You pay for what you get

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

Language follies

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

Online Campus

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

So long

New course venue in Switzerland

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

Quality Assurance in Procedure Design

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

PANS-OPS everywhere :-)

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

APV Baro-VNAV launching customer

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

Planning ahead

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

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

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

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

So long!

Low cost carrier era is over

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

2009 is around the corner

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

Expensive fuel -> expensive flights, so what?

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

Communication between guest and room service clerk

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

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

Trigonometry

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

Modern Airliners

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

And who pays??!!

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

Can you send me the detailed syllabus?

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

Euro 08 hype

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

New ANI Forum

Hi All,

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

Good luck and have fun!

Telemarketer Nightmare

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

PBN implementation

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