Dates and Locations for Advanced and Heli PinS Courses 2018

Please note that in the first Semester of 2018 we offer two options for the Advanced PBN and the Heli PinS courses.

Location Peachtree City/Georgia USA (near Atlanta)
Advanced PBN April 23 - May 4, 2018
Heli PinS May 7 - 10, 2018

Location Unterseen/Switzerland (Interlaken)
Advanced PBN May 28 - June 8, 2018
Heli PinS June 11 - 14, 2018

The program in the Advanced PBN is:
Baro-VNAV, SBAS (APV-I, Cat I, LP), RNP AR, A-RNP use of RF legs (departure).

The program in the Heli PinS is:
PinS Approach LNAV
PinS Departure
PinS Approach LPV
All including AMDT 8 to PANS-OPS material

Squash Training Camps in Spain

As you have possibly noticed, the Air Navigation Institute has engaged in supporting the sport of Squash by supporting the National League A team of the Squash Rackets Club Bern and the Squash Club Bödeli-Wilderswil. Recently the ANI has also established a partnership with World Enjoyer, a company established by professional Squash Player and World Class Coach Tino Casas (ex PSA Nr. 119, National Coach of Spain). This company has specialized in providing Squash Camps mainly in Spain but also around Europe. So if you are a Squash player and would like to improve your game, I can highly recommend these camps. The locations where the camps are held also allow for a combination of sports and holidays.

The announced dates for  Spain camps the coming year are as below, any other camp options, go to the World Enjoyer Website.

Madrid (January 24-28, 2018).

If you want to enjoy the squash in a personalized squash camp in the capital of Spain, this one is a very advisable option in January. We organize some visits around the city, also gastronomic experience. We have a squash club with fantastic facilities and very good environment. 

Valencia (Option A: March 14-18, 2018 – Option B: March 16-18 2018).

Valencia has turned  into one of the most beautiful cities of Spain in the last years. 

It combines the concepts of modernity, culture and history. We offer a squash camp with 11 years of history, in a 4 stars hotel complex with squash courts. You will love it!  Many people repeat every year.

Barcelona (Option A: April 18-22, 2018 – Option B: April 20-22  2018).

We are very proud to announce that Barcelona will be one of our venues in 2018. We have chosen a squash club with one of the best locations in the city (Near Sea). We are going to organize a very personalized camp with tourist and gastronomic activities. We offer you two programs, one for the most demanding, and other one, for those who want to enjoy squash combining a few days of this magnificent city of the Mediterranean.

Lanzarote (June 4-8, 2018).

If you want to enjoy an amazing island, in the best sports resort of Europe, spectacular facilities, the Lanzarote Squash Camp is a great option. If in addition we add Borja Golán's presence (PSA Nr. 18), the combination is perfect. We organize a very complete camp, with visits and trips to the island, and gastronomic experience.  More than 200 squash players  have visited us already!

Palencia ( We organize 4 weeks in July).

We are going to celebrate our 15 anniversary. We have enjoyed the last years assistant coaches: Greg Gaultier, James Willstrop, Borja Golán, Cameron Pilley, Simon Parke … If you want to train hard one week in the month of July, this one is a great option. Great conviviality, international camp, we take care all the details. You cannot get lost this option! More of 1000 players of more than 40 countries already have done it, and repeat!

Job possibility in Jeddah/KSA

Sir Theo van de Ven has moved to another dimension

It is of course part of the game called "life" that we all get older and eventually die. Some of us leave bigger footsteps than others. One who has made an enormous impact was Theo and it was was a priviledge for me to know him and to be able to work with him for many years to pay back something to the industry that has made us what we are. Theo did an enormous amount of work for the international aviation community and I always admired his will to do something for the good of the community. Even if he experienced setbacks he would not be discouraged, always stay calm, friendly and focused and just continue the effort. It was always inspiring to work with him. A bit over two years ago he suffered from the loss of his loved wife and more or less at the same time received his own death penalty. Theo, I sincerely hope you did not have to suffer from pain in the end and you can continue your spiritual journey with your wife who you missed so much. Another icon in aviation has left the planet, good bye all the best for that last journey, my friend.

Senior IFP Designer saught in the UK

Cyrrus Ltd. is looking for an experienced designer. See the job description here:

Tentative ARINC 424 September 18-22 in Auckland/NZ

All,
This is to inform that we are planning to hold an ARINC 424 course in Auckland/NZ on the above dates. We are still in the planning phase but as it is only two months to go, we wanted to spread the word as soon as possible. Information about the course, fees etc. can be found on the ANI website.
Please signal interest to us as soon as possible, so we can dispatch the classroom accordingly. Thanks.

Procedure Design Expert vacancy in Norway

The Instrument Flight Procedure Design office in Avinor is currently looking for an experienced designer to fill a two-year vacancy at their HQ in Oslo, Norway.

The duration is initially set to two years to fill planned leaves within the section, but halfway through the contract a decision on whether the position will become permanent will be made. 

Avinor offers unique design scenarios in some of the most challenging airports in Europe. The Instrument Flight Procedure Design office has an international staff consisting of several nationalities, including Hungary, Spain, Poland and Norway. The vacancy is planned to begin on November 1st 2017 and will be available

on www.avinor.no shortly.

For any questions please contact morten.giswold@avinor.no

IFP Conference Lisbon was a success

This first event organized by ANI with the goal to have all relevant disciplines related to designing flight procedures in one room for a couple of days, allowing for sufficient time to discuss matters in a relaxed and informal environment was in my opinion a success. A lot of exchange of information took place, we learnt a lot and we had a good time. We shall repeat this on a regular basis as discussed in the Conference itself already.
Allow me a personal remark here: That some people who did NOT attend the Conference now get in touch with people who DID attend and ask them to share the presented material is a bit unabashed to put it mildly.
By no means we will disclose any material to anybody who was not actually present. It will be up to the presenter to decide if they want to share anything and if, we will make it available to the participants.

External announcement - FPDAM Course in Rome

We were asked by a customer to share the quoted info below:

***
The anticipated amount is EUR 9500 for max. of 6 designers out of which 4 places remain vacant. Duration is  weeks, location at IDS in Rome, expected starting date at the beginning of July, still negotiable though.
***

Duration I would assume 2 weeks? 3 weeks? When we have the info, we can provide it here. Please DO NOT contact the ANI with regard to that course, get in touch with Viktor directly. Thanks.

IFP Conference June 6-8 moved to bigger venue

As the IFP Conference in Lisbon June 6-8 already sold out the 40 seat auditorium, thanks to the flexibility of NavPortugal we can announce that we moved the event accross the road to Nav's main building to an 80-seat auditorium.
This is great news because we still have a number of interested people who would like to participate.
An update on confirmed speakers:
Nils Lundström of GeomaticSolutions, Rapporteur of the IFPP CRM Working Group will speak about the Collision Risk Model work that is going on and will explain a few important things regarding obstacle modelling and number of obstacles used in a CRM run. Then we have Martin Zillig, Lufthansa Systems and ANI ARINC 424 instructor, who will inform us about the choice of ARINC 424 leg types in a combined PBN/ILS environment. To follow this up, Patrice Rouquette, Avionics Engineer at Airbus will explain the aircraft systems behaviour in the same environment. Procedure Design related we have a couple of real-world examples shown from Romano Germann, ANI Services Chief Designer regarding a Flight Procedure in ectremely complex terrain, as well as an example of a PinS Helicopter project. Romon Solé, IFP Designer at Pildo Labs will present another PinS example in complex terrain. Finally Frank Lumnitzer, Captain at Condor Airlines will present operational issues from the cockpit perspective in a PBN environment.

We still have a couple of slots to be allocated. We certainly want to have a speach about practical PBN implementation, as that is one of the burning topics today. Personally I just wanted to moderate the event but depending on what will be going on at the IFPP meeting in two weeks, I might be doing a briefing as well. All in all I want this to be an exchange of ideas for people in the procedure design domain and everybody should leave Lisbon satisfied and with the wish to have such an event on a regular basis.
Updated info file here.

New: Flight Validation Practical Module

As far as I am concerned this is a milestone achievement. We always thought that the Flight Validation Pilot Course could do with some kind of practical module. ANI Services Chief Designer Romano Germann delivered the first such practical in the helicopter simulator in December in Zürich. The feedback was excellent.
Now we are able to offer the same for fixed wing pilots. The ANI established a cooperation with Lufthansa and appointed the four instructors Josef Anschau, Pascal Wegmann, Emre Gümüs and Pieter-Bas Oortman. They teach the new 4-day Flight Validation Practical Module that will be held September 4-8 (Monday afternoon to Friday midday) in the Lufthansa Simulator Center at Frankfurt Airport. It is an optional module but highly recommended. The rundown of the course will be that participants will get a flight procedure report to start with, which they have to work through and do the analysis of the impact on Flight OPS (the so called pre-flight validation). Then they will establish a plan how to perform the flight validation, specific issues to check etc. on the third day of the course the participants will fly the procedure in a simulator. We cannot guarantee which one, it could be anyone in the Airbus 3xx family including the Airbus 380. At the end, a validation report is produced. There will also be information on recording and post-treatment of recorded data.
I strongly believe that this was the missing jigsaw in an already good training program and will help that future Flight Validation Pilots come out of the course more confident and up to speed with what will be required from them.
Expensive you think? Maybe that is the best part: we are able to offer that module for CHF 3000 per participant. Again, we are talking a full shebang airline simulator we will be using for this.

There will be another course held at the same location aimed to help Flight Procedure Designers to understand Flight OPS. It will also include simulator time, but let me announce that separately when we agreed on the dates for that one.

IFP Conference Lisbon, June 6-8 2017 - Registration open!

Dear All,

As previously announced the above event will be organized by us and we open the registration for the event now. Again, this is not a commercial operation, the participation fee is charged for the organization and the overhead cost. The participation fee is 300€ per participant for the event as a whole or partly. Please note that we only have 40 seats available, the conference is likely to sell out quickly. You can download a brochure and a registration form.

As you can see in the info brochure, we also have reserved two speaking slots of 20 minutes for participants. People who think that they have an interesting issue/topic to share and discuss with the community can ask us for the slot. We will decide based on our own absolutely biased and non-neutral judgement.

Potential presenters please note the following:
You MUST go through the presentation technique lecture of ANI first.
The slot of 20 minutes MUST not be stretched. If you go too long, we will cut you off. As a rule of thumb you can count 7 to maximum 10 slides if you use presentation software.
DON'T EVEN THINK about using bullet lists or more than 20 words per slide. If the presentation means anything without you speaking, it is not a good presentation. You are the show, not the slides.

We will capture hot topics in the conference proceedings and make sure they get fed into the correct channels (ICAO, Eurocontrol, EASA etc.) as appropriate.

International IFP Conference Lisbon, June 6-8, 2017

Dear All,

The ANI organizes a small conference for Flight Procedure Design to allow some exchange of ideas, discussions. This will be held in Lisbon in the Training Center of Nav Portugal near the Airport. It is not meant to be a commercial operation for us, we will however charge a participation fee to cover the overhead for the organization of the event. No worries, it will not be high and we shall communicate it as soon as we open the registration.
Important: It is not a large event, we have 40 seats, so early booking will be crucial. First come, first served. Also we deliberately did not shop for any sponsorship.

Those who know me will be aware that I am not a big fan of "death by Powerpoint". So I will make sure the speakers on stage will be people who have understood my lecture "presentation technique", which is avalable for free on the ANI website.

I foresee the speaking slots to be 20 minutes long and we will make sure NOBODY tries to put in like 90 slides in that period (20 minutes allows for 7 to 10 slides for someone who has understood didactics...). Then we will have a moderated discussion period about the topic of equal length. At such events often I see too much time allocated for some speaker and not enough to discuss.

Good. Reserve the dates already if you with to participate, I will work on the program and annonce as soon as registration will open.

ARINC 424 Spring 2017

I am approached by a number of people regarding the next ARINC 424. Here is the plan: Tentative dates at the moment are May 8-12. This is immediately after the advanced PBN fixed wing course and in parallel with the Heli PinS course. This allows people interested in the advanced PBN and the ARINC to do both with one trip. The folks joining for the Heli PinS will be able to enjoy some joint sessions with the ARINC 424 class.
I am currently coordinating this with the instructors. Likely, Jim Terpstra will be lecturing the ARINC 424. I keep you posted.

ANI Services GmbH - Procedure Design Consultancy

Due to the growing demand for flight procedures worldwide, mainly in the PBN domain, but also in Helicopter operations, the Air Navigation Institute founded a subsidiary company, the ANI Services at the end of 2015. As Chief Flight Procedure Designer, one of the most competent and experienced Flight Procedure Designers in Europe could be hired. In the first year of operation, the company already became very busy, leading a large project for PinS procedures at 14 locations and having designed the procedures and assisted the project management for Samedan airport, where the goal is to fly the new approach and departure procedures temporarily at the alpine ski world championships in February 2017.
The workload became so large that we will have another experienced Flight Procedure Designer starting on January 1 2017 with the team. In that light we also decided that a dedicated website for the subsidiary company should be launched. Here it is. It is quite rudimentary at this time and we have some added value planned for the near future. Stuff that is valuable and can be downloaded for free. Important is, that stakeholders are aware that ANI Services can offer such consultancy services worldwide. Due to regulatory issues in some countries this is only possible as a sub-contractor of course.

ANI Harder Challenge update

After 7 years we can announce that the record established by Andreas Edvardsen has finally been broken. Toralf 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 :-)

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...