In search of Roger
On 27/08/2010, in Just to let you know..., by steve
Looking for Roger...
When I opened my mail this morning, there was an item with the greeting “Aloha”… As a big fan of the islands and a subscriber to Aloha Joe’s newsletter, I do occasionally get mail from Hawai’i but reading this email touched my heart like no other has in a long time.
The sender is the co-founder of Wings Over Hawaii, a non-profit organization based in Honolulu, with the mission of promoting aviation education in their schools, grades 5-12. This is a wonderful mission by any measure but there is more.
Marissa, the sender of the email, is planning to launch a web site and blog dedicated to finding Roger. So who is Roger?
Well, if you are a pilot or an air traffic controller, you will have invoked his name thousands of times to acknowledge a transmission on the radio. But Marissa believes that there is another side to Roger which has never been described in the ICAO books but which is nevertheless equally real to those who love aviation.
Roger is the spirit of the sky and the essence of flight. Pilots touched by Roger have that special twinkle in their eyes and their hearts on their wings. We all encounter Roger somewhere, some time.
But how did the name Roger assume the meaning: correct receipt of the transmission is acknowledged?
Click here to read the full article
Three short questions on the SESAR Concept of Operations answered
On 19/07/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Over the past year we have published several posts dealing with SESAR in general and the SESAR concept of operations in particular. Some of those posts voiced concerns and uncertainties. In an exclusive interview with Michael Standar, SJU Chief Air Traffic Management, published here in May 2010, we attempted to answer the concerns… to some extent anyway. In SESAR Magazine Issue 3, published in July 2010, Michael now answers three short questions on the Concept of Operations. We bring you the full text as it appeared in SESAR Magazine in the hope of making the ConOps picture a bit clearer.
Michael, where are we today with the SESAR Concept of
Operations (ConOps)?
The first thing to remember is that the SESAR ConOps was set out in the SESAR Definition Phase. In the SJU ConOps storyboard it was structured into three steps to realize the paradigm shift necessary to modernize the European ATM system. In step 1, we move from the current day to time-based operations, focused on better use of existing technology and optimizing communication between ground and airborne equipment. Step 2 introduces trajectory based operations through the 4D trajectory. As new technology is involved, international standardization bodies and ICAO will be engaged. The third and final step will be a fully integrated performance based ATM System supported by System Wide Information Management, SWIM – the intranet of the air. These three steps are not sequential but start in parallel, aiming at gaining early benefits for the air transport sector.
Click here to read the full article
Train them well… but watch your step!
On 30/06/2010, in Flashback, by steve
During my ATC years and also after, I did a fair amount of training that ranged from ICAO Annex 14 (Airports), radio telephony procedures and ATC automation to HMI design and airspace user requirements in the future ATM system. The students represented a similarly broad spectrum from ab-initio controller trainees to ATC supervisors, engineers and pilots with a dizzying variety of nationalities and classroom customs. I had to learn early that ignoring their sensitivities was not a good idea.
I was reminded of this when our friends in The Netherlands bought a very nice house in the South of France and although they like to stay there as much as possible, during the school year they still tend to stick to rainy “kikkerland”. I am not sure but I suspect that part of the problem is their primary-school son whom they may be reluctant to entrust to the school system in France. He is a bright little guy and there is nothing wrong with the school system in France. But it is different and a kid used to the more free-wheeling Dutch system would need to adapt.
Several years ago a few times a year I was delivering a presentation entitled “Airspace user requirements for the future ATM system”. The course was meant for ATC supervisors who came to the EUROCONTROL Institute of Air Navigation Services in Luxemburg to attend. I held a very similar presentation once a year at ENAC in Toulouse for ATM engineering students whose study language was English and they had to incorporate the presentation material into their final exam papers.
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Conversion course – Does anyone understand the airlines?
On 22/06/2010, in Airline corner, by steve
My fascination with aircraft started at about age 5 and I first heard about air traffic control when I was 16. Gabi Nemeth who made music besides being an air traffic controller was on a TV talk show and he made a gallant effort to explain what ATC was all about… He must have done a great job because I for one understood what he was saying and from then on wanted nothing better than to be a controller. Being accepted to the physics faculty of a University in Budapest almost derailed my destiny but I corrected it soon enough and on my 21st birthday I issued the first landing clearance all on my own!
In the years that followed I collected just about every qualification a controller can have and added a bit of computer programming skill also. In time I exchanged the microphone for a desk at ICAO in Paris and later, for a post involved in building the new Amsterdam ATC system, AAA. But I never thought of myself as anything other than an air traffic controller. I was also very much convinced that what I was doing with or without the microphone, was the best possible course for our charges, the aircraft and their operators. Giving them directs, shortening the tracks wherever possible and the many other “treats” all appeared as going out of our way to help them.
My first exposure to IATA was at the very first Flow East meeting which was held in Budapest. We knew relatively little about this mighty organization or how it worked and were generally a bit suspicious of its motives… They sent a diminutive Swissair captain as one of their representatives and what he lacked in stature was more than made up for by his forceful personality and very clear words blasting us for the very poor job we were doing. He did not spare the civil aviation authorities either, drawing multiple color lines on a wall chart showing where the air routes should be in his view… Very few of the existing routes were where he thought they should be of course. His propensity for drawing colored lines earned him the nick “Tintoretto”. I remember how deeply hurt I felt by all the verbal abuse but also the feeling that may be, just may be, Tintoretto had a point. Had I known what profound effect his colored lines would have on my life many years later, I would have kissed the little captain on the brow for sure.
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Call sign similarity rules
On 08/06/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
One key element in reducing the number of call sign Confusion events is an agreed set of Call Sign Similarity Rules i.e. agreed definitions of what constitutes ‘a similarity’.
These Rules have been identified by analysis of safety reports concerning call sign confusion and published by the Call Sign Similarity User Group (CSSUG), which includes representatives from Aircraft Operators (AOs), Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) and other aviation organisations’ (e.g. ICAO and IATA).
Read the full article 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
Is an aircraft an aeroplane or the other way round? The importance of proper terminology.
On 12/03/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The word game
A lot of air traffic management related material passes through our hands, usually to be checked with a view to ensuring quality of content and consistency of the terminology. There is a disturbing trend that is becoming more and more evident with the passage of time. The documents show a deteriorating level of quality in respect of terminology use.
Why is this a problem? Unless they have been sensitized to the issue, the authors of those documents may not feel particularly disturbed by the fact that they use the terms aircraft, aeroplane or airplane interchangeably in their text, they may even feel that the varied use of words reflects better writing style. But in technical documents, the terms used must all have their precise definition and it is not enough to find a given word in a Webster’s Dictionary.
Let’s have a look at these three words, aircraft, aeroplane, and airplane. They are all English words and they all mean something that flies. Very true. But
there are many things that “fly”, from hot air balloons to helicopters and, depending on how you define “fly”, even hovercraft. So how do we know which exactly a given text refers to if it is not clear from the context?
If you see a piece of text that says “a flashing white light shall be displayed on all aircraft” and then another one that says “a flashing white light shall be displayed on all aeroplanes” and you own a helicopter, a glider and a hot air balloon, which one would you need to equip based on the first requirement? And the second?
Although I assume you know the answer without the explanation that follows, it is still interesting to look at these terms in more detail.
First and foremost, we have to say good-by to the term “airplane”, at least in the international context. Only aircraft and aeroplane have been defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
An aircraft is any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reaction of the air other than the reactions of the air against the earth’s surface.
A aeroplane is a power-driven heavier-than-air aircraft, deriving its lift in flight chiefly from aerodynamic reactions on surfaces which remain fixed under given conditions of flight.
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8.33 kHz Channel spacing – what is this?
On 04/03/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The radio spectrum, a scarce resort
One of the most basic activities in a cockpit is tuning the radio to the assigned frequency of whoever we want to talk to. Contacting ground control, the tower or one’s own company is done by turning a few knobs until the right numbers show in the radio control panel display and we can talk.
Air traffic controllers see the same thing slightly differently. They do not normally have to tune their radios. The proper frequencies for their sector or other working position are pre-set and need no further attention.
With the matter being so pedestrian and the actions so routine, few of us realize that the ability of pilots and controllers to talk to each other is in fact dependent on one of the scarcest resources in aviation, namely the radio spectrum allocated to aviation use.
Many other disciplines have their own radio spectrum and we all guard jealously what we have been given and for good reason. With so many users wanting to use the radio waves, the incumbents better watch or the use it or lose it principle kicks in. Luckily, the frequencies most widely used by aviation (118 – 137 MHz) are not coveted so strongly by others. Our problem is different but not in the least less serious.
Click here to read the full article
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 03/03/2010, in Interesting people, by steve
Mike Russo – Looking back on a lifetime in aviation
Mike, lead principal engineer and Executive Secretary of the AEEC has recently retired from Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC).
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
I grew up in a rural family with limited means and there were not that many people around me who could have served as examples for choosing a profession. But I did want to find a respected profession, doing respected work. At one point I took an aptitude test and it showed that I would make a good mechanical engineer. My focus from then on was on science subjects. An uncle was a tool and die maker and I got a lot of support from him.
What moved you to become part of the aviation family?
I went to Lake Michigan Community College for an associates degree as a technician and then Michigan Technological University where I got my Bachelor’s Degree… Afterwards I got a job with Westinghouse and in 1971 they sent me to the FAA Academy to learn about the principles of ILS. On my return, I worked on various ILS projects including ground site design and field work for ILS installations including flight testing with the FAA.
Click here to read the full article
KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
On 02/03/2010, in View from the left seat, by phil
Strange as it may seem one of the more difficult things that pilots have to deal with is finding their way around airports. Despite ICAO standardisation many obvious things like airport signage are not always the same at every airport, and even if they were, airport layouts will always differ. Surprisingly, navigating the aircraft down through the descent and arrival routes, then flying the approach and landing can often be easier than trying to navigate around the taxiways after vacating the runway. Equally, after all the hassle of getting the passengers on board, completing the checklists, pushing back on time, starting engines and leaving the ramp, finding ones’ way to the runway is not always as easy as it may seem. It really is extraordinary how difficult a seemingly simple task can be!
On the aircraft I used to fly, we had no map displays – only the basic fight instruments and paper charts. We followed our progress around the taxiways as carefully as we could following the charts. But even in good conditions it was surprisingly easy to become confused or to make a mistake. Usually this was resolved very quickly by reference to the marker boards and by checking compass headings, or by asking the tower for help. But sometimes one made a wrong turning, especially in poor visibility, or when everything was covered with snow, or at an unfamiliar airport.
Click here to read the full article
Continuous Descent Operations (CDO) Manual from ICAO now available
On 26/02/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
ICAO has made available an unedited, advance version of the Continuous Descent Operations (CDO) Manual as approved, in principle, by the Secretary General. Although the final, edited version may still undergo editorial alterations, the substance should stay the same.
The purpose of this Manual is to provide guidance and harmonize the development and implementation of continuous descent operations (CDO). To achieve this, airspace and instrument flight procedure design and air traffic control techniques should all be employed in a cohesive manner. This will then facilitate the ability of flight crews to use in-flight techniques to reduce the overall environmental footprint and increase the efficiency of aircraft operations.
The generic term “continuous descent operations”, has been adopted to embrace the different techniques used to maximize operational efficiency while still addressing local airspace requirements and constraints. These operations have been variously known as, continuous descent arrivals, continuous descent approaches, optimized profile descent, tailored arrivals, and 3D/4D path arrival management forming part of the business trajectory concept.
Continuous descent operations (CDO) is one of several tools available to aircraft operators and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to increase safety, flight predictability, and airspace capacity, while reducing noise, controller-pilot communications, fuel burn and emissions. Over the years, different route models have been developed to facilitate CDO and several attempts have been made to strike a balance between the ideal fuel efficient and environmentally friendly procedures and the capacity requirements of a specific airport or airspace.
Click here to read the full article
Beyond the runway end safety area
On 18/02/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
The consequences of many runway excursions, especially overruns, are made much more serious because the aircraft end up beyond the actual or nominal confines of the ICAO-defined Runway End Safety Area (RESA) and is catastrophically damaged because of major obstructions or terrain changes encountered soon after this protected area has been exceeded. Suddenly down-sloping terrain and low but substantial ground obstructions, which are of no concern to aircraft in flight, may take on considerable significance in determining the damage to an aircraft following a major overrun. The example of the Air France Airbus 340-300 which ended up in a ravine at Toronto in 2005 illustrates this well.
Read more about this subject in the SKYbrary here.
Read about Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS) here.
The ICAO Flight Plan – changes are coming!
On 17/02/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The basics
If you are working in aviation, chances are you have seen an ICAO Flight Plan. Something that looks like the example here. It is a strange looking document showing clearly its origins in a world where clattering teletype machines were considered modern communications means. The double chevrons pointing left indicate “carriage return” and the three dashes above each other indicate line feeds… Yes, the ICAO Flight Plan form is a hybrid of text parts and instructions to the old teletype machines (and the modern computers that have replaced them) as to how the information is to be formatted on displays and hard copies of the flight plan. When transmitted via the Aeronautical Fixed telecommunications Network (AFTN), the flight plan takes the form of the famous FPL message.
Flight Plans are of vital importance for flights in managed airspace. This is basically the only means an airspace user has to tell air traffic control what they are planning to do. You either file your flight plan before departure or you file it from the air if you did not need a flight plan for the first part of your operation (if you flew in unmanaged airspace and then decide to go into managed airspace for example). The content must be accurate and it must be in the hands of air traffic control on a timely basis.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has defined a number of so called standard field types, each identified by a number. Each field type
contains defined information and the various air traffic services messages must contain the prescribed field types in the order specified for the given message. Message types in turn are identified by 3 letters. A message with message type designator CHG is a flight plan modification message and one with designator FPL is… well, you guessed it, a Flight Plan Message.
On the flight plan form you will find Items and not field types. Items are also numbered and they correspond to the numbers allocated to the field types. So both a field type 7 and an Item 7 will contain information on aircraft identification and SSR mode and code.
The rules for composing the messages and their content are very strict and are also globally standardized. This way ATS messages can be handled manually or by computers, irrespective of where they come from or whom they are addressed to.
Why the change?
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
NOTAM goes digital
On 06/01/2010, in SWIM, by steve
What is a NOTAM?
A NOTAM...
There are a few things in aviation that have survived over the years with so little change as the NOTAM, in spite of its numerous, known shortcomings. NOTAM is a quasi-acronym for Notice to Airmen, a system of providing aeronautical information introduced well over 60 years ago.
NOTAMs… we have all seen them, worked with them and think we know them. But do we really?
...and the cranes it refers to!
A NOTAM is a text message, constructed using a code defined by ICAO and distributed via the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN). It informs the recipients of immediate or temporary changes to the air navigation infrastructure, both airport and en-route. As an example, if a runway or part of a runway is temporarily closed, this will be announced in a NOTAM. There are several types of NOTAM but their essence and purpose is the same: provide vital information to airmen in a timely manner. In fact, the NOTAM is the middle part of the layered legacy system of information provision: the AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication) describes the big picture and the permanent situation; NOTAMs bring information about sudden/immediate changes and temporary changes that will exist for a short time only; and the operational radio, including broadcasts like the ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service), that announce sudden changes and continue to do so at least until the information is also available in a NOTAM.
The NOTAM offices of the world’s States are a legendary bunch of very independent minded experts, who know very well how important their job is and who tend to be slow with changes, however useful, lest the carefully thought out system fail in its purpose. Frustrating on occasion, it is hard to blame them for being careful.
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Glossary of Air Traffic Management terms and definitions
On 04/01/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
Ever since my first tentative steps into the world of ICAO provisions and the hard learned lessons about the need to use terminology properly even to a fault, I had this thing about texts that were lax and inconsistent in terminology use. To put it bluntly, I hated them. Not only do they fail to convey the intended message properly, they can potentially confuse the reader and may in fact result in requirements being defined erroneously. True, in the end things tend to sort themselves out but not before a lot of extra, totally unnecessary effort has been expended and with no guarantee that every instance of incorrect terminology use has been taken care of.
Descriptions that call everything a system, where information is down-linked or up-linked instead of being shared or published, where the vertical distance from the aerodrome’s elevation is called an altitude, etc., etc., still abound unfortunately and I am in the process of writing an article expressing my displeasure and suggesting some steps to remedy the situation.
When my attention was called to a new glossary of Air Traffic Management terms and definitions produced as part of the Episode 3 project deliverables, I went to have a look right away. Obviously, the new ATM environment will be generating its own terms and definitions and proper terminology use starts with having wide agreement on the meaning of the terms we use.
Click here to read the full article
Environment. The Copenflop – Is aviation better off now?
On 27/12/2009, in Environment - Without hot air, by cleo
We all remember how seriously aviation had been preparing for the UN environmental conference held earlier this month in Copenhagen. Led by IATA, the aviation industry arrived with concrete proposals and plans which were seen by several non-aviation experts as templates suitable also for other industries.
Once the conference kicked off, aviation experts must have felt like adults thrown into a kindergarten with a very poor teacher at the helm. Kids shouting all over the place, getting into fights, leaving the playroom when not granted their favorite toys… Those who ventured outside to escape the worst of the circus fared no better. There was another kind of kindergarten out there, albeit with destruction and tear-gas thrown in to increase the fun.
Of course the kids inside were the same politicians who are convinced that electric cars charged from a public utility produce virtually no emissions and also who had promised to shutter nuclear reactors while having no idea how to replace their generating capacity. It was no surprise to see them come together after having brandished the environmental flag at home and then fail to agree on the time of day, let alone actual environmental action.
Click here to read the full article
What is wrong with Performance Based Navigation (PBN)?
On 14/12/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
Exactly one third, that is what! The P is ok, the B is ok but the N? That is what is wrong and in a big way too! Let me explain.
Recently we had a very successful workshop on PBN and the agenda included a presentation on modern surveillance techniques and another one on cost-benefit analyses tailored to performance based systems. It was soon clear that several experts (mostly outside the workshop) thought that the surveillance presentation was out of place in a meeting on PBN. After all, PBN is dealing with navigation and not surveillance.
There you go, the good old silo mentality again! Thou shall not mix things from different silos!
Do a local reality check. How is your organization set up? Do you have separate departments for navigation, surveillance and communications? Ask someone from surv or com what PBN stands for… Are you getting the picture?
Click here to read the full article
Successful “Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Workshop” in Budapest
On 19/11/2009, in Events, by steve
Although the concept of Performance Based Navigation (PBN) is generally known, when it comes to filling in the details, there is a lot of uncertainty, misunderstandings and even diverging views on what exactly should we understand under PBN. Big organizations like ICAO and EUROCONTROL are doing their best to clarify things but clearly, more is needed.
The idea of organizing a workshop on the grassroots level to discuss PBN and shape common understanding of the issues first came up in 2008 when a number of industry experts discussed how their partners could be helped in getting a better grasp on PBN and its implementation. The idea was to bring together air navigation service providers, airlines, international organizations, research institutions and manufacturers for a focused but easygoing discussion of this complicated subject. 2008 was a bad year for any undertaking requiring traveling and it was only this week that the workshop finally took place in Budapest, Hungary.
HungaroControl, the Hungarian air navigation service provider had kindly offered to host the workshop and we were able to enjoy their excellent facilities on 17 an 18 November. The number of participants (30) was a good compromise between the range of partners represented and overall size for a workshop-type meeting.
The agenda was structured to ensure a logical progression through the most important aspects of PBN.
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
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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Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 21/10/2009, in Interesting people, by steve
Istvan Bozsa – forever controller
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
We lived near the airport and I was dreaming of becoming a pilot from very early on. I remember how we took the bike to ride all the way to the perimeter fence and watch the planes for hours on end. I must admit that we also stopped to watch the trains at the railway crossing but the planes were the main attraction.
Traditionally there is an air-show on 20 August in Budapest and watching it I felt this incredible pull and attraction… I wanted to be part of it all; I wanted to be a pilot.
I think my son has inherited this weakness… he has his PPL already (and an Aeronautic MEng).
How did you then actually become part of the ATC family?
Ice cream… it was the ice cream! At the time one of the best pastry shops in downtown Budapest had a satellite unit at the airport. The mother shop’s name was Honey Bear and the one at the airport was simply the Bear… They had the best parfait this side of the Solar system and we went there regularly to load up on that thing, teeth be damned.
Click here to read the full article
A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 2
On 18/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The clash of VDL Mode 4 and VDL Mode 2
Following years of testing and discussions on countless forums, VDL Mode 2 was emerging as the solution that, combined with the ATN protocol, could support the initial implementation of Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications. There was nothing else it could do but it had a huge advantage over everything else. There was agreement that it would do the trick! Some people tended to consider this virtue as being of little value but in fact it was as important as the link’s ability to perform. Achieving consensus on the scale needed to decide which link to use is an epic hurdle and when agreement is there, it should not be put in danger.
But that is exactly what was being done by the promoters of another technology that goes under the name VDL Mode 4. VDL Mode 4 can do everything, they claimed… It does voice, text messages and also ADS-B! Most of the claims were of course true and the initial hiccups with the system were no reason to discard it. Yet it never made it into the mainstream and the hard push did only one thing: delayed the inevitable, the final agreement on Mode 2. VDL Mode 4 lacked the most important element: industry agreement for implementation.
Click here to read the full article
Will training finally meet the future?
On 16/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
There are places in the world where ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information System) is still the hard to understand analogue affair, suffering not only from poor voice quality but also the multitude of accents their operators will dish out for you. Of course, somebody somehow will have approved them for use, poor quality, accent and all. Now talk to any organization that has installed a new type of digital ATIS and most of them will tell you horror stories (backed up by the manufacturers) about the new and in many cases totally unreasonable requirements such a digital system had to meet, supposedly to improve safety.
Safety is of course our primary concern but it is not served at all by allowing suspicions about the hidden gremlins in digital technology to drive requirements which are either not possible to meet or which drive up costs without contributing to safety. It is also counter productive to dream up new requirements simply because new digital versions of old tools “can do it”.
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Under Control – The story of The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations
On 14/10/2009, in Bookshelf, by steve
By Neil Vidler
Publisher: IFATCA
ISBN – 0-646-40574-8
A book written about the history of a professional association, published by the same association, will tend to present events from their particular point of view and Neil Vidler’s work on IFATCA is no exception. 318 pages of sometimes laborious text that is no doubt factually correct but it fails to properly present the rest of the aviation world in which IFATCA was created and in which it grew into the respected organization we know to-day.
This lack of context is particularly regrettable in the light of the long paragraphs devoted to ICAO (Friend or foe?) and the IATA Resolution 200 debate. While denying controllers free tickets is of course not the best way to make friends, this issue was certainly not the biggest problem of aviation at the time yet the book makes it look like it was the only issue that needed solving.
The book launches with the foundation of the federation and its first decade starting in 1961. The rest of the aviation world was transforming itself into mass transportation mode and in fact grew alongside IFATCA itself. The 70s, 80s and of course the 90s saw a huge culture change happen in the cockpit and after deregulation also in how airlines were being run. Pilots had to evolve and become not only good airmen but also system managers… They were called upon to manage a very expensive and sensitive business tool, the modern aircraft.
While ATC also evolved and did a marvelous job of handling ever more traffic, the same fundamental culture change had not really happened there yet in the time frame of this book which ends in 2001.
IFATCA’s life and struggles could have been made even more understandable to the reader if the revolution that was taking place in the cockpit and in the airline world had been provided as the backdrop to the story.
If you are looking for no more than a rather detailed, factual history of IFATCA, this book is a good choice. Not only to read end-to-end (something that might be a bit of a struggle) but also as a source of hard-to-find information in the years to come.
Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009 – Reminder
On 13/10/2009, in Events, by steve
BluSky Services is organising a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) workshop, to be held in Budapest, Hungary on 17-18 November 2009. The event will be hosted by HungaroControl and will take place at their premises.
Participation in the workshop is free.
As is well known, both IATA and CANSO have expressed their support for PBN and this important evolutionary step is also part of ICAO’s ATM strategy.
Participants at the workshop will learn about the ICAO PBN concept and how it relates to Performance Based Navigation (RNP) and technologies like ADS-B, MLAT and GNSS landing systems.
The list of presenters include ICAO, IATA, Honeywell, ERA Corporation, APAC, Quo Vadis/Airbus and ZEBRAFISH International.
Interest from all areas of ATM is substantial. Register now to ensure your place at this unique event!
For more details, the Agenda and registration, click here
To learn more about BluSky Services, click here
A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 1
On 12/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Introduction
Talking to a group of young controllers the other day I suddenly realized that Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications (CPDLC) and its enabler, air/ground digital link were a kind of given for them… Their centre has either already implemented it or had plans for it and while their opinion diverged on the usefulness of the thing, they certainly did not consider it as anything exciting. In a way this is good. The more everyday air/ground digital link becomes, the more we can consider having cleared a major hurdle in implementing an important capacity enabler.
But not being familiar with the history of a particular development reduces our ability to understand its shortcomings and its future potential.
With this article I would like to put on the table a few, sometimes amusing, sometimes incredible, details from the last 15 years of so about air/ground digital link development in the hope that it will be provide some insight into what is after all a very exciting development in air traffic management.
The story will not be comprehensive; it is only a summary and is based mainly on my recollections. I was pretty close to the fire but possibly for that very reason I may have seen things in a light that was colored differently from the actual reality. If you have better information, do comment on my version of the tale.
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Anniversary – The Y2K roll-over
On 02/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
10 year anniversary on 31 December 2009
On call to usher in a new millennium
I am no longer with IATA but when I joined originally, night shifts were not mentioned as part of the job. Not that I would have minded, as an ex-air traffic controller I had plenty of experience watching the sun rise over the airport perimeter fence, or looking at the radar screen with the morning traffic building slowly…
But somehow 1999 brought two events that landed me once again in night shifts. One was 8.33, the famous new channel spacing in Europe and the other, the even more famous, Y2K computer bug.
As it happened, I was not closely involved in the preparations for the year-end rollover, this task having fallen in our office to other colleagues who had their hands more than full for the 18 months or so preceding the end of December . As our readers will probably know, the Y2K problem was the result of some “clever” programming tricks used by early programmers to save storage space, representing the year in dates by only two characters. Possibly they never expected computers to be still around by the year 2000… In the end, not only did some legacy hardware, as well as a lot of legacy software, survive to see the new millennium, even some of the latest creations came with the Y2K problem still built in and ticking away…If you enter a date in the year 2000 into one of those machines, the year will show 00, resulting in the computer possibly crashing in a number of colorful ways.
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(Before) all else fails… read the Concept! Part 2.
On 23/09/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
What is a net-centric system?
Net-centric, in its most common definition, refers to “participation as a part of a continuously evolving, complex community of people, devices, information and services interconnected by a communications network to optimise resource management and provide superior information on events and conditions needed to empower decision makers.” It will be clear from the definition that “net-centric” does not refer to a network as such. It is a term that covers all elements constituting the environment referred to as “net-centric”.
Exchanges between members of the community are based not on cumbersome individual interfaces and point to point connections but a flexible network paradigm that is never a hindrance to the evolution of the net-centric community. Net-centricity promotes a “many-to-many” exchange of data, enabling a multiplicity of users and applications to make use of the same data which in itself extends way beyond the traditional, predefined and package oriented data set while still being standardized sufficiently to ensure global interoperability. The aim of a net-centric system is to make all data visible, available and usable, when needed and where needed, to accelerate and improve the decision making process.
Click here to read the full article
(Before) all else fails… read the Concept! Part 1.
On 22/09/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The birth of the SESAR Concept of Operations (CONOPS), perhaps not unexpectedly, was not an easy process. Although SESAR is claimed to be a user-driven project, when the airspace users tried to drive the development of the CONOPS, the road proved to be anything but smooth. Plenty of natural and artificial obstacles had to be negotiated before the final product was crafted and pronounced airworthy. In the end, the CONOPS had turned out to be much more than the usual representation of the smallest common denominator, agreed and supported by most, criticized by others.
Now, some two years after version 1 of the CONOPS saw the light of day, we still see a worrisome degree of misunderstanding, hesitation and claimed or actual ignorance persist around the concept. Apparently, some people just continue with legacy thinking, pleading ignorance that there is any direction being set that is relevant to them. Ignoring the guidance encapsulated in the CONOPS or giving it a new interpretation not in line with what was originally intended represents a grave danger to the effectiveness of the new air traffic management system and the SESAR project itself.
In this article, I will try to clarify a number of issues still burning around the CONOPS, answering also questions which have been put to us in recent months. Some items may appear trivial to those who have been involved in the SESAR definition phase but will be useful to our worldwide readers many of whom are innocent when it comes to any phase of SESAR.
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SWIM in the USA
On 17/09/2009, in SWIM, by ahmad and lesley FAA
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is an advanced technology program designed to facilitate greater sharing of Air Traffic Management (ATM) system information such as airport operational status, weather information, flight data, status of special use airspace, and National Air Space 
(NAS) restrictions. SWIM will support current and future NAS programs by providing flexible and secure information management architecture for sharing NAS information. SWIM will use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software to support a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that will facilitate the addition of new systems and data exchanges, and increase common situational awareness.
How did SWIM originate?
EUROCONTROL initially presented the SWIM concept to the FAA in 1997, where it has been under development ever since. In 2005, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Global Air Traffic Management (ATM) Operational Concept adopted the SWIM concept to promote information-based ATM integration. SWIM is now part of development projects in both the United States (NextGen) and the European Union (Single European Sky ATM Research – SESAR).
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Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009
On 10/08/2009, in Events, by steve
BluSky Services is organising a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) workshop, to be held in Budapest, Hungary on 17-18 November 2009. The event will be hosted by HungaroControl and will take place at their premises.
Participation in the workshop is free.
As is well known, both IATA and CANSO have expressed their support for PBN and this important evolutionary step is also part of ICAO’s ATM strategy.
Participants at the workshop will learn about the ICAO PBN concept and how it relates to Performance Based Navigation (RNP) and technologies like ADS-B, MLAT and GNSS landing systems.
The list of presenters include ICAO, IATA, Honeywell, ERA Corporation, APAC and ZEBRAFISH International.
For more details, the Agenda and registration, check out http://pbn.bluskyservices.com
To learn more about BluSky Services, go to www.bluskyservices.com
The CFMU – Valuable asset or problem for the future?
On 30/07/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
Few people remember the days of horrendous delays in Europe caused by the explosive growth of demand in the latter part of the 70s and early 80s. States tried to cope with the problem as best they could but the individual efforts made things worse as often as they helped in resolving the logjam. Clearly, a region-wide solution was needed. This solution was the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), designed and operated by EUROCONTROL on behalf of the ECAC States and with the full blessing of ICAO.
Now, several decades later, the future of the CFMU as a concept and as an operating unit may hang in the balance.
From protecting sectors to ensuring flight efficiency
The first attempt at keeping the ATC system from falling apart under the relentless traffic peaks went under the tab “flow control”. Indeed, this was not much more than a crude quenching of traffic flows which did eliminate sector overloads but left hundreds of aircraft stranded on the ground, delays skyrocketing.
The commissioning of the CFMU brought not only a regionally centralised awareness of the overall situation but also a change in how sector overloads were prevented. The departure slots disbursed by the CFMU are based on several considerations, including alternative routings and aircraft operator preferences, justifying the claim that traffic flows are now being managed rather than just being constrained as in the days of basic flow control.
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