New PANS-OPS structure -first feedback

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

OCP changes name to IFPP

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

The Panda bear

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

A historical day for IFP design training

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

2 more places available

Dear All,

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

Software freaks, eat this:

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

Geodesy Course a success

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

Bratislava Course is full

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

A pioneering term begins

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

Everything slow

I just got home after having spent one week at hospital to operate an injury at my hip joint. Everything is okay so far, only I am limited a bit in terms of flexibility. I am not alllowed to do any rotating or abduction movements with my left leg and the angle between upper body and leg cannot be less than 110°. Which gives a whole new perspective to life, believe me. It means I cannot sit down on a normal chair, because that would be an angle of 90°. Same applies for certain bathroom activities...
I cannot tie any shoes, I cannot put on socks without a special tool. If I drop something on the floor I need another special tool to pick it up. Going to bed is an athletic adventure and so is coming out of the bed.
In other words, my life goes by in slow motion and right now in that hectic time before christmas it shows me how crazy people are. When I go out for a (slow) walk I see the people stressed, running around etc. And somehow it feels like the total opposite of the feeling that the pre-christmas time radiates with all those nice decorations and lights.
My advice to all: slow down and relax a bit. Even if if you can go to and out of bed normally.

Mission completed again

Hi All,
I sit here in Fukuoka in my hotel room, after having finished a long course, a PANS-OPS basic. You know, they are 2 times 3 weeks with a break in between. This time the break was planned around an OCP meeting in Singapore, so all in all I have been on the road in Asia for two months now. It is always the same after a long course/trip like that: a weird mix of feelings. On one side I am happy the course is done and I could help a big class to achieve their training objectives. I am also glad to see my people at home again after a while, I look forward to sleeping in my own bed and I look very much forward to the Christmas holiday, as it has been a very good, but very busy year and I need a break.
On the other hand I also feel sad to leave what has become a part of my life during the last two months: my hottel room, the students, the supermaket next door, the old train that takes us into Fukuoka City, the female voice that announces the stations (about 20 seconds in Japanese, 3 seconds in English... anybody seen "Lost in translation?").
So it's always a farewell to something that became part of the life for a while. Ok, you could say I am used to it, as I constantly do this. I am used to it and I know what's gonna happen at the end of such a course. Nevertheless, the feeling comes and is quite strange. I think it makes me realize everytime that life means motion, moving on, and that we cannot hold on to the past.

ARINC 424 - shift of dates

Sorry pals,

Due to an OCP commitment we have to shift the ARINC 424 date (Gunten/Switzerland with Jim Terpstra) back one week.
The new dates are now June 25 - 29, 2007.
Jim and me are sorry if that creates any inconvenience.

Get ready for the new PANS-OPS

Folks,
This is to remind you that in a week from now - on November 23 to be exact - the new PANS-OPS, the fifth edition will become effective. It will not be available in print, as there is already an amendment in the pipeline from OCP/14, which will be effective in March 2007.
However, the so called "advanced copy" that was circulated a year ago carries some editorial errors. Not all of them were corrected yet, they will be in the Spring release.
If you have problems with the new structure, maybe it would be time for a recurrent/refresher course ;-)

Top Cities

As somebody travelling a lot I always get asked about favourite places, favourite cities. So here is my top ten lists of cities all over the world.

1. Singapore
2. London
3. Seattle
4. Fort Lauderdale
5. Hong Kong
6. Tokyo
7. Denver
8. Palma
9. Kopenhagen
10. Bangkok

There are various reasons why the list is as it is, but I won't give them here. I might also publish my list of disliked places (Paris watch it!) relatively soon. :-)

Various news

While we are in the last stage of part 1 of a basic PANS-OPS course here at the ANI/ATMC facility in Fukuoka/Japan, we are working hard on the academic year 2007. The new concept for the initial training is starting to look good. As mentioned earlier, more e-learning will be required, also prior to part 1. That will free some time we will use for practical exercises with a ficticious simplified airport (just a couple of obstacles and a hill. These exercises will be used to put the theory into a practical context without any real world complexity. Then the practical phase will be as always, a real world environment, working with real maps.
Apart from the new Geodesy courses with Dr. Maurizio Scaramuzza and Dr. Alain Geiger. There are a few other new courses in the Pipeline for the second half of the year. One will be the "Procedure Design Level 3" which consists of Performance Based Navigation and APV (Baro-VNAV and SBAS VNAV). I will have to set the length, I am currently considering 2 weeks but it might as well be 3. Another course will be the Holding and Reversals Master Class. We are discussing whether we want to do this as a classroom course or online only. More on 2007 courses very soon. So long!

New Geo Lecturers appointed!

This is to inform you guys that I have made some change regarding the courses in Geodesy offered at ANI. I have appointed the two heavyweights Dr. Maurizio Scaramuzza and Prof. Dr. Alain Geiger as lecturers for the Geodesy course for procedure designers. The first course run by those two will take place February 14-16, 2007 at the ETH Zürich. We decided to bring the course length down to 3 days.
The Geodesy Skills and Knowledge are considered "ab initio level" and can therefore easily be attended by students who attend a PANS-OPS basic afterwards. I love the way things are evolving right now, this is certainly a new adventure which we will all appreciate.

Mission completed

Sorry, I have been quiet for a while. This was due to the fact that I was busy teaching part 2 of a basic PANS-OPS course, OCP meetings and the evaluation of the student performance in said course. Those students were the first ones to receive a full day of database coding with Christian during the RNAV phase. I am sure this is the way to go, although it does not replace the 5 day coding course that we provide (of course it doesn't...).
However, there will be another basic PANS-OPS course at the ANI facilities in Japan starting on October 16. This will be the last course following the 2006 training concept. The first basic PANS-OPS starting in February will kick off with the new training concept: A series of e-learning lessons prior to part 1 of the course including evaluation therof (mastery test). Some of those lessons will be ab-inition stuff, some will be PANS-OPS related. The e-learning pahase between part 1 and 2 will be extended and finally some of the material that was in part 2 will now be removed and packed in an other course that can be booked seperately as an add on. Whoever is writing to me to get info about that concept will receive detailed info.
In the mean time, have a good time!

New ILS/Basic course concept road tested

We just terminated the ILS part of a basic PANS-OPS class at the University of Bern. As you might know, the ANI basic PANS-OPS courses are split in part 1 and part 2, part 1 covers all basics, conventional NPA, holding and enroute. Part 2 covers ILS and RNAV/APV.
Together with Professor Dr. Todd Hubbard (see staff on the ANI website) I have implemented a new concept, that involves a series of e-learning lessons between part 1 and part 2 of the course, involving some in depth coverage about specific key topics for ILS and for RNAV.
The results from the ILS class is extremely promising. I plan to extend this concept even more and apply it to part 1 as well.

Gourmets flying high

It's bizarre: I know a few people who really appreciate good food in a nice environment, they are relatively good cooks themselves, would normally say that life is too short to eat crappy food and what have you. I have to admit, so far I totally agree. I am ready to pay a bit more to get a great experience. BUT I also admit that once in a while I like having a Whopper at Burger King or a Big Mac at McDonalds. I don't see anything wrong in that. I find it funny that said gourmets always make fun of me like "whoaa, I never thought you'd go to a Mac, you normally prefere to eat at nice places and you're also a good cook. I would NEVER even touch any of those Burgers! It's so crappy stuff!!" That's the kind of stuff I get to hear. Funny enough, those guys - once they sit in an airplane - eat every crap at every inappropriate time! I don't know what that is, it must be genetic. What's the deal with eating in an airplane anyway??! When I take my car from A to B I don't take in a hot meal on my hip after 10 minutes of drive either.
What kind of experience should it be to sit in an economy class seat much to close to my much too big neighbor and eat some crappy food?? I would never sit so close to even my girlfriend when eating! Okay in Business Class the quality is slightly better and at least there is enough distance to my neighbor. But: Who told the airlines it's a good idea to serve a hot meal at 1.00 am when leaving Bangkok for example? When I fly from Bangkok at this time at night I will a) have had dinner at one of the great restaurants in town and couldn't care less about airline food and b) I want to sleep and I don't appreciate the noise and the terrible smell of the food served (would you like beef, chicken or pasta?). Or flying from North America to Europe: Most flights leave in the evening, serving a dinner right after departure. Before arrival, they serve a breakfast. Great, let's do the math: The flight left Miami at 9.00 pm. at 10 pm. they serve dinner. let's say at midnight the service is more or less done when flying business class. That's after 3 hours of flight. about 90 minutes before arrival they serve breakfast. That's about 3 and a half hours later. Who on earth is EVER going to have breakfast at 3.30 am, when he finished dinner at midnight??

ARINC 424 in Gunten will be repeated in 2007

I have spoken to Jim Terpstra and we agreed to repeat the successful ARINC 424 Database coding and Charting course we provided this year in June in Gunten/Switzerland. We will set the exact dates in early November, but it will definitely be in late June 2007, it looks like June 18 - 22 right now. I am happy that we can repeat this, we had a great time. The weather was nice, we took the opportunity to watch some world cup matches and we ate ourselves through Freddy's menu at the beach bar next door at lunch time :-) So if you would like to participate, you can tell me already now, I'll reserve a place for you.
There are some entries in this Blog that I made during the course and I think there are also some comments from participants.