Anniversary – World AIS Day
On 14/05/2010, in Anniversaries, by steve
15 May 2010 World AIS Day
The Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) for Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) were adopted by the ICAO Council 57 years ago tomorrow, 15 May 2010. These SARPS are in Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention and 15 May is celebrated by the AIS community as “World AIS Day”.
The aeronautical information service is one of the most important pillars of safe and efficient air navigation and is also a shining example of world standardization and of what can be achieved when partners really work together to achieve well defined world-wide goals. Whether provided by government agencies or private companies, AIS is a fundamental element without which most modern flying would be all but impossible. Even in the most remote parts of the world with no proper AIS to speak of, the basic information needed for operations is collected somehow and even disseminated by word of mouth if there are no other means… so the concept of aeronautical information and its essential nature is of universal significance and that is what AIS is all about.
AIS is currently undergoing the most profound change this important service has ever faced. The product oriented aeronautical information service is gradually being transformed into a data oriented enterprise called Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) which is the first step towards becoming an integral part of the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept. SWIM as we all know is one of the most important enablers of both SESAR and NextGen.
You can read more about AIM here and SWIM here.
The communications related aspects of runway incursions
On 31/03/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
More than two incursions a day…
Few other incidents return with the grim and persistent regularity of runway incursions. A lot of effort by all concerned has resulted in a reduction of the total number of incidents but there are still, on average, more than two runway incursions in Europe per day. Clearly, there remains a lot of work to be done.
But what exactly is a runway incursion? According to the definition provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) a runway incursion is “Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft.”
Of course the words “incorrect presence” cover a wide range of possibilities from part of an aircraft sticking into the protected area to a vehicle or aircraft being entirely in the path of an aircraft landing or taking off. The dangers need no explaining… The reasons why highly trained professionals like pilots and controllers and less well trained but still “aerodrome aware” vehicle drivers make mistakes leading to runway incursions provide a telling story with roots in human psychology, engineering, traffic design, information technology and one may dare to say, on occasion Murphy’s law.
Click here to read the full article
The transition from AIS through AIM to IM – What is this?
On 26/01/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
A global congress with this title will make even the aficionados of abbreviations shiver… AIS, AIM, IM… What is next? UR? Well, the funny thing is, the title is perfectly correct and abbreviations or not, it reflects one of the most profound changes ever in the way information is collected, promulgated and used in international aviation.
Let’s have a look at what is meant by those abbreviations and what their significance really is.
What is AIS?
AIS is of course the abbreviation of Aeronautical Information Service. This is the traditional, product based service concept that brings you vital information in the form of Notices to Airmen (NOTAM), the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP), Aeronautical Information Circulars (AIC), the AIRAC system of information publication and of course the loads of standards and practices that come with them.
Over the years, AIS has grown into a worldwide system of aeronautical information provision that is both indispensable and for a long time was also a hindrance to progress in aeronautical information management.
How come? Well, let’s state right here and now that AIS is a wonder of global cooperation. It went global and worked well decades before the term “globalization” was invented (albeit in a different context). So, as far is it went, AIS was and still is in many respects an example to be followed. The problems came as a result of its product based nature. Raw data is collected, checked and collated, then published in “products” that represent a best-guess of what users of aeronautical information want most. In the simpler world of yesteryear, those guesses were not even so bad.
In to-day’s much more complex environment an AIS that serves everyone does not in fact fully satisfy anyone. OK, there are some really simple operations that are exceptions but they are really a minority.
Why was AIS a hindrance to change? As you can imagine, global AIS was not built overnight and they had had their share of troubles. Also, being State monopolies, AIS offices were not exactly reared to embrace change, even necessary change. So, even when the need for change was staring everyone in the face, AIS in some parts of the world pretended that everything was just fine. Change this well balanced system and face the consequences, they seemed to suggest…
Enter AIM…
Click here to read the full article
Global AIM Congress – 22-24 June 2010, Beijing, China
On 25/01/2010, in Events, by steve
The Global AIM Consortium is pleased to announce that the 2010 Global AIM Congress entitled “Building the Future – The transition from AIS through AIM to IM” will be held in Beijing on the 22-24th June 2010. As usual, workshops will be held on the Monday ahead of the Congress, 21 June 2010. The Consortium is working closely with the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China which has generously agreed to sponsor this event.
There are a number of key objectives for the Congress. It will review the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Madrid Congress of 2006 and then it will begin to explore the future direction of the provision of aeronautical and other information essential for the implementation of the ICAO Air Traffic Management Concept. The aim is to identify the key requirements for the future system which will draw heavily on the work of the European SESAR and US NextGen programmes. Senior managers from ICAO, ATMB, Europe and the FAA have already agreed to speak.
Click here to read the full article
EUROCONTROL winter feature – the digital SNOWTAM trial
On 07/12/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Winter is coming…
After the earlier digital NOTAM trials organized by EUROCONTROL and the FAA, it is now time for trials with the digital SNOWTAM. The trials will run until March 2010 with the participation of several airports, airlines, NOTAM offices and the European AIS Data Base (EAD).
Click here to read the full article
Single Sky Committee unanimously supports Aeronautical Data and Information Quality (ADQ) Implementing Rule
On 04/11/2009, in SWIM, by steve
The drive is on to transform Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) into Aeronautical Information Management (AIM). This is needed to set the scene for the introduction of System Wide Information Management (SWIM), the ultimate goal of the activity.
The change from AIS to AIM is primarily the morphing of the traditional, package based aeronautical information system into a data-based one, where users are provided with data to feed their particular applications in the way they need it rather than being fed with pre-cooked packages that do not really satisfy anyone while also being extremely difficult to change when new requirements turn up.
Click here to read the full article
SWIM – Institutional aspects first and foremost
On 11/10/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine has recently published a very interesting article with the title “Integration Nightmares”. It is about the problems planners and engineers are facing in integrating the battlefield “system of systems”. As the author reports, high level military planners do not like to pay to solve complexity… Researchers have to weave through political, technological and financial obstacle courses to figure out how to create that “system of systems”.
You may shrug this news off and ask what relevance does this have to air traffic management’s SWIM? After all, we have SESAR and it will take care of such detail.
Sure, SESAR will help in bringing the partners together and in coordinating things but the obstacle course will still remain and needs to be negotiated. OK but why single out SWIM?
For most people, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is a physical network, some standards and protocols and a few applications with some kind of network management thrown in, but little else.
Click here to read the full article
SWIM, the external enabler – now read the book!
On 28/09/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Towards the end of the SESAR definition phase the airspace users in Europe presented a paper, arguing that System Wide Information Management (SWIM) was in fact external to air traffic management and as such, its implementation could and should happen at its own rate matched to the need to ensure mximised, early benefits.
The reasoning behind this argument was that SWIM could generate major efficiency benefits by improving situational awareness and decision making even in a basically legacy system and hence its implementation should not be tied to more advanced air traffic management developments slated for later years only.
Although the document has not been updated in the past year and parts of it have now been possibly superceeded, it still contains valuable information for those engaged in the definition and scoping of SWIM. The document as such is not an official position from the airspace users even if the content had originally been thoroughly discussed with their representatives. SInce it had been presented in an open meeting, it should now be considered as being in the public domain and we are pleased to share it with our readers for the benefit of the SWIM community.
Click on SWIM DOC to download your copy.
Why we must learn to SWIM?
On 26/07/2009, in SWIM, by steve
The power of information is in sharing it…
A document discussing future air traffic management functions passed through my desk the other day. The time frame was 2020 and the context, one can safely assume, SESAR, the big European air traffic management development program.
Reading the document, I came upon several instances where the authors described how certain functions will need to be limited or might not even work since the system will not be aware of this or that piece of vital information.
There was also no mention of important, hitherto under-utilised, new sources of information, like the Airline Operations Centre (AOC). Can’t use that thing once the aircraft is airborne, was the reason given.
I am not saying the document was bad. It had all the right things and the right words in it. What it failed to do was show how to-day’s constraints arising from the dearth of information would become requirements to be satisfied by System Wide Information Management (SWIM).
A system built along the lines described in the document would have the same limitations built into it that make to-day’s set up struggle to keep up with demand.
Click here to read the full article
