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.
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Wake turbulence gone with the wind – the CREDOS project
On 03/11/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
The problem of vortices
There are two kinds of dangerous phenomena behind large aircraft. Jet wash and wingtip vortices. These are the most important components of what is commonly referred to as “wake turbulence”. The intensity of this turbulence depends on a number of factors, among them the mass of the aircraft concerned. Jet-wash is simply the rapidly moving air expelled from a jet engine. While it is extremely turbulent, it dissipates quickly in both time and space.
Wingtip vortices on the other hand are much more stable and can remain in the air longer after the passage of an aircraft. Wingtip vortices represent the primary and most dangerous component of wake turbulence.
The hazards of wake turbulence are particularly significant during the landing and take-off phases of flight. Aircraft are in a configuration that creates the strongest vortices while they are also flying at a low speed and low altitude. This leaves little margin for recovery in the event of flying into wake turbulence.
In daily operations the risk of encountering wake turbulence on approach or take-off and initial climb out is mitigated by increasing the spacing between lighter aircraft and a preceding heavier one. The time or distance based minima prescribed to ensure this spacing (the so called wake turbulence separation minima) are static and are based on a worst case assumption of the persistence time of the vortices. While this practice ensures safety, it also reduces the actual throughput of runways below what would otherwise be achievable.
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Anniversary – The fall of the Berlin Wall
On 01/11/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2009
Roger-Wilco deals with politics only in as much as it is aero-politics so you may wonder why we would include in our list of anniversaries the fall of the Berlin Wall now 20 years ago on 9 November 1989. As you will see, this momentous event had affected the course of history, the lives of millions and air traffic management itself in ways more than qualifying it for inclusion. But first a little history.
The first cracks
The fall of the Wall actually started some 690 kilometers (383 NM) away on the Western border of Hungary. By early summer in 1989 more than ten
When the iron curtain opened...
thousand East-German tourists were camping in Budapest and near the Austro-Hungarian border, planning never to return to Erich Honecker’s Germany. It was a sign of the times that a few months earlier the Hungarians and the Austrians held and open-border day (the iron curtain was still more or less in place otherwise) and a number of East-Germans, miraculously aware of what was happening, used this chance to walk over to Austria. In spite of forceful protests from East Germany, in August the Hungarians opened their border and allowed the East-Germans to leave if they wanted to. More then 13000 left in the first mass-exodus of East Germans since the erection of the Wall in 1961.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 3
On 24/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Pioneers to the rescue
In spite of the positive business case, airspace users were not exactly rushing to equip with air/ground digital link. Because of the slow down of traffic growth in the wake of 9/11, the expected ACARS problems did not materialize and the ATC frequency congestion was also pushed far into the future. In other industries, such a period of respite might have been used to prepare for the times when business recovery would once again make air//ground digital link essential. But that is not how aviation works. With the immediate threat receding and even some of the big carriers fighting for survival, enthusiasm for investing in things that would generate benefits only many years down the road cooled.
Of course for the planners of the ATM system this was a situation that spelled trouble for later. The frequency congestion problems were not a mirage even if for the time being those problems slipped into the future. The need to put together a comprehensive kit of capacity enablers had not become less important, only the urgency had changed somewhat. For LINK2000+ the big question was: how to jump start equipage? The question was not self serving at all. If Maastricht UAC controllers did not get digital link equipped aircraft to work with, it would be impossible to build and maintain proficiency and to shake down the system in real operational circumstances.
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