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 :-)