwwhat and I get invitations to join the hi5, low5, letsbe5 network every other day. I don't get it. Do people use 20 different platforms to chat with the same friends or what? Or with different friends? Do they have a life at all?

GPS accuracy

The GPS system has an accuracy of ±15m guaranteed when using no augmentation like SBAS (WAAS in the USA). Often it performs better than that or maybe I should say in most cases it performs better than that. So when you set your system on your boat on autopilot and the route you entered were coordinates of waterway markers, then it would be a good idea not to go under deck to make a sandwich or even worse to play around with your girlfriend. Because you may encounter some nasty surprises. The navigation system might perform better than you think...

Hard(er) to believe

The "Harder" is a local mountain. I climb it 2 to 3 times a week for training then take the funicular train down. Today there was some eastern european guy with his girl walking towards the top station of the funicular. I could hear some music behind me but couldn't locate the source. I found out that the guy had his iPhone out and had some music running on loudspeaker. Needless to mention that there were other people around. I looked at the guy to check if there will be any bodily sign to switch off that crap. Well, obviously not. After about 2 minutes of him ignoring the puzzled looks from a group of british travellers I asked him whether it ever came to his mind that not everybody wants to listen to his (crappy) music. He asked: "turn off?" and I replied "I just wondered whether you ever thought about it at all. Yes! Turn off is the call!". He said "no problem" and switched it off.
Probably he thinks I am an intolerant idiot. Guess what: He is perfectly right. Well, not the idiot part but the intolerance part. I ruddy well don't tolerate crap like this. I have difficulties to understand how somebody can do that in the first place. You need music when you are in the most breathtaking nature? Fine, use earphones, but leave me alone with it. When I want to listen to music, it's gonna be my music and it's gonna be on a high end system and not on a mobile phone loudspeaker. Speaking of tolerance: I will tolerate anything that I cannot influence. For example I tolerate the fact that birds can make quite some noise in the morning or that the german financial minister is a prick. But I will never tolerate behaviour that is egoistic and rude.

Astronomers discovery

Astronomers were excited this week at having isolated a brief sound which occurred immediately before the Big Bang. Apparently, the sound was "uh oh."

Corrigendum Nr. 2 to PANS-OPS

The Quality Assurance work in the IFPP is starting to be fruitful now. A new corrigendum is in the pipeline that addresses many little issues that got corrupted when changing from the fourth to the fifth edition. The corrigendum will be due this month and I will let you know at this place when it is available. I'll provide a downloadable version on the ANI website.

Fishy anonymity

Sometimes when I browse the internet to find some information, I find a website that seems to contain the desired knowledge. When I then want to figure out who is behind the company, because I am interested in PEOPLE rather than anything else, I try to find the page that shows at least some names, although I prefer when also a photograph is shown. Sometimes you can look forever, the only info you get is an address and some email addresses that are like info(at)... or enquiries(at).. etc.
Here is a question: What are those people afraid of? That they don't look good? I am not looking for somebody to love but I would like to know who I am dealing with, especially when it's a small business. Those companies probably don't understand that potential clients might click away just because of that.

PANS-OPS course continues

In a couple of days, a class will return to Interlaken to do their part 2 of the PANS-OPS course. Some students will then also join for the RNAV Master Class section. The conventional part took place in deep winter (The picture shows two students drawing a holding template in the snow). Now as it's warmer the more complex stuff like ILS and RNAV will be attacked. This is the first ANI course that has the RNAV material changed according the PBN concept and covering amendment 2 to PANS-OPS.

Nightmare

After another joyful visit to an Apple flagship store (in Montreal) I remembered that Microsoft has talked about the very innovative idea to open "Microsoft stores" around the world. With this thought I fell asleep and had a nightmare: In my dream I owned a windows based computer and after a system upgrade (which took three days in the dream, in other words it was terribly fast...) I had a technical problem with an application. In the dream I therefore went to the Microsoft store to seek for help (as they have such a thing called the "nerd bar", where you can get help by Windows specialists). So the guy listened to my description and his first expert statement was: "Have you tried to switch it off and restart?" Overwhelmed by such expertise, I said yes. Then he asked did you re-download the drivers, and reinstall, but of course you must hold down the key combination of Fn-Shift-Ctrl-Return-F8-F7- Q-Z-? and scratch behind your left ear with your right hand while standing on your head with a room temperature of exactly 21.7° Celsius. I said well, the temperature was probably slightly above that. "I am sorry, then I can't help, you have to take the machine to where you bought it!"
Fortunately that was when I woke up, finding out, that I still had a Mac and the genius (that's what the specialist in the Apple Shop is called) actually fixed a minor problem I had in 2 minutes.
As my doctor always says: Using the Apple everyday keeps the doctor away :-)

ARINC 424 course in June

We have set a short notice ARINC 424 database coding course with Jim Terpstra from June 22-26, 2009 in Interlaken/Switzerland.
If you want to know about Jim's background, the staff page of the ANI website is a good place to start. Although that's just a very short abstract of his experience there. Anybody who is interested send an email to bz (at) ani.aero.

Spammers on the Forum

Dear all,

As you may or may not know, there is a Flight Procedure Discussion Forum on the ANI website http://www.ani.aero.
Recently I have received many account registrations, which are obviously spam. Therefore I have to ask you to send me an email if you have registered on the forum, indicating who you are and under which username you have registered. I will then activate the respective user on the forum.
Thanks.

RNAV, AMDT 2 etc.

Some people may have seen the Amendment Nr. 2 already, some may not. Fact is that the RNAV chapter has changed to be inline with the PBN concept. For the upcoming courses, I will teach both, sensor based and PBN based criteria, as many states are not yet implementing the PBN concept straight away. Therefore I have modified the training program in the RNAV section of the courses accordingly.
The APV Baro-VNAV online course that is available already includes the PBN (RNP APCH) criteria for lateral navigation.

Additional domain

Hi All,

I have now established a new additional domain for the ANI website as well as all ANI email addresses. It is a bit shorter to write and less prone for typos:
http://www.ani.aero
similarly, you can reach me with the email address, which I won't post here for obvious reasons :-)

Joke: Three guys at a job interview

A Mathematician, a Statistician and an Accountant were all in the final stage of a job interview for a Vice President job in a large corporation. The evaluation commitee had a plan to ask all three the same question to finally find out who gets the job.
The Mathematician was first: "How much is 500+500?". Without hesitating, the Mathematician replied "1000". He was dismissed. Next was the Statistician. His reply was: "a mean 1000 on 95% confidence level". He was also dismissed. Finally the Accountant was asked how much 500+500 was. He said: "How much would you like it to be?" and was hired.

Stop the unnecessary printing!

I mentioned this before and I will probably mention this another hundred times: There is no point discussing global warming or fighting SUVs (this is a petition launched by the social party in Switzerland. They try to make alaw that forbids to buy SUVs...), as long as we can't get the little things right.
As I want to give my five cents to environmental conciousness I have reduced paper correspondence to a minimum. I send letters as pdf files and I do this with invoices as well. I also ask some service providers like swisscom to send me invoices in electronic form and not on paper. But of course this is only working when everybody plays the game. Funny enough it is always the big player (like Eurocontrol recently) that tell me "they can only process payments when invoices are sent as hardcopies". Now isn't this great?! Wouldn't it be those huge organisations that could make a difference? From that perspective I have to say the IFPP is a pioneer. Some years ago we changed to paperless meetings and the working papers are only available in electronic form. I tell you this saves piles and piles of paper.
I really wonder, when large companies finally have the guts to change these old habits of printing every fart onto a piece of paper.

You pay for what you get

This is the rule in Japan. Actually I quite like it. It means I don't have to figure out how much I should tip a taxi driver or a hotel employee bringing me the food I ordered from room service. It's easier for me to calculate what the trip expenses will be. Therefore I was quite astonished recently, when a big resort hotel in Japan told me, they offer me a special price because I stay for three weeks. When I arrived, they told me that they give me a room with a balcony. Wow! Twice the unexpected. This is out of the ordinary, because a couple of years ago in a Hotel in Tokyo, the nice young lady laughed at me as if I had made a very funny joke when I said she could also give me the early check-in for free (I arrived at 10.00 am, their check-in time is 3 pm) when she communicated the official early check-in rate per hour. I thought I'd make the remark, as I had reserved in this hotel for six weeks...
But after the years here in Japan I got used to this type of behaviour and I find it normal. So I only had to smile this morning, when I left Tokyo and handed in my key. I payed the bill the day before so I could leave without delay. I spent 2 weeks at that place and it was not exactly a cheap place. When I left, the receptionist ran after me and said "I am sorry sir, one more beer!" I had to smile, as indeed I seem to have had a beer from the minibar that was not on the bill when I paid. Funny actually, at least in Japan. Because I am sure, back home i would get furious when a hotel asked to charge me 3 Dollars 50, when I paid about thousand fivehundred times this amount the day before :-)

Language follies

A friend of mine saw this in Bangkok. Whether Sue is good looking or not, nobody can tell...

Online Campus

When Apple changed the dot mac platform to "mobile me", unfortunately they gave up the groups feature. Although they say that existing groups can be maintained, all the online students had problems to log on ever since. It seems that access from outside the mac community is difficult.
I am currently evaluating an alternative. Eventually it is possible to use the ANI forum as the central element, but we shall see. As soon as I have an alternative, I will communicate it through the ANI Campus message board.

So long

New course venue in Switzerland

After a long evaluation I have now made a deal with the Artos in Interlaken/Switzerland to host ANI courses in the future, when they are held here in Switzerland. I am sure, it is a good choice, as the course rooms are very bright (top floor of a 5 story building) and have a nice cafeteria area right in front of the training rooms, where students can relax and have a drink, or get some fresh air on the terrasse. The hotel rooms are quite spacious, which is important when students stay for three weeks twice. There is a wellness area with jacuzzi, steam bath and sauna. And the prices are very competitive. First course to be held there will be the basic PANS-OPS course February 9-27 and April 20-May 8, 2009. For those who are interested, let me know, I have made a brochure reflecting all the aspects.

Quality Assurance in Procedure Design

The way we are going today in the International Aviation Community will result in a greater safety, I am convinced about that. ICAO has a mission and created guidelines about QA over the last couple of years. That's good. The level of procedure designer will be higher, as the pre-requisites are more stringent, guidelines about periodical review, ground and flight validation are also established. This will lead to the situation that states will have to learn that investing appropriately in an IFP system will certainly pay back. States who will not figure out that it is time to act and keep the pace will simply not be in a position to provide Flight Procedure Design to a standard that is required by ICAO. Bad news for the States. But good news for some companies out there whose mission is to provide safe and efficient Flight Procedures. Some states will simply have to come to the conclusion that it's better not to do everything themselves. I am sure we will witness some paradigm shifts in the future.

PANS-OPS everywhere :-)

With the right equipment, you can discuss procedure design everywhere, even in a coffee shop, somewhere near Interstate 90 between Seattle and Spokane. When 4 maniacs travel together, that's what happens!

APV Baro-VNAV launching customer

The Vancouver-based company Direct Approach managed by the experienced Flight Procedure Designer Marinus Waterberg acted as the launching customer for the level 3 e-learning course "APV Baro-VNAV". The course covers the changes in Baro-VNAV criteria due out in Amendment 2 to PANS-OPS (November 08) and gives an introduction of the new RNP APCH specification and LNAV criteria. One of the procedure design experts at Direct Approach has done his whole PANS-OPS training through the ANI online course (See blog entries July-September 2007).

Planning ahead

Hello my friends. Here I am again after the Summer hole-y-day. This week I attended a nice workshop about PBN. It was a group of stakeholders discussing issues that will be faced when implementing the PBN concept. I would be interested to hear what other states are doing and have therefore created a thread in the forum. Please submit your views and thoughts there.
Furthermore, here are some dates to remember for your forward planning.
Basic PANS-OPS courses will take place as follows:

Interlaken/Switzerland February 9-27 (part 1) and April 20 - May 8 (part 2), 2009
Pezinok/Slovak Republic May 25-June 6 (part 1) and July 13-31 (part 2), 2009
Fukuoka/Japan October 26-November 13 (part 1) and November 30-December 18 (part 2), 2009

Furthermore we have scheduled the following:
Geodesy for IFP specialists: February 11-13, 2009
Advanced ILS: August 3-7, 2009
Advanced RNAV and APV: August 10-14

I will also schedule a PBN course, a Flight OPS awareness and an ARINC 424. But for those, the dates are a bit more complicated to coordinate. I'll keep you advised. Furthermore a PANS-OPS amendment course will be necessary early in the year. I am sure I can deliver news in about 4 weeks.

So long!

Low cost carrier era is over

At least that is what I think. And I must admit, I am not so unhappy about it. I observe a tendency that the low cost operators cannot continue to fly profitably like this. So some of the carriers stop offering certain routes. As a result, a quick night out in Riga or a shopping day in Gothenburg are not possible anymore. Good. Because I always shook my head about people flying to the most exotic places but don't even know the area within 30 kilometers of their living place. I recently read in a newpaper that people complained at the airport because economy check-in desks reached their capacity limits, which resulted in long waiting times. How can people think that they can buy a ticket to Santo Domingo from Europe for 650 Dollars and then get all the privileges in ground service? I don't understand. Okay, I am flying a lot and the cost for that might go up. But I prefer to pay a bit more if that means in return that the airports are not full of people who paid 20 Dollars for a flight to London but expect the ground staff to bend over backwards for them.

2009 is around the corner

I do not mean to be pushy, but for those organisations who intend to train new flight procedure designers, it will soon be time to think about the options. Remember, there is an ANI course early in the year, one in spring/summer and one in autumn in Japan. Alternative options are the course at the Singapore Aviation Academy, which is either 8 weeks in a row, or 4 weeks, but without the RNAV bit, which you can then only do a year later (or with me of course...). ENAC has a 3 times three week concept streched over the year.
ANI course dates are published here.
When you click on an event it will reveal information about location etc.

Expensive fuel -> expensive flights, so what?

The price for flying will go up. So what? Okay, it is a bit annoying for people travelling for business because it will increase the operative costs of the company. But the prices for flights are anyway much too low, especially in tourist class. Why should any idiot be in a position to fly to New York for less than 700 Dollars? It's ridiculous! But when you ask him how to get from here to Arosa he asks if Arosa is a new marmalade. I never understood why holidays in the Dominican Repuplic should be less expensive than holidays in the south of France for example.
Recently I saw a lady in a documetary about some airlines starting to charge check-in fees for each piece of baggage and oversize fees for cabin carry-on. It was a low cost carrier. The lady complained: My flight that was originally 20£ is now 100£ *whine*.
My comment: Yes, and that's exactly what it should have been from the beginning. Or even more.

Communication between guest and room service clerk

"Good evening, I would like to order the special beef burger"
"Certainly sir, and how would you like your burger?"
"I would like it on a plate and fast."
;-)

You have to excuse me, I am sure I will post something serious again soon. In the mean time, have a good weekend.

Trigonometry

We recently did an entry test to see if students meet the pre-requisites according ICAO doc. 9906. Here is one of the test results of the trigonometry test:

Modern Airliners

We all know modern airliners are equiped with latest technology. Here is why it is important that electronical devices are switched off for take-off and landing (click the picture to get it full size):

And who pays??!!

I often hear people complain about the government spending money on something the people do not agree. "And who pays for it? We do! The tax payer!" I can't hear that anymore and my answer is: wrong! The tax payer doesn't pay anything. Well, he pays the tax, but that's it. Paying tax is a law, that's all. It doesn't buy us the right to contribute to how the money is used. It's the same when you stay a couple of nights at a hotel. Is it any of our business what the hotel manager does with the money? I don't think so. So far I never heard: "A new swimming pool? And who pays for it? We do! The hotel guests!"

Can you send me the detailed syllabus?

I always have to smile a bit at potential trainees making inquiries for a course. One of the standard phrases is "can you please send me a detailed course syllabus?". My immediate reaction (which I would never write to these guys of course...) is always: What for? If you consider attending the course, I would assume you don't know much about the subject, correct? If you don't know much about the subject, what do you want with the syllabus then? How can you judge, whether it's adequate or not? How can you judge, whether the course is for you or not? Interesting, isn't it? If you want to know the course OBJECTIVE, that's a different story. Because that is something meaningful. "Oh, in this course I learn how all the APV procedures are designed", that is something a potential student can handle. But if I send him a list like: "day three, GARP definition and Delta offset length, FAS datablock fields and their meaning", what for anybody's sake is a potential student going to do with this information? Impress his boss?
Another one that makes me really angry is: "Can you please inform me on tuition fee, course length and any other information". Hellooooo??!! Everything described on the website, documents for download so you can impress your boss (see above...). Recently I told somebody exactly that: All the info you are looking for is on the website with downloadable documents. Answer: I did not/do not have the time to read all this. My reaction: Ah okay, and I DO have the time to tell you everything again, when I have already made the info available?
Alright, enough complaints now. Maybe I am in a bad mood because of the bad weather and some physical pain that I have. Anyway, I am now off to Tokyo to teach PANS-OPS. Imagine there is a syllabus and nobody follows it? ;-)

Euro 08 hype

Here is a video that I secretly shot in the final practice of the Switzerland team. After their pathetic performance in the eighth of finals in the World Cup 06, they focused specifically on shooting penalties :-)

New ANI Forum

Hi All,

I have now created a discussion forum page so the flight procedure design world can communicate in a modern form. We can use this to exchange issues in our daily work and I hope it helps that the procedure designer, pilots, coders and whoever will communicate with each other. You need to register to use the forum. When doing so, please make sure you reveal enough info, so the other users know who you are.
The forum page is here

Good luck and have fun!

Telemarketer Nightmare

I have a multiple phone number line at home. The main number is actually not used at all and is muted. The advantage of that is that should a phone company ever illegally sell data, the buyer would always end up with that number that's never answered. However, it happens that sometimes there is a call on the display. Now, normally Telemarketers call with "number hidden". But unfortunately they cannot do that with me. I have a function, where if somebody calls with a hidden caller ID, my phone simply generates a message "this connection does not accept calls with hidden caller ID". So either the guys give up or they reveal themselves. If they do reveal themselves I can then check, if the number is in the directory. Recently there was a Telemarketing company being extremely patient and I had their number on the display once a day for about two weeks. They would even call at times like 9 o'clock in the evening. So I got angry and did the following: I deviated the phone line they called to their own number :-D Funny enough, their phone terror stopped immediately...

PBN implementation

Many people ask me now, if any states already had already implemented the PBN concept. Switzerland has. Here is a cockpit shot from a PBN certified flight deck ;-). Click the picture for full size image.
(photograph courtesy of Thomas Buchanan, Chairman of the ICAO IFPP)

Airplane Beach

Here is a video that you will like. Maybe you have heard of the crazy airport in St. Maarten in the Caribean Sea. It's just insane!

New course

I am extremely happy to announce a course that I had in mind for a long time, but the necessary instructor didn't exist, or at least I didn't know he existed. Then heaven (or whoever...) made me cross paths with Alex Hartland and there we go.
It's a one week course about flight operations aimed specifically at procedure designers. The background of the idea: many procedure designers are recruited from the non-flying side. That means they actually don't know how their procedures are flown in a moderairliner, what instruments there are, how operators calculate contingency procedures or how visual minima are calculated.
So Alex and me have developed a program together, which I find exciting. I have created a flyer about it and you can download it here.

The course dates are: October 20-24, 2008
Location: Interlaken/Switzerland
Tuition fee: 1500 € (Euro)

New elements on the ANI website

I have added some useful info to the ANI website:
As the basic courses comply with the ICAO doc. 9906 vol. II, I have created a downloadable brochure that explains the training concept, pre-requisite skills, knowledge and attitudes as well as the requirement for OJT. This brochure can be downloaded from this page.

Furthermore I have added the new course "Flight Operations Awareness". Instead of me explaining here, go to the website and download the flyer.

I have also added information about the training locations Fukuoka and Pezinok. For some locations, such as Fukuoka, I have created a link to a photo page, showing you some impressions of the area.

Take a moment to explore. There are some other exciting changes in the training programs in the pipeline. More information, when I have it all worked out. So long!

Interesting court trial

The last couple of week, there was a court trial regarding the CFIT accident of a Crossair airplane on November 24, 2001 in Zürich/Switzerland. You can find a brief description of the accident here.
The full report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau can be downloaded from their website.
Now the two top executives of Crossair, CEO Moritz Suter and his Deputy at the time, André Dosé (later became the CEO of Crossair and Swiss International Airlines) were accused for negligent homicide in 24 cases. Personally I don't like to see that tendency in general: People who have absolutely nothing to do with the event whatsoever, are taken under fire with the goal to find somebody to blame. Excuse me, it was an accident! So if somebody's son kills somebody in a car accident, the parents will be blamed for it because they let him use their car or what??
Anyway, the sentence was: free of all charges, which I appreciate. When you read the final report you will find out that the pilot wasn't quite up to his task and you could question whether he should have been in an airliner cockpit at all. But what's that got to do with the CEO? Can it be Steve Ballmer's (CEO Microsoft) or Steve Jobs' (CEO Apple) problem, if some programmer is not up to his tasks and makes errors over and over again? I don't think so, for that there are executives on a lower level. I have to say "thank you USA" for this ridiculous legal system, where McDonalds can blamed for not warning the people that hot coffee is indeed hot.
However, now that Suter and Dosé are free of the charges, every idiot comes out of his corner and assumes himself to be qualified to comment about it (including myself as you can see *wink*). Comments like: "Of course, you just need to be able to pay expensive lawyers", "I knew, they won't be blamed, it's a shame", "those judges are useless" and alikes can be read on the Swiss TV's website. Oh really? So those judges are not up to their task? You would be better, right? And who do you want to blame for appointing such terrible judges? The President? God almighty? The gardener (the gardener is always guilty...)?
Again, people misunderstand the term "democracy" here. Democracy means, we are ALLOWED to have an opinion. It doesn't mean we MUST have one. In other words. He who has not a clue, should shut the f* up!
And when it comes to aviation, my view is: Nobody has a clue, except eventually the people in aviation themselves-

Singapore moves to 8 week concept

The Singapore Aviation Academy, one of the world's famous institutions for Procedure Design/PANS-OPS training has changed their concept to an eight week training program. Their program is split into two consecutive models of 5 weeks and 3 weeks. In the first module they cover the basics, conventional ground based navigation including ILS. The second module covers RNAV and RNP. So you can get either trained fully within 8 weeks in a row (watch out when you get back, make sure your wife remembers you...) or you can get a non-RNAV training in one year and add-on the RNAV bit the year after.
With this change of concept, the SAA reacts to the increasing quantity and complexity of the material contained in PANS-OPS.

The sickest industry

What is a sick industry? According my definition, an industry where people are not really paid what they are worth. Of course there will always be people, who can sell themselves better than others in all industries. But I recently spoke to a good friend of mine and she is constantly struggling income wise. Her profession? She is a Concert Pianist. Concert Pianist means two graduate studies at University level. First the Diploma as a professional Musician, which is literally a Masters Degree and then four more years of studies to get the Concert diploma. And she has to teach pupils for an hourly price that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. 8 years of Music Academy drill and she works for HALF the price as for example the gardener who overhauls my garden twice a year. HALF the price as the painter who recently painted 3 walls in my house.
This is crazy. Would somebody who studied law ever work for that price? An engineer? And more importantly: Would people EXPECT a lawyer to be that cheap? I don't think so. On the other hand people are prepared to pay 250 Dollars for a ticket so see Barbara Streisand. But when people want their kid to learn the piano, they think it must be dirt cheap. I don't understand and it makes me a bit sad...

Next PANS-OPS course started

We have started the next PANS-OPS basic course for 2008 in Pezinok/Slovakia. We have a nicely mixed class with students from Poland, USA, Abu Dhabi, Romania, Slovak Republic and Tanzania. They are already sweating with the turn protection calculations, not being aware that it gets worse tomorrow with the reversal procedures :-)

2 weeks ago we have successfully completed the first course of the year in Switzerland with participants from Portugal, South Africa, the Netherlands and Turkey. In the second pert, the weather was playing some games with us, but we survived. Right now, the weather is nice here in Pezinok, but I don't think last year's heat record (39.2°C) will be broken...

The hard life of a Stewardess :-)

I am sorry! Flight Attendant they are called. They are responsible for the well-being and the safety on board. Safety? You mean if my plane hits the ground with a wingtip (see video further down in the blog), she will make sure I don't get hurt?
Anyway, sometimes I have to smile about the English that is spoken especially by Swiss and German Stewa... uuuh Flight Attendants. Recently, a young FA asked me "DO you like a cheese or ham sandwich?" I said: "I actually like both". She said: "Oh I am not sure we have enough right now!" My answer "oh, right now I don't want a sandwich, I never eat on planes when it's a short haul" totally confused her: "But you just said wou wanted both?!" "No, I didn't. I just answered your question, which was do I like cheese or ham. Fact is I like both, but I don't want one now!"
She probably still thinks that I am totally nuts, not noticing the subtle difference between the correctly phrased "WOULD you like a cheese or ham sandwich" and the not so correctly phrased "DO you like a cup of coffee?"
Yes, first thing in the morning I do! But not now ;-)

Interesting Procedure Discussion Forum

I was always highlighting the importance of communication between the different parties involved in procedure design. I think it is crucial that designers, pilots, ATC and database coders and cartographers understand each other's problems. A friend of mine provides such a forum on his website. http://www.asap.sk/discussion/
Check it out, maybe you'll find some interesting info or maybe you have to say something about a question posted.

Crosswind landing

Maybe you have heard about it, here is a video. LH44 was trying to land in strong crosswind at Hamburg Airport on March 1, during storm "Emma".

Little free goodie online

Dear all,
Those who know me will know that I have a degree in education. Over the years attending conferences here and there I always felt a bit sad about the level of the presentations given by about 98% of the speakers. They all make some essential things wrong when presenting and unfortunately everybody was copying each other and the level never improves. I thought I'll do something about it and put a little e-learning lecture about presentation technique online. It's free, and I hope many people will download it. So go ahead and use it, copy it, distribute it, the more people who see it,the better.
You'll find the link on http://www.airnavigationinstitute.ch, bottom left.

Why does everything have to be a "solution"?

I see advertisements for software solutions, my bank is praising their banking solutions, insurances are trying to sell their insurance solution. Interesting, but I am not their target market then. I don't need a software solution, as I haven't got a software problem. I might want a piece of software, though. But not as a solution, not because I have a problem. Only because I like the kit. Same for the insurance. I don't have an insurance problem, I just want to be insured, that's all. Get lost with your solutions, we don't want them. We need them as little as we need an "insurance partner" or a "software partner". We just want to buy a product, that's all. So don't call yourself our partners, because you're not, and don't call your products "solutions", because we don't have a problem. Or do we have to invent a problem for all your solutions?

Pictures from the Geodesy Course

Alain and Maurizio did a good job once more in the Geodesy course in Zürich, February 13-15. The picture shows Alain explaining the Theodolite and Maurizio supervising the explanations :-). We shall have another Geo course early next year. If you are interested in doing the course let me know early enough please. The knowledge aquired in the course becomes more and more important. With the widespread use of computers, databases and DTEDs, knowing how to handle different geodetic datums are a must and can be safety critical.

Only 2 more places for the summer course

The PANS-OPS course in Pezinok/Slovakia in May and July this year sells out quickly. We can take two more places and that's it. So, if somebody wants to join, hurry up :-) Ian is already getting the grill ready for the barbecue on the weekends. And the sandwich shop around the corner from the training center is desperately waiting for our lunch time business :-)

Busy times ahead

Okay Folks, that was the Christmas-New-Year-and-a-little-time-thereafter Season. Looking back at the best year in the 12 year history of the ANI. But more importantly, here is what is coming up: Next week I look forward to running a full level 3 RNAV course in London, followed by another full PANS-OPS update course in Geneva, followed by a PANS-OPS basic part one here in Thun. Right after that I'll go to Montreal to attend the IFPP and when I am back I will be busy preparing the move of my domicile and the ANI headquarters. Having done that, the guys in the basic PANS-OPS course will return for part 2...

So, why am I telling you all this? To show off? Yes of course. But also to let you know what's happening and to have an excuse if I don't post many blog entries over the period.

By the way, for those procedure designers out there who are a bit slow: The latest version of PANS-OPS is fifth edition including Amendment 1 PLUS Corrigendum Nr. 1.

So long!

End of course, end of academical year

Today, we have the last day of the last 2007 PANS-OPS course. Once more, 10 new procedure designers will leave the ANI facility in Fukuoka/Japan (picture). For me, that will also be the beginning of a holiday :-) So I actually look forward but I am also a little sad to say goodbye to another good group of students. However, that's it for the year 2007, quite a year I have to say. It was the year when we finalized 5 new manuals in the ICAO IFPP: The PBN manual, the RNP AR manual and the Quality Assurance Manual for procedure design vol. I, II and III. Volume 2 is the Training Manual, which I believe is a nice piece of work. The last Fukuoka course was adopted to fully comply with this new manual and I must say, I am very happy with the results.
Furthermore, 2007 was the year of the first ever certified online trained procedure designer, Evan Colpitts. So, when I look back, the year brought a lot of upsides. The downside was obvioulsy my constant struggle for health, which some of you guys out there are aware of or witnessed. However, I look forward to some quiet days in the snow and an I will be pumped up to face new challeges in 2008. In the mean time, I wish all readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May the time not be too hectic for you :-)

Cheers,
Beat

Some happy faces

The ARINC 424 course in Langen/Germany given by our database coding guru Christian Freiesleben created some happy faces. Or are you saying they do not look happy? ;-)

"e" in e-mail means: electronic

This week I followed the elections of the Swiss Federal Council with interest. The fact I could do that is already quite an amazing fact, as I am working in Japan as always at that time of the year. Electronic media make it possible to even watch some TV coverage live. But that's not my point. Neither is the political aspect of the elections. But I saw a documentary about the newly elected woman (all six other members were confirmed for another 4 years) and they were filming at her former workplace, the financial department in Chur. "How were the last 24 hours for you" they asked a secretary. She said " oh, quite busy, a lot of phonecalls etc. congratulations from a lot of people". Then she points to a pile of A4 paper: "Over a thousand e-mails, but that's not all yet here." Excuse me??? You PRINT over a thousand emails with congratulation messages?? Actually, you PRINT emails at all?? Why on earth would somebody ever do that? Human beings seem to resist eveolution wherever possible. It's a little bit like some years ago, when I started travelling with electronic tickets. At some airport I was asked for the ticket to enter the check-in zone. I said "I have no ticket, it's electronic". The lady: "Don't you have a printout of it?" No, I bloody don't, because the purpose of electronic documents is that they are what the name implies: E-LEC-TRO-NIC. And the reason you would have such a ticket is because you don't want to travel with all this paperwork...

Life is....

Life is a gift to enjoy and not a problem to solve. This is a line I saw today on a long walk through a city in the far east. Quite nice, not so? Think about it for a minute...

Are humans really ready for progress?

Sometimes I really wonder how humans resist progress. Although some species have high speed internet, the latest flat screen TV, a car with GPS navigation system, hard disk recorders for TV programs, the latest top-notch kitchen equipment, BUT they have their emails printed by their secretaries, they ask me to issue hard copy invoices sent by snail mail and stuff like that? On the other hand they complain about pollution and the CO2 issue. Well, ... wouldn't paperless business actually help? Just a little bit, but everything counts! I am quite glad for example that in the ICAO Instrument Flight Procedures Panel we are quite advanced and hold paperless meetings. All working papers are published on the panel website, which we can acess during the meeting. No hardcopies issued, no nonsense. Now THIS is what I call progress.

Short notice: Another ARINC 424 course this year

Due to popular demand, we scheduled another ARINC 424 database coding course this year. The dates are: December 10-14, the location is the DFS campus in Langen/Frankfurt Germany. Accomodation can be booked at the Steigenberger Hotel (walking distance from DFS) for around 90€-100€.
This course will be taught by Christian Freiesleben. Tuition fee is 1100€. Let me know soon if you wish to join, the course is almost full.

Last PANS-OPS course of the year about to start

There we go: On Monday, October 29, the last PANS-OPS course of the year will start at the ANI location in Fukuoka/Japan, where a full class i waiting to get trained in Flight Procedure Design. As always, I look forward to this and I am sure we will have a good time again.
For those looking for a PANS-OPS course in 2008, you'd better think about booking now, we seem to be looking at full classes again and I cannot accomodate another course.

Obstacle restriction and removal

See in the attached picture how we progress with the latest obstacle restriction and removal operation :-) Thanks to Jan Varga from ASAP s.r.o. for the picture. Another reason to add some margin for vegetation and unlisted obstacles. However, male giraffes grow to about 5.5m, so the chances that your tree allowance will cover it are relatively high...

Procedure Designer Vacancy in Brisbane

Hi All,

There seems to be an intersting job vacancy down in Brisbane for a private consultancy company. They are looking for a procedure designer to head up their procedure design team. As far as I understood, a candidate would have the possibility to establish structures and work processes, as the company only starts to be active in the procedure design field. Now, before everybody jumps, here are the catches:
An order from the Australian regulator CASA requires that a chief designer has the following pre-requisites:
1. A basic PANS-OPS training course with a CASA approved training provider (which I am not by the way. They ask for too much money to get the courses assessed). Currently, I know that Singapore Aviation Academy is on the list of approved institutions.

2. An advanced training course, as far as I know CASA, also at an approved institution.

3. A minimum of 2 years current procedure design experience.

However, if you cope with these requirements, or know somebody who does, please contact Tim Goodwin at Rehbein AOS:

Tim Goodwin
Aviation Consultant
REHBEIN AOS
AIRPORT CONSULTING
Level 3, CBD House, 120 Wickham Street
Fortitude Valley (PO Box 112) QLD 4006
P (07) 3250 9000 F (07) 3250 9001
Email: tim.g@lar.net.au
Internet: www.lar.net.au

First ever "online" Procedure Designer certified

Quite a historical moment that is! Today, Evan Colpitts from Hart Aviation in Vancouver received his certificate of completion for the basic PANS-OPS procedure design training. Evan is the first procedure designer in the world, who has done his training via an online course. Currently, the ANI online course consists of seven students, actually now six, as Evan has completed his training. I am really pleased to see that the online concept works and that this learning method provides an alternative to the classroom courses.

ARINC 424 - course dinner

We had our dinner at the restaurant benacus in Interlaken, where chef René Schudel surprises his guests with his creativity every night with a different menu. It was a great evening with a great group.

Flagship location closes for renovation

One of our locations for short courses, the Hirschen in Gunten/Switzerland, will close for renovation in October this year. That is, the ARINC 424 course starting Monday September 24 will be the last course in the old Hirschen. The Hotel will reopen in Spring 2009. In the meantime I will have to look for a different location for the short courses, I keep you posted on the outcome but it will be a place that matches the Gunten location as far as that's possible.

PANS-OPS in Pezinok 2008

After the successful PANS-OPS course in Pezinok/Slovakia this year, we decided to repeat the operation in 2008. Here are the dates: Part 1 May 5-23, 2008. Part 2 July 14-August 1, 2008. Make sure bookings are made early, the 2007 course sold out in 2 weeks. We already have 2 reservations and we can take a maximum of 15. The course can also be attended as a modular refresher course. For example:
Conventional Navigation (whole part1)
Conventional Navigation Theory only (first two weeks of part 1)
Conventional Navigation Practical only (third week of part 1)
ILS (first week of part 2)
RNAV (last two weeks of part 2)
RNAV Theory only (second week of part 2)
RNAV Practical only (last week of part 2)

First ever "online" Procedure Designer doing practical

The first Procedure Designer who has done the ANI online course is currently doing his 2 week practical phase under my supervision here in Switzerland. I have to say: I like what I see. That can mean two things, 1. Evan Colpitts, the Canadian Student is a natural talent and/or 2. the online course is good stuff. Fact is: I don't see any difference in the way Evan attacks the procedure design problems I give him from the way the classroom students would. So, by Friday September 28 I am sure we see the first Procedure Designer in the world who will get a course certificate based on a distance learning program. I like that thought.

Report from the Oslo Course

We also completed a basic PANS-OPS course in Oslo with participants from Avinor and the Irish Aviation Authority. Here I was confirmed in my view that the break between part 1 and 2 should be somewhere between 4 to 8 weeks. The break for the Pezinok course was 7 weeks and the performance of the students in part 2 was great. In Oslo the break was 15 weeks which resulted in a less efficient part 2, because some of the fundamentals from part 1 were not remembered. Should we have to have breaks of such length in the future I will make sure there is a mitigation, such as a madatory revision with a test at the end or something.

Report on the Pezinok course

Hi All,

Sorry, I was very quiet for a while. That was due to two reasons: 1. I was busy lecturing 2. I had to focus on my health. So here are some news. I have completed two basic PANS-OPS courses this spring/summer. One of the courses was held in Pezinok/Slovak Republic on the premises of the procedure design company ASAP s.r.o We had 14 people there and we inaugurated the newly built training premises. Students came from the UK CAA, PANSA Poland, LPS Slovakia, CAA Bosnia-Herzegowina, Air Slovakia, CAA Taiwan, CAA Czech Republic, Romanian Air Force and ASAP themselves. The level the students reached at the end of the course was amazing, also we were quite happy with the environment. Pezinok is a small town close to Bratislava (and Vienna for that matter) and just big enough to have all necessary facilities but not so large that the students disappear in all directions after class. The chemistry in the course was quite good as the students did stuff together in their free time. And the Barbecues at Ian's house will be long remembered of course ;-) See above Ian Whitworth preparing his garden for the barbecue :-D

New APV/GBAS course

Hi All,

I am sorry I was quit for so long but I was teching a PANS-OPS course and also creating lectures for the online course.
This is to announce that we have now established the training program for what we call "Procedure Design Level 3" (Level 1 is conventional procedures, Level 2 is ILS and RNAV basic procedures) is now finished.
What falls under Level 3 are the courses "APV/GBAS" (1 week), PBN (Performance Based Navigation) including RNP AR (2 weeks).

Currently I have now scheduled the APV course: It will take place June 30 till July 4 2008 in Switzerland. The location will be the University of Bern or alternatively a hotel in the vicinity of my home. It will be decided a bit later. I already have registrations for the course, so be aware that it might sell out relatively quickly.

Tuition fee for the course is 1100€.

Mobile phone mania

What's the deal with thise mobile phones? Don't get me wrong, I think mobile phones are a good invention and I had one already in times when people were giving me puzzled looks when using it and would make stupid remarks about me and how important I must feel with it. Strangely enough the same people now make last second phonecalls even after boarding an aircraft ("yeah, I am now in the airplane, aahm, can you tell Mark that I shall call him as soon as I arrive?"). After landing the same people can't wait to switch their mobiles on again and get on the phone ("yeah, hi, I just landed. Did you tell Mark, I'd call as soon as I land?").
I look at young people in the cafes, they sit together and don't talk, but look at their phones every minute to see if they received a message....
I see a guy sitting with an incredibly looking woman having a drink and this idiot knows nothing better than speaking 15 minutes on the phone with somebody and let her sit there and feel stupid.
People sit down for breakfast in a hotel and then bring the phone out and make a call. Funny, I was brought up telling people I (or my dad) would call back, as we are in the middle of Lunch or dinner. Let alone even think about MAKING a call myself...
Does the mobile phone make people forget their education, their sense for politeness vs. rudeness? In many cases, it certainly seems so...

The natural flow

I believe in certain "laws of the universe". They are mainly based on Physics or Quantum Physics. A simple example: Action = Reaction. If we look at the nature, we find answers to all the questions we might have. Nature is full of metaphors we can use in our own life. One point, where the human being tries to cheat the physical laws all the time is growth. People start their own companies, haven't got the first deal done yet, don't know if they EVER get a deal, but already think about employing people.
Another perfect example for this is Musicstar or Amercan Idol or whatever it might be called. Young, more or less talented people are taken through a casting process and finally the winner gets a record deal, live gigs in large halls in front of large audiences etc. In other words, on their way to climb a ladder they leave about 20 steps out. The problem is: when they need to step back, the 20 steps won't be there either, therefore they fall.
I observe such behaviour almost on a daily basis. Young people do not go the normal way when buying their first car. They don't go for some old and cheap car they can pay cash, no, they go for the BMW M3 convertable with leather seats straight away. Of course they cannot afford it, they will find out the hard way after a while.
Or people who haven't quite secured and consolidated their own knowledge yet believe, it's their destiny to stand in front of an audience and teach or give speeches. It's like swimming with sharks: if you know what you are doing, you won't be hurt. If you are not quite sure, it's dangerous.
A baby grows at a natural pace. It is never stressed about the time it takes. The baby will simply take in all the impressions it can and will process them. A baby NEVER thinks it needs to be able to walk after three months. It will start walking when it feels that the time is right for it.

Harmony

Everybody speaks of "Harmony": A harmonic marriage, harmonic furniture, harmony in the team (e.g. football) is great, the movement of your hands were not quite harmonic, the courses in that menu were un-harmonic (that's the worst one!) etc.
Once more people speak about something the haven't got a clue. The definition of harmony: a simultaneous sound of two or more notes. That's it. That sound can be consonant or dissonant. Consonance and dissonance are primarily a matter of listening habits and therefore a matter of taste. As you might know, I have a degree in music and for me too much consonance is simply boring. But music generally cannot be without dissonance, it's IMPOSSIBLE. Some styles have more some less. But what makes the music interesting is the change between tension (dissonance) and release (consonance). But that's all HARMONIC. Okay? Generally the difference between a consonant sound and a dissonant sound can be explained by physics (acousics). It has to do with the wavelength ratio.
So back to this "harmonic marriage" crap: A marriage is always (always!) harmonic! As a harmony is the simultaneous sound of two or more notes. A marriage can be dissonant (the couple argueing) or consonant (the couple... well... you imagine). Could it be that the key to a good marriage is to accept that the interaction of tension and release eventually makes it interesting?

Now another one is: "the harmony in the team is great". A harmony cannot be great. A harmony is. It's the simultaneous sound of two or more notes. Therefore the harmony in a team can simply be consonant or dissonant. Even worse ist this "harmonic movement"-crap. A movement can never (NEVER!) be harmonic. As it has nothing to do with the simultaneous sound of two or more notes. And the worst one: A menu cannot be un-harmonic. Unless you just serve one item wihout anything, not even herbs or salt. "Un-harmony" or "Disharmony" do not exist. As soon as we are talking about two menu items, they will always be harmonic. They can be heavily dissonant such as a hamburger with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and roasted garlic.

Got it?

New PANS-OPS structure -first feedback

After having taught the PANS-OPS course with the new fifth edition three times now, I have to say I am not 100% happy with the rewrite. Apart from the fact that some information got corrupted and is still not corrected, the fact that drawings and tables are at the end of each chapter makes the teaching job extremely difficult. It is annoying to flip the pages all the time, to show the diagram that matches the text (and for most non-english speakers makes it understandable).
I will try and do something about this in the IFPP. Please issue complaints as well (e.g as a comment in this blog). Then I have a strong case and will write a working paper for the next meeting of the IFPP.

OCP changes name to IFPP

The ICAO Obstacle Clearance Panel (OCP) has now changed its name to the ICAO "Instrument Flight Procedures Panel" IFPP. This name chane was approved by the Air Navigation Commission at ICAO, since the OCP was of the view that the old name no longer reflects the work the panel is doing accurately. This approval of the name change also indicates that the IFPP is heading in the right direction and the work done by the panel is appreciated by the ANC.
Okay, it will take me a while not say "I have an OCP meeting", but I am sure I'll get there :-)

The Panda bear

A Panda bear enters a restaurant and sits down on the table. After having a meal, he pulls a gun shoots around a couple of times then leaves the restaurant. Two guys sitting in the restaurant look at each other in astonishment. One guy says: "Did you see this?? What the hack was that??" The other guy says: "Well, actually that was nothing abnormal to be honest". "What??!!", shouts the first guy. The second guy replies: "Well, yes if you look in the encyclopedia and look under "Panda Bear" ist actually says *The Panda Bear eats shoots and leaves*..."

A historical day for IFP design training

Today the first ever online PANS-OPS course worldwide started. We have a nice class of 5 people that will be joined by a sixth person after part 1. I am very exited about this, because it allows me to pack much more information into the course than in the classroom one. It will be very interesting to see how the students perform in the practical phases. I am sure, they will do fine.
I'll keep you posted!
For those who are interested, you can still enter this class for some weeks from now. I also plan to run another online class in the second half of the year, as the classroom courses at ANI are fully booked for the whole year.

2 more places available

Dear All,

We have two more places for the PANS-OPS basic course in Oslo/Norway this year. The dates are: part 1 April 16 - May 4, part 2 August 20-September 7. THAT'S IT FOR 2007! All other basic courses in 2007 are full. If anybody wants to do a basic course, that would either be an online course or it's in 2008. Or at a different institute, but you wouldn' SERIOUSLY consider that, would you? ;-)

Software freaks, eat this:

There are 10 ways to understand binary: Either you do, or you don't.

Geodesy Course a success

We have finished the Geodesy Course for Flight Procedure Experts and thanks to the instructors Prof. Dr. alain Geiger and Dr. Maurizio Scaramuzza it was a great success. The picture shows Alain and some of the class on the roof of ETH Zürich performing some practical exercises with theodolites and other equipment. This 3-day course in Geodesy and survey is tailored to the needs of aviation specialists and is a great help for people who have to handle data, maps, obstacles, navaids, digital terrain models all referenced to different coordinate systems. They will learn how to transform cordinates from local systems to WGS84 and so on. Together with the training program offered by WX GeoSystems, this is the only one of its kind as far as I know.

Bratislava Course is full

Hi All,
The PANS-OPS course in Bratislava/Slovakia is full now. For basic courses in the whole 2007 I can only offer 2 places in Oslo (April and August), probably 2 places in Fukuoka (November and December), or of course the online course. This should tell you that if you see that basic PANS-OPS training is needed in your organisation and you want to do it with ANI, approach me now for 2008. I will start scheduling for 2008 in April.

A pioneering term begins

Hi All,
I am still handicapped and recovering from surgery. But nevertheless I have some great things to reveal for the new semester. As the first training provider ever worldwide, the ANI will run a PANS-OPS basic course online. Starting date is February 26. The whole theory will be delivered through my online learning platform (amazed? should've bought a Mac!) and it will be followed by the known practical projects, similar to the ones at the end of the two parts of the classroom PANS-OPS courses. I believe it is a great alternative for those who can not bare so much time away from their work. Furthermore the students can learn at their own pace and therefore the ICAO concept of competency based training can be applied in its pure form.
Okay folks, can't sit on that chair for too long. More to come soon!