Fishy anonymity

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

PANS-OPS course continues

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

Nightmare

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

ARINC 424 course in June

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

Spammers on the Forum

Dear all,

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

RNAV, AMDT 2 etc.

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

Additional domain

Hi All,

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

Joke: Three guys at a job interview

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

Stop the unnecessary printing!

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

You pay for what you get

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

Language follies

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

Online Campus

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

So long

New course venue in Switzerland

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

Quality Assurance in Procedure Design

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

PANS-OPS everywhere :-)

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

APV Baro-VNAV launching customer

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

Planning ahead

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

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

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

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

So long!

Low cost carrier era is over

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

2009 is around the corner

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

Expensive fuel -> expensive flights, so what?

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