A job ad that is important for us - read on

The Federal Office of Civil Aviation in Switzerland announces the vacancy of a position that is quite important for ANI or maybe moreso for the subsidiary ANI Services. Because we will have to deal with this very person a lot. Please find the link to the job ad hereafter. The ad is available in German, French and Italian, three of the four official languages of Switzerland. If you do not master two of the three languages plus English, please do not even consider sending your application. If you fulfill the language requirements you are applying for a regulator job in Flight Procedure Design Oversight in an interesting environment with your office either in Bern or Zürich.

In Memoriam Jerry Robinson

Another Icon in the aviation industry has sadly left us. Jerry could only enjoy his retirement for a short period. Unforgotten are his anecdotes, his sharp mind, his contacts to the highest levels everywhere and especially his interest in the world, its history, its myths, its various cultures and languages. He kept asking me about words in Swiss German, so during a meeting in Montreux/Switzerland I found him a book explaining the Swiss German language in English and had it sent to his hotel room before the weekend. When I came back on Monday, Jerry greeted me in Swiss Germand and asked how my weekend was. In Dubai he went through the souk, where after an hour he got invited to about  five private homes for dinner and showed up at the meeting in a Kovtan the next day. Jerry wherever you are, I am sure you are already trying to find out everything about it. Save journey my friend.

ANI announces AMDT 8 and Regulatory Framework Workshop in Oslo

In cooperation with Avinor, who will be hosting this at their headquarters location in Oslo, we announce a workshop covering the upcoming Amendment 8 to PANS-OPS, sharing some implementation issues when it comes to Helicopter IFR operations and the considerations for establishing a Regulatory Framework according to doc. 10068.
So Procedure Designers, Regulators and any other stakeholders in the IFP Process are equally welcome to join and share their experiences (or inexperiences for that matter) with us. The event will be led by Beat Zimmermann and Robert Bukovics together.
Dates: August 15/16 2018
Participation fee: CHF 400
Registration and more info via the ANI website.
Rundown and times, as well as venue downloadable from there.

PANS-OPS training opportunity in Bucharest/Romania

This is to inform you that "Regional Air Suport", a young Romanian IFP company organizes a PANS-OPS training course with Greg Perris from New Zealand as the instructor. This is not an ANI operation, I just promised to assist the organizing company in promoting their event.
The course starts on July 16 and the first module is 4 weeks to cover all basics, ground based nav procedures. The second module is not scheduled yet, possibly in October for 2 weeks covering PBN. The price for both modules is 6700 €. Please DO NOT contact the ANI about this course, we cannot give any info.
Greg Perris the instructor is an experienced Flight Procedure Designer and the New Zealand Member of the IFPP.
For info, please contact http://www.regional.ro, Mr. Dorin Ivascu.

IFP Conference Barcelona - The final "final agenda"

All,
I needed to shuffle a few speakers because of travel constraints. So I moved some of the speakers to different days. All in all, we should be good to go now. See you soon! Agenda can be downloaded here.

IFP Conference Schedule Finalized

Dear All, you can download the (hopefully) final schedule and info from the ANI website.

Flight Procedure Designer vacancy in the UK

Check this link fur further information

IFP Conference Barcelona May 22-24, 2018 - UPDATE

We have confirmed the venue, Sala d' Empren at Barcelona Activa next to Glories Shopping Center. Furthermore, I can confirm some speakers. We will provide some continuity to last years conference. Attendees will remember that Dr. Yoshi Nakanishi, Associate Professor at Nagasaki University with a very long past in aviation as Chief Flight Procedure Designer has presented outcomes of his study "how Flight procedure Designers learn". He continued the study, part of which was also a survey made at the Lisbon conference. So this year, Yoshi will present the continuation of the study.

Then we had speeches from Martin Zillig to show database coding aspects in the PBN with xLS domain, followed by the cockpit side, shown by Airbus Avionics Engineer Patrice Rouquette.
This covered the first set of criteria for PBN in conjunction with xLS. This year we hope to have Robert Bukovics, the PBN Rapporteur of the IFPP giving an outlook on the next phase of the same criteria, namely RF legs to xLS. For continuity I would like to have Martin again to give some coding insight and then we will have Patrice showing the cockpit side for the new proposed criteria as well.

Other spekers will be Thomas Wede and Fabrizio Maracich, the topic will be the FVP perspective on reporting of Flight Procedures and information exchange between FVP and Designers.

I have some other requests made but cannot quite confirm yet. Check back for an update soon.

skyguide seeks Flight Procedure Designer

Swiss ANSP skyguide looks for an expert Flight Procedure Designer for their Geneva or the Zürich (Dübendorf) team. Details can be found here: Expert Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP) Design.

IFP Conference 2018

Dear All,
I must apologize for not having communicated earlier but those who attended the IFP Conference 2017 in Lisbon will remember that we said that the 2018 Conference will tentatively take place in Barcelona. After the political issues with the Catalonian Government I was not sure if it is a good idea to go ahead with the plan. Now I had some business in Barcelona and I can ensure everybody that it is absolutely no problem to hold the event in this beautiful city. Also I checked out the facilities for the Conference and they are perfect. So we will go ahead and hold the IFP Conference 2018 in Barcelone May 22 to 24 (Ending midday). I will soon have the respective section on the ANI Website where you will be able to download the infos and also directly register for the event.

FVP Recurrent

For the trained and State-approved FVPs recuurent training is as much needed as for Flight Procedure Designers. Check the Program of our new FVP Recurrent event held on a yearly basis.

Two new courses for 2018

The first course is our diamond :-)
Many Flight Procedure Designers in the world have a non-flying background. As a result, Designers have a limited understanding of what happens in the cockpit of a modern airliner. How do crews fly the published procedures, what systems are available, what do they show. In order to improve that understanding we have created a course, where you are not only instructed in theory but you actually get to fly an airbus simulator. It will mostly be the A320, but can also be the 330, 340 or 380, depending on availibility.
If this interests you, go to the courses page of the ANI website and look for "understanding the cockpit side". All info you need is there and downloadable and you can register directly for the course, that takes place in December in the Lufthansa Simulator Center at Frankfurt Airport.

The second course is a one day instruction covering the Quality Assurance Process for Flight Procedure Design with the help of a real world example. Furthermore it covers regulatory oversight aspects of the process. As it is a one-day course we will not ask participants to come to us, we offer to come to you. So please request the course to be held on-site.
Same here: all info is available in the "Courses" section on the ANI website for download. Look for "QA and regulatory oversight".

ARINC 424 finally scheduled

This is to announce that we have now scheduled the ARINC 424 course for 2018. It will run in parellel with the Helicopter PinS course, dates are June 11-15, 2018. We have had some good synergy when two courses ran in parallel next door to each other. Instructor will be the one and only Jim Terpstra. Don't miss the opportunity to learn from a true icon in the industry.

Note that the new website has everything you need for download:
1. In the calendar you will always see the course venue
2. In the course locations section you have a downloadable info file for the venue, area and how to get there.
3. In the courses section you have a downloadable file with a course description, fees, pre-requisites etc.
4. In the same section you have the T&Cs (to read before registration).
5. Finally you can register directly from the same page for the course.
http://www.ani.aero

New Website is live

In time for the start of 2018, ANI launched the overhauled website with some novelties:
http://www.ani.aero
Customers who attended a classroom course will now receive access to the online faculty, where they can access a course repository as the ANI has a "no-hand-out concept mainly". New in 2018 are also the live webinars, short seminars or courses with 3 hour modules (or a multitude of it) held live on GoToMeeting. Check it out.

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.