ANI Harder Challenge update

After 7 years we can announce that the record established by Andreas Edvardsen has finally been broken. Toraf Stubbe from airsight GmbH in Berlin established a new best of 40' 30". Two weeks before Johan Nordlund from Swedish Air Ambulance entered top three with 45' 59". He is no longer top 3 obviously...

Together with Toralf we have two more guys who have cracked the one hour limit: Kuba Dziumak from PANSA with 52' 55' and Miklos Altoray from Hungarocontrol with 59' 36". Good stuff guys and as always it shows that ANI course participants are not only clever but also fit :-)

ARINC 424 with Jim Terpstra - last opportunity

One month to go until we start the ARINC 424 navigation database course with Jim Terpstra as an instructor (May 23-29). This is the last chance to register for this course. If you want to understand PBN as a concept you also need to understand databases and avionics behaviour. The chances to learn directly from Mr. Database become rarer now. Here is one, don' miss it.

ANI Harder Challenge update

Dear ANI Students and Friends,

The winter will soon be over, the course semester has started and the first people are mentally getting ready to tackle the challenge. This is a good moment to give you an update.
We had a very competitive year 2015. There were five competitors that finished in under an hour, which made me lose my number 3 spot in the all time ranking.
Best of the year 2015 is Dan Bensoussan from the Israel Air Force with atime of 44' 20". The all time record however still remains untouched and could be difficult to even come close. Andreas Melsom Edvardsen from Avinor in Oslo is still the all time number one with 42' 46". Dan's comment was: "I have no clue where on the track I could be even a minute faster!" :-D
Timings are published on the restricted area for students on the ANI website.

Two more Flight Procedure Designer positions in Sweden

One at the service provider LFV and one at the regulator Transportstyrelsen. Both of them are in Norrköping/Sweden.

Details for the LFV one:
https://candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationInit.aspx?cid=217&ProjectId=188316&DepartmentId=11045&MediaId=3568




Details for the regulator position:

The position is as “Senior Adviser Airspace”.

You will

·         take part in the strategic planning for the use of the Swedish Airspace

·         take part in the development of new rules

·         check and approve applications for airspace and flight procedure design

·         have contact with providers in ANS and airspace and procedure design, aircraft operators, authorities

You must

·         have good knowledge about airspace design and use, both military and civil

·         have at least five years experience within the area

·         have good knowledge in English, spoken and written

·         have good knowledge in Swedish, spoken and written , or the capability to learn Swedish quite fast

Further information is available through Head of the section for Air Navigation Services, Mrs Ann-Sofi Lorefält.

e-mail: Ann-sofi.Lorefalt@transportstyrelsen.se

Phone: +46 10 495 37 05

Training year 2015 completed

On Friday the 19th, we released participants from Germany, Hungary, South Africa, Crroation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, United Kingdom and Israel from the last PANS-OPS basic of the year. For the time being we are going on fesive hibernation. On January 5, Romano will start his job as Chief Designer with ANI. In the mean time, I'll be doing this:

Next advanced PBN fixed wing course

The advanced PBN fixed wing had to be re-scheduled. It now takes place May 23 to June 3, 2016.

Another Procedure Designer vacancy

Hi All,

In New Zealand we are again looking for an experienced designer to join our team in 2016. We have a lot of existing New Zealand and Pacific Island approaches to look after along with a world leading PBN implementation programme across the Pacific and growing international work. Airways have partnered with Group EAD to further expand our procedure design services.

If you are interested click on the link below or cut and paste if that doesn't work. http://groupead.com/working-with-us/car ... rtunities/

If you have any queries you are welcome to contact me at:

greg.perris@groupead.co.nz

Next AIS/MAP course is scheduled

We have scheduled the AIS/MAP course for 2016 as follows:

October 17-28, 2016
Venue: University of Zürich, Center for Continuing Education
http://www.zwb.uzh.ch/en.html

Instructor is as always for this course Aleksandar Pavlovic.

Important note to Flight Procedure Designers:

Don't (DO NOT!) design Helicopter PinS procedures without any training. This is too critical. PinS is not something you understand by just reading the criteria chapter, especially not if you never flew a helicopter yourself.

Flight Procedure Designer vacancy at skyguide Geneva

Dear all,
Here is an opportunity to apply for an IFP designer position at skyguide in Geneva/Switzerland. Details can be found here.

ANI launches some merchandise

Due to relatively frequent demand, we decided to launch a few merchandise articles. Right now we have softshell jackets (Russell), Fleece Jackets (Icewalker), T-Shirts and Victorinox Swiss Army Knives. Please note that the garments are high quality and made to order. The jackets have the ANI logo stitched (not printed) on the back and on the left breast. The T-Shirts are printed. Check the ANI Merchandise page for info.
We wear the stuff ourselves, so we thought maybe you like them too.

Procedure Designer position in Sweden

Dear All,

There is a job opening for a trained Flight Procedure Designer i Sweden. Details can be found here:  https://delta.hr-manager.net/ApplicationInit.aspx?cid=217&departmentId=11045&ProjectId=188316&MediaId=3567

The doubtful reasons of tenders/bids when there is a very limited number of service providers

Let's picture the following scenario: There are two supermarkets that carry the products you need. But you have a preference and you really want to buy from supermarket A. Now you go there and tell them "here is a list of products we need to buy. We need you to complete this paperwork, stating all the article prices in our local currency. You also must attach (as opposed to: please also attach) a copy of your trade certificate and a CV of your managing director as well as the lady on the cashier. We will then award the contract to you". Total nonsense you say? Fully agree, but this is really what we have to put up with sometimes. The excuse is usually that it is required by law to proceed like that. Fine, all that means is that the law is wrong and needs to be changed.
If you have two training organisations in the world (a third one being on hold due to temporary admin issues), offering exactly what you need and are required to book because of ICAO requirements, there is only ONE procedure to be followed: Ask if there are places available and if so, book by going through the admission process of the service provider. Period.

Hot news - New Chief Flight procedure Designer at the ANI

We are very happy to inform you that Romano Germann will start with the Air Navigation Institute as Chief Flight Procedure Designer beginning of 2016. Romano is a very experienced Design expert and has been part of skyguide's Flight Procedure Design team in Zürich for 15 years. He was instrumental in leading many projects in Swiss airspace.
He will be in charge of Flight Procedure Design Projects within ANI and will also be part of the instruction team for selected areas. Romano's native language is German, he is also fluent in English and French and can communicate in Mandarin on a basic level. The whole ANI team wishes Romano already now a very good start in the new position and is very excited to have him on board.

ARINC 424 module in FVP course - instructor change

This is to inform you that the ARINC 424 module of the Flight Validation Pilot Training Program held August 19-21, 2015 at the University of Zürich will be lectured by the one and only Jim Terpstra. If there is anybody out there who doesn't know Jim, go here.

ANI cooperates with the Stadthaus and TV-Chef René Schudel

I am very excited to start cooperating with René Schudel, award-winning Chef (Best of Swiss Gastro Award)  and known from a number of TV-Shows. The "Funky Kitchen Club" was shown for 5 seasons on Pro7 and his new show "Flavorites" is currently in the third season on Pro7. Furthermore René was an eventual member of the jury in the ZDF show "Küchenschacht" (Kitchen battle).
René runs the two restaurants Benacus and Stadthaus in Unterseen/Interlaken, both located next to each other.

The Stadthaus

The bottom line is that the ANI will start to run courses in the Stadthaus building (see above), where there is an excellent training infrastructure available, fitting perfectly the training needs we have. The very exciting thing is that we now can offer lunch and/or dinner options bookable together with the course. But let me first explain a bit more about the training venue itself:
Unterseen can be seen as the older and quieter part of the Interlaken area. Interlaken being a tourist destination can sometimes be a bit busy in its city center (to put it mildly…), where the watch and souvenir shops are located. Unterseen however is a soothing oasis of quiet. Once you cross the Aare river direction north, you will be able to tell that the buzz calms down and once you arrive on the square of the Stadthaus (Stadthausplatz) you believe yourself in a different city. Well, factually you are and it feels good in the warmer season to sit down on the patio of the Stadthaus and enjoy the in-house brewed beer called the "Stedtlibier". Or alternatively have a glass of wine on the patio of the Benacus, one of the top restaurants in the Interlaken area (as far as I am concerned, the best one). This is a perfect opportunity to wind down after a brain-racking day dealing with flight procedure design :-)

The Restaurant Benacus by night

There is a number of good hotels in the very vicinity, ranging from two-star to five-star locations, all not more than a 10 minute walk away, some way less than that. A list of hotels is communicated in our venue brochure that we send to course participants when the course takes place in the Stadthaus.
Of course, as usual in ANI courses there is a coffee machine in the course room and coffee and tea is permanently available. The cool thing is that for a change, course participants can also go downstairs to the Restaurant to have a quick drink if needed (for example after the reversal procedures theory…). The two Schudel Restaurants are widely known for their top quality food, prepared fresh with everything made in-house, even the bread. Eating out in Interlaken? This is as good as it gets - in a relaxed and casual atmosphere for a very fair price.

Now for the exciting part:
We shall offer three different options to include meals in course bookings.

Lunch package:
Lunch in the Stadthaus Monday to Friday for a flat rate of CHF 95 per course week. This includes a starter or salad, two options for a main course (one vegetarian), 3dl of mineral water and a coffee. This equals to CHF 19 per lunch and is yet to be found anywhere else in Switzerland at this price and quality.

Full board package:
This includes the above lunch package plus a dinner at EITHER the Benacus or the Stadthaus Monday to Thursday evening. We do not include Friday as some people do not stay in Interlaken over the weekend. The dinner will include a three-course meal with starter, main course and desert. Not included are drinks in the evening. The full board option is available at CHF 235 per week per person.

Dinner only package:
For those who only prefer a fruit or a sandwich at lunch but like a good dinner, the dinner option is available. Again, you can choose on a daily basis whether you eat at the Benacus or the Stadthaus and the flat rate includes a dinner from Monday to Thursday. The dinner will include a three-course meal with starter, main course and desert. Not included are drinks in the evening. This is available at CHF 140 per week per person.

If you have any dietary requirements or preferences, no problem, just let us know. The Benacus and Stadthaus teams will deal with it. I really look forward to this. The first course that will be held at the Stadthaus is the PANS-OPS basic course,  October 19 to November 6, and November 30 to December 18, 2015. I am fully aware that the above tease regarding having a drink on the patio will most likely not apply to this particular period :-)

Stadthaus Restaurant inside

Stadthaus shaded west patio

New Zealand recruits another Procedure Designer

New Zealand is looking for an experienced designer to join the team. They have a lot of existing New Zealand approaches to look after along with a world leading PBN implementation programme and growing international work.

https://airways.careercentre.net.nz/job/index If you have any queries you are welcome to contact me at:greg.perris@groupead.co.nz

Change taking place at the Singapore Aviation Academy

After a long time - if I am not totally wrong, 18 years - an icon in aviation steps down as a procedure design instructor at the Singapore Aviation Academy. The one and only Ralph Sexton is currently teaching his last course there. I remember him saying "this is my last one" for some years, now he is serious about it. I am sure Ralph is going to miss his Black Pepper Crab at the Eastcoast Seafood Center :-)
The new instructor as from next year on will be Rey Dove, who participated in the ICAO Instrument Flight Procedures Panel for the first time at the September meeting some weeks ago in Montreal. I am sure Rey will be a great replacement, he has a similar relaxed style as Ralph. However, Ralph's teaching experience is of course hard to match and he leaves big shoes to fill.

Flight Procedure Designer position in Sweden

There is a job opening for a trained flight procedure designer at LFV in Sweden. Details can be found here: http://delta.hr-manager.net/ApplicationInit.aspx?cid=217&departmentId=11045&ProjectId=184190&MediaId=3567

Advanced PBN course

Dear IFP people,

Note that there will be a substantial amendment to PANS-OPS vol. II applicable from November this year. The Baro-VNAV chapter is totally revised, criteria for RF leg protection also in the departure phase where the area splays will be provided amongst other.
Please note that most probably the last advanced PBN course covering the new material for this year will be
May 19 - 30 for fixed wing and
June 2 - 6 for Helicopter PinS

The next one after that will only be in 2015 as it looks like.

Another Procedure Design Vacancy in the UK

http://airportmasterplan.co.uk/blog/current-vacancies/vacancy-senior-instrument-flight-procedure-designer/

Experienced Designer position in New Zealand

In New Zealand we are looking for an experienced designer to join our team. We have a lot of existing New Zealand approaches to look after along with a world leading PBN implementation programme and growing international work. Airways are also partnering with Group EAD to further expand our procedure design services in the future. If you are interested click on the link below or cut and paste if that doesn't work.
https://airways.careercentre.net.nz/job/index
If you have any queries you are welcome to contact me at:
greg.perris@airways.co.nz

Regards,
Greg PerrisTeam Leader Aeronautical Design and Development

New Zealand seeks Flight Procedure Designer

There is a job vacancy in Wellington/New Zealand as a Flight procedure designer at the Airways Corporation. A highly competent team and a nice country waits for your choice to give it a try.
Check their website http://www.airways.co.nz for details.
Applications must be sent until April 21, 2013.

Fancy working in Australia?

Airservices Australia announces two vacancies:
1. The Chief Flight Procedure Designer
2. A Flight Procedure Designer
3. A trainee Flight Procedure Designer

Details can be checked in the Airservices website.

Please do not get irritated by the statement "ICAO accredited PANS-OPS course". This does not exist, there is no ICAO accreditation for training providers. I have informed Airservices about that.

ICAO OAS software issue

As you may or may not know, the OAS software (as well as the CRM software) are currently not supported, because the company that was maintaining it went bankrupt.
However, in PANS-OPS reference is still made to the software for ILS procedure design.
The current version is 3.3. For ILS, as far as I have seen, the software performs ok. For APV procedures not so much. We can ignore APV II as that concept does not exist anymore.
In APV I we have the following problems:

1. The C coefficient of the W' surface is wrong. It is calculated CW'=-50+RDH*tan(0.75VPA)/tanVPA. Whatever the VPA the result will always be the same at a given RDH. At an RDH of 15m this value is off by 1m.

2. As a result of the above the X coordinates of point C is also wrong. That coordinate is calculated X=|CW'|/AW', (C of W' as absolute value). The Y coordinate is also wrong of course. The Y of point C however needs to be calculated with the X surface coefficients. Y=(Z-C-AX)/B, where A, B, C are X surface coefficients and X is the X of point C that you calculated above.

Important note: Whoever doesn't get that math and is not familiar with the surface equation:a) leave the OAS surfaces alone!!!b) book the ILS Master Class or the advanced PBN course with us.

Then recalculate X/Y of point C as described above.

3. When the RDH is NOT 15m, there is a correction algorithm that moves all surfaces up and down by the delta of the RDH. That is the correct way for all surfaces except the W'. That one must be calculated in a different way:
AW'=tan(0.75VPA)
CW'=–50 + RDH tan(0.75θ)/tan(θ) for APV I

4. As a result of 3) above, the intersection of the W' and the W surface must be recalculated (point C""):

X=(CW-CW')/(AW'-AW).
Y=(Z-C-AX)/Y, where A,B,C are surface coefficients of the X surface, X is the X of point C"" as calculated just before.
Z=AX+C, where A,C are either the W or the W' surface coefficients.

Again: If you do not understand that easily, DO NOT TOUCH the OAS!

Course Dates for Statistics/Data Analysis

We have set the first course for January 30/31 2013.
Check the course details here. Early registration is required.

Geodesy Course dates published

The dates for the Geodesy course are now set to February 25/26 2013. It is right after part 1 of the PANS-OPS basic, so it could also be combined.
The Geodesy module is also a required module by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation to get an approval as Flight Validation Pilot within Switzerland.
Course Calendar

Some thoughts about Flight Procedure Design Training

There are some useful discussion platforms around that help the Flight Procedure community to exchange problems, ideas etc. The ANI operates one of these platforms. There are also others. One thing caught my attention and I decided to comment on it: There seem to be organizations, which believe that they can have Flight Procedure Designers perform their job without a formal training. They read through PANS-OPS, of course they don't get certain things, especially not the rationales behind the criteria and then think they can fill the gap posting questions on a forum.

States should be aware of the following: PANS documents are criteria and have a certain status for Contracting States. That means if a State does not comply with certain paragraphs in PANS, they do NOT have to notify ICAO (like necessary for non-compliance with Annexes) but they MUST publish it in their State AIP (Annex 15 requirement). There is a Quality Assurance chapter in PANS-OPS that says amongst other things:
Each State shall ensure that Designers achieve and maintain the required competency level though training and OJT. Training for Designers should at least include initial training and recurrent training at periodic intervals (you can check the exact text yourself). Initial training according to doc. 9906 is a basic PANS-OPS course.

So it follows that States that think they can save costs by not sending their staff to courses actually deviate from PANS-OPS. Therefore they should publish that in the State AIP. Imagine a statement in the GEN section of the AIP: "Deviations from PANS-OPS ICAO doc. 8168: Flight Procedure Designers not formally trained". I am sure, this would be much appreciated...

The bad news for such Organizations: We (ICAO IFPP) are now also establishing requirements at Annex level that will regulate how Flight Procedure Design Service and its oversight must be established. That is, if they continue to non-comply they even have to notify ICAO about it :-)

New Instructor CV added

As communicated, we have a new two-day course in Statistics and Data analysis. For this course I have hired Heinz Wipf as a lecturer. His CV is now available in the Training team section of the ANI website. Heinz is also one of the Project Managers for the PBN implementation in Switzerland. He is one of the guys who keeps the pace going, by pushing and playing the Rottweiler whenever needed :-)

ARINC 424 course date published

The next ARINC 424 course takes place April 15-19, 2013 in Switzerland. Instructor is Christian Freiesleben. This can also be used for Flight Validation Pilots to meet the Swiss Regulator's criteria for FVP certification.
Check www.ani.aero for other course dates.

Course update/Calendar update

The PANS-OPS basic course date for Winter/Spring 2013 has now been published.
For the advanced course(s) APV/RNP AR/Helicopter PinS we had to adopt the training program because the amount of criteria keeps increasing, so we need more time to cover the theory and also to consolidate with exercises. The changes are as follows:

1. Additional PBN Navigation Specifications according to doc. 9613.
2. Completely revised Baro-VNAV criteria (State Letter expected early 2013, applicability 2014).
3. Additional SBAS LP criteria (no vertical guidance).
4. Course length changed to 10 working days.
4. Helicopter PinS is a separate course now, however it will always be scheduled after the APV course in order to be able to attend a full advanced course in one go if necessary.
5. Additional criteria in the Helicopter course: PinS Approach with Manoeuvering VS, PinS Departure with Direct and Manoeuvering VS, PinS LPV.
6. Course length for the PinS course set to 5 working days.

In the future we will also need to cover LP/VNAV criteria when available.

I am waiting to schedule the following courses in the next couple of days:

ARINC 424
Geodesy
Statistics and Data analysis

Will keep you posted.

The course calendar can be found on the ANI website.

New: Statistics and Data analysis course

As mentioned in an earlier post, we have put a course for Statistics and Data analysis together. The outline and the content are now established, the course is published on the IFP and ATM master class page. There is a direct link from the www.ani.aero index page.
For this two-day course we offer an all-included package with food and one hotel night.

Dates are not published yet, we are in the process of setting them up. I will communicate it here when they are up in the calendar.

The new PBN manual again

To all guys who write to me because the have no access to the ICAO-Net: I cannot email you a copy (it is too big for most servers), nor can I provide a download link for obvious reasons... We do not have the time to operate a document service, sorry :-)

New PBN Manual is published as advance copy

It took a while... The updated PBN Manual with (amongst other) the new Navigation Specifications
RNP 2
RNP 0.3 (mainly used as enroute specifications for helicopter OPS)
A-RNP
has now been published by ICAO as advance copy on the ICAO NET.
I guess, this will greatly influence the future of PBN implementation.

New ANI course calendar application is online

I have now updated the calendar application on the ANI website. All (currently) scheduled courses are published through the application, including the PANS-OPS basic and PANS-OPS advanced courses for summer/autumn.

The dice have been cast - Course dates for the rest of the year

Here are the course dates for PANS-OPS basic and PANS-OPS advanced courses. The advanced course covers the APV-Baro VNAV, APV SBAS, RNP AR and Helicopter PinS criteria.

PANS-OPS basic part 1: August 20 - September 7
PANS-OPS basic part 2: October 22 - November 9
PANS-OPS advanced: November 12 - 21

Other courses like ARINC 424 etc. will follow.

PBN Symposium in Montreal October 16 to 19

Please note that ICAO holds a PBN Symposium the the headquarters in Montreal that is open for experts and industry. You can find more information on
http://www.icao.int/Meetings/PBN-Symposium/Pages/default.aspx

This is a symposium that can lead to an action plan that is the fed into the Air Navigation Conference held in November this year.
Probably a good place to see people one hasn't seen in a while :-)

Change of venue for AIS/MAP course

The AIS/MAP course held from April 23 till May 4, 2012 does now take place in Belgrade. Whoever is interested to participate should look at booking the Hotel Moskva near Belgrade's city center pedestrian zone. It's only a 10 minute walk from the course venue.

Changes in Flight Procedure Design

Once in a while I am asked whether it would be possible to only get trained in PBN/RNAV design and skip the conventional part of training. "We will never ever design conventional procedures" is the reason for that question. My answer is: no, not possible. Because all the basic concepts, turn protection, reaction time, fix tolerance area principles etc. are covered in the conventional part of a) the criteria and b) the course. PANS-OPS is structured in a way that the conventional part is the general criteria and everything else build onto that "as amplified or modified by the criteria in this chapter". So the bottom line is, the way it works now, one needs to learn the conventional basics as a foundation and then add the PBN competencies on top of that.

Now, when ICAO asked me the same question I thought that maybe it's time to at least think about it. My conclusion is: Well, it is of course possible to teach the basic concepts without "bundling" them with the conventional ground based concepts and then just build the PBN tuition on top of that. But: 1. As long as classes are a mix of students from different countries, we will always have the need for conventional procedures, even if it is just to maintain existing ones. So it would not be appropriate to say we do not cover conventional anymore. As long as there is no global policy that flight procedures are PBN only and anything is no longer supported or maintained, it will not be possible to just skip the conventional stuff.
The other question that I asked myself: Would we really gain that much time? I do not think so.

And the main question remains: Is it a good idea to get rid of the conventional training? Are pilots today just learning how to use a flight management computer and to load procedures from the database or are they still learning how to navigate with ground based navigation aids, interception procedures etc.? Does an engineering designer just learn how to use a CAD tool or does he develop some manual drafting skills?
My view for at least the next few years is: It is good for a flight procedure designer to learn where the criteria are coming from. Maybe one day it will be different. Maybe one day all VORs and NDBs will be gone and all we do is satellite navigation. This is the time where it won't make sense anymore to cover VOR no-FAF procedures etc. just like today it doesn't make much sense anymore to cover the DF chapter in classes.

What does the community out there think?

After the death of Steve Jobs

People who know me know: I am an Apple user. I know both worlds and I was always of the view that Apple is less time-intense regarding support etc. especially for small businesses. But that is a personal view based on some experience. No need to discuss that.
However, whenever there is an article about Apple and especially now after Steve Jobs' death I always read the comments from the readers of the online news platforms.

The anti-Apple community always tell something about Apple users being fanatic and would act as following a religion. It's funny, but my impression is that these anti-Apple guys are way more fanatic than the Apple users. Also I don't see too many Apple users commenting away on online platforms and bashing Microsoft and Bill Gates. But that's probably why their computers actually run and are not downloading Service Pack Nr. 247 (See, I am the exception to the rule above...).

One of the funniest recently was a guy stating that Apple was never innovative and would never be. If that is true I really wonder why all smartphones developed by Samsung etc. look like an iPhone clone...

I don't understand why people cannot simply accept that a guy like Steve Jobs is very rare and that his visions led to something that is definitely a unique achievement. I have greatest respect for such personalities and that actually also includes Bill Gates.

DEMETER users, check this out

For all Flight Procedure Design organisations using the DEMETER software to assess DME/DME update areas and coverage, please note that Eurocontrol holds a training session on October 11, 10.00 to 17.00 in conference room Sirius at the Eurocontrol headquarters in Brussels. I reckon this is open to ECAC Member States and free of charge for them (no guarantee though).

Important Info for Flight Procedure Designers

For those who work with the doc. 9905 RNP AR manual, please be aware that a corrigendum was published in April. That corrigendum addressed a few issues in the diagrams as well as typos in the text.
Those who have access to the ICAO Net will find the full document with included corrigendum there.

Furthermore there is an update to the PBN Manual coming out soon (soon in ICAO terms, okay?). There will be new Navigation Specifications:
RNP 2
Advanced RNP
RNP 0.3

The idea of the advanced RNP is to leave the RNP value open and specify that in the procedure. Advanced RNP will amongst other require the RF functionality.
RNP 0.3 will be for Helicopters and can also be used for the enroute phase for helicopters. That is today's status, I'll keep you posted if there are any news.

Dog phobia- go see a therapist

Here are the facts: Phobias are anxiety disorders. They are a medical condition and can be cured. Phobias are typically disproportional to the actual danger posed and can therefore be considered irrational. I know that getting rid of them is not as simple as "hey, no need to be afraid of that spider, it cannot harm you". If a statement like this was helpful, phobias would not be irrational.
Now as an outsider it is of course not understandable why somebody can pour hot wax on legs and other bodily areas, rip of body hair by their roots and still be afraid of a spider... But that is not the issue.
I see a lot of people that are afraid of dogs. Again, in principle I do not understand but I am aware that phobias exist. But what I do NOT understand is why people who say their hobby is hiking in the nature and who have a dog phobia at the same time do not go and see a therapist. How likely do those people think it is that when they go for their walks in the nature that they will NOT see a dog? Once, when we walked our dog in a forest along a river in the mountains, a lady approached and one could tell from the distance that she was afraid. Those people always act so they actually attract the dog's attention (like staring at the dog for example). Our Dog walked by, but quickly raised its nose to sniff the lady and then walked on. The lady said "always those dogs running freely in the forests!"
My answer to the lady: "What do you honestly think is more natural: A dog running freely in the forest, or a human being that has its trousers full because of an animal that weighs about a third to a fourth of a human being?
Going out, knowing that you will encounter something you are afraid of several times and not doing anything against it has the same logic to me as a surgeon with a blood or syringe phobia and rather trying to avoid the object than to cure the disorder.

iPhone and iPad store the actual position in a file?

I am overwhelmed! What news!
All those guys who criticize Apple now: Don't you have more important problems? Do you know that pretty much all the smartphones do that? What's the deal anyway? Somebody could eventually see where I was if he got hold of my phone or could access my computer? Wow, unbelievable! All that somebody can see in such a file is what most people know anyway: I get around quite a lot. What do you want to do with that information? Send me tailored advertising email? I have a rigorous filtering system you won't have any luck with that. Send me a list of great restaurants for the places I've been to? I'd appreciate, eventually I'll try one the next time I will be in that location. And I'll even let you know so you don't have to check the logfile...
People are a bit paranoid. They publish every fart they make on facebook but then they get worried about a phone logging positions. All that logfiles tell anybody by the way is that the PHONE was there. I do not see what that has to do with the person.

ICAO Technical Cooperation Programme - fancy 10 days in Grenada?

The ICAO TCB is looking for an expert to perform some duties/assessments/aeronautical studies on site in Grenada for 10 days plus 10 days at home. The work is mainly Annex 14 Obstacle Limitation Surfaces related.
Fully trained and experienced experts (as in: FULLY trained and EXPERIENCED!) could apply to join the Technical Cooperation Programme.

To all financial departments

Who of you financial guys did start the habit that when you receive an invoice and you make a bank transfer for it, you let the receiving party pay the bank transfer cost? Are you aware that this is not quite legal? When I invoice amount X, I want to receive amount X and not X minus transfer costs. It a) triggers administrative costs on our side and b) is simply not correct. Companies that have that practice probably rely on the fact that such missing amounts (in the area of 12 to 15 USD)  are too small to initiate an action on it. Imagine how much a large company can save with this method, which is factually illegal.

Actually I have this mentioned as part of the terms and conditions when somebody submits a registration form. Therefore such practice is actually a breach of contract. In the future I will expand this paragraph and mention that failure to transfer the invoiced amount will result in an additional invoice, covering the missing amount plus an administrative fee of CHF 100. Let's see if that does the job.

ICAO Technical Cooperation Programme - Procedure Designer required

Here is a request from the ICAO TCB. Anybody who is interested please let me know and I will forward your email to the TCB so they can contact you. Even if you are not particularly interested in the following assignment, you might be interested in other openings in the future. Procedure Designers are quite demanded at this time.
To receive the job description and salary information of this assignment, please email me.

******

We have the following urgent requirement within our Technical Co-operation Programme for a Flight Procedure Design Expert (OPAS) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for an initial duration of 12 months to commence as soon as possible.

The job description, salary information and other pertinent information are attached.

Kindly email to advise if you wish to be considered, amongst other candidates, for the above post with indication your earliest availability date and prospect of release from your Administration, if applicable.

******

This is the crap I have to deal with sometimes...

Today I received this great email sent from an address engrdonoffshores@yahoo.com:


*******
Hello, 

My name is Engr. Donald Clinton. I want to know if there is any availability for 2 guests who needs Flight Course services. They  are coming for training in your place. If there is availability,  kindly let me know about the dates and the quotes. 

They are looking forward to Arrive on 5th June 2011, get back to  me with an update on the list of the courses you offer, prices and duration for further clarifications. 

Engr. Donald Clinton
*********


My immediate reaction: You don't say, is that right?
So who are you working for? What country?
What do you mean by "guests"? I do not have any guests I just have paying students :-)
What do you mean by "Flight Course"?
No, they are not coming for training in my place, unless I say so and only if the meet ICAO pre-requisites :-)
Who arrives where on June 5? If somebody arrives here on June 5 make sure you tell them about Jungfraujoch and Piz Gloria, because that is all they will be doing, as I will be on holiday.


I did some inquiries on the net and that name was mentioned a couple of times in forums detecting scam. I don't quite get what the intentions are. Maybe something like: You pay us first so we send the candidates :-) Then you will get paid. Bad plan if the target has an IQ that is higher than the scammer's body height in cm...

Forum Spammers beaten

I do not quite understand the logic of those spamming idiots who let bots register themselves on various forums to post their crap. Nobody in a forum about flight procedure design will ever click on their ridiculous links or read their posts. The only slightly logical explanation is link popularity for their trash-sites.
As the captcha technique did not provide a hurdle high enough for those losers, I applied a very simple trick: On registration, the systems asks a few questions that only the target audience can answer. Good by you stupid spammers!

Flight Validation Course - day 5

Today we went out flying an LPV approach to Interlaken Hospital with an Agusta Westland DaVinci. The exercise was absolutely awesome, perfect conditions.

The full set of pictures of the flights can be seen on the ANI Facebook page.

Poverty in Switzerland?

In the last few weeks I keep reading about "poor people" in Switzerland, almost on a daily basis. If you want to hear my opinion, these articles are a slap in the face of people living in countries such as Laos, Myanmar etc. There is no such thing as "poverty" in Switzerland. If one has pure water, hot and cold and roof over the head, one belongs to the 10% privileged people in the world already. If you tell some farmer in Laos he can have a tap with water coming out day and night in mineral water quality and he can chose whether it's hot or cold he would do ANYTHING for it. Of course there are people on the lower end of the income scale in Switzerland and they face the issues like high health insurance fees, high rents and generally relatively high cost of living. But that is not poverty. If people continue to think that a 50 inch flatscreen, a surround system, a DVD recorder and a playstation are basic needs for manhood, well then of course they will have a problem. But I am kind of fed up to see people complain who have really not much to complain about. People should learn again to understand what is a basic need and what is luxury.

Training year 2010 completed

92 Students in different courses coming from 18 different countries (provided I haven't forgotten one...). I have visited 12 different countries, some of which 4 times (Japan) or 3 times (France). I have spent 18 weeks on the road for various things and it was the only year in the last 7 that I haven't been in Canada. The southernmost point I visited was Singapore, the northernmost was Amsterdam. I have spent about 6 full days on board of aircraft (not counting ground time...). Probably another couple of days hanging around at airports.
So this is my slightly different review of 2010. One question remains: Why doe the Germans not understand that Beat is a male name?
So my best wishes for the holiday season, don't eat to much :-)

Tuition fees now published in CHF

I am sorry but the unstable Euro forced me to finally change all the published course fees to Swiss Francs (CHF). There is a currency converter available on the website, so no hassle. You can convert right there to any currency you would like (even good old Pesetas...).
If anybody would like to get invoiced in Euro, or USD, that is not a problem. We will invoice the amount based on the exchange rate of the invoice date. Please note that any other currencies are NOT invoiced.

Practical Geomatics on May 17/18

This is to announce the course dates fro the course "Practical Geomatics" with Dr. Martin Rayson. The course will take place on May 17/18 in Interlaken Switzerland.

The course will endeavour to deliver the practical aspects of geomatics with respect to the treatment of geo-spatial aviation data. The industry is reliant upon the use of coordinate based data to ensure safety management of aircraft movement in and around airports / airspace. This has particular relevance to ICAO Annex 14, Annex 15 and AIXM. Ensuring that the geospatial data has the relevant integrity is of vital importance for locating terrain and obstacle data plus navigation aids and airport facilities.
This course will provide the attendees with a series of practical case studies that will introduce the fundamental principles of geodesy and cartography. Geo-spatial data can be obtained from numerous sources referenced to numerous coordinate reference systems. Achieving a final homogeneous dataset from the original data is of significant importance if the data is to provide the correct meaning to procedure designers and thus aircrew.


You can download a course brochure here.


Would be great to welcoming you in Interlaken

Amendments to PANS-OPS

Dear All,

You may or may not be aware that there is an amendment to PANS-OPS. You can get it here.
The folder contains Amendment 3 to volume 2 and Amendment 4 to volume 1.
For those who have seen the State Letter last year or have been in one of my Advanced Courses you will notice that surprisingly the Helicopter PinS Departures haven't made the amendment. I do not know why this was withheld but I will find out and let you know.

Questions and answers...

A man asking God: how long is a million years to you? God: a second. Man: how much is one million $ to you? God: a cent. Man: can I borrow a cent? God: yes, I'll be back in a second.

New Course - Practical Geomatics

Dr. Martin Rayson and Nils Lundström will join the ANI instructor team for 2011. We have established a new course, covering Geodetic issues associated with the handling of aeronautical data.

The course will last 2 days and will endeavour to deliver the practical aspects of geomatics with respect to the treatment of geo-spatial aviation data. The industry is reliant upon the use of coordinate based data to ensure safety management of aircraft movement in and around airports. This has particular relevance to ICAO Annex 14, Annex 15 and AIXM. Ensuring that the geospatial data has the relevant integrity is of vital importance for locating terrain and obstacle data plus navigation aids and airport facilities.

This course will provide the attendees with a series of practical case studies that will introduce the fundamental principles of geodesy and cartography. Geo-spatial data can be obtained from numerous sources referenced to numerous coordinate reference systems. Achieving a final homogeneous dataset from the original data is of significant importance if the data is to provide the correct meaning to procedure designers and thus aircrew.

Throughout the development of the three case studies the course will deliver the necessary geodetic and cartographic principles. This will include the definitions of the ellipsoid, units of measure, datums, datum transformations and coordinate reference systems. The cartographic principles will concentrate on the correct presentation of the material in map and chart form to ensure complete transparency of the data.

We are currently coordinating dates. Please check back for more information.

Enjoy!

Strange how often words are used we don't really know what they mean as they are subject to individual definition. Everybody tells me to "enjoy" this or the other (enjoy your meal, enjoy your day, enjoy the ride, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy). I have started to give a provocative answer and often say: "How is that done?"

"How is done what?" most people ask. How is "enjoying" done, I normally reply. Can you explain to me exactly how this famous "enjoying" works? Obviously nobody can give me a user's guide on how to enjoy. The same applies to more statements such as "being proud". How does "being proud" exactly work? Everybody can explain how to walk, how to swim, how to open a file on a computer etc. But people fail if they have to explain how to enjoy or how to be proud (or how to love...). Strange that we use words so much that we obviously can't explain...

My dad once said when we ate an ice cream (I tend to eat them quite fast): You don't enjoy it!

I said: "no? So how do I enjoy it then?". My dad said I would have to just suck off the top layer on the spoon, let it it melt in the mouth, then suck another layer off etc.

My answer: "If that is enjoying, I'd rather just eat it." 

The wise men of Gotham

Sometimes the Swiss legal system astonishes me: Yesterday the federal court (highest juridiction body of the country) decided that shops at gas stations are no longer allowed to sell certain groceries for 24 hours a day. This was to protect the staff so they don't have to work 24 hour shifts. The problem is that the gas stations are still allowed to sell gas 24 hours per day and to operate their Bistrot and Cafe corners. In other words they still sell sandwiches, bread, drinks and sweets. They are just not allowed to sell Spaghetti or Rice... So the staff will still have to work 24 hour shifts for the shops that stay open 24 hours a day. Makes a lot of sense, not so?

It's done

After some weeks of administrative work we have now achieved what is probably a milestone in ANI history. The company was operated since 1996 as what we call an "individual company". This is the legal form of a business and means amongst other that there is a single owner and he is 100% liable with his personal money.
As from now, the ANI operates as a Limited Company with a (small) board of directors and from a different head office:
Air Navigation Institute GmbH
Haldenstrasse 1
CH-6340 Baar
Switzerland

I am happy to present Erik Wirz as a new member of the board. He has a huge background as an senior executive. His track reccord includes 
positions like, Director for Compaq in Houston, vice President for CA in London/Barcelona among others.  He owns 5% of the ANI shares, I own the other 95%. I will act as the chairman of the board and obviously as the Master of Ceremony (a.k.a Managing Director).
For customers there is absolutely no change, everything remains the same. It's only an internal administrative change.
Recently I was often asked by customers for a company number or for a VAT number and could not provide one, as for individual companies registry with a number is not mandatory and training is not subject to VAT in Switzerland. Both issues are now no longer there. ANI training is still not subject to VAT but we have a VAT number.

Phone and Fax numbers in Baar can be found on the main ANI website. The old numbers are also valid as we still have the branch office in Interlaken.

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 :-)