One of the surprising and possibly unexpected early recommendations coming out of the investigation of the recent Air France Airbus 330 crash is that training in certain basic piloting skills and the handling of unusual situations must be strengthened and improved. Excuse me? Have we already reached the stage where the pilots of a sophisticated… Continue reading Is the training of air traffic controllers better?
Author: admin
Two-way communication and the efficiency of public security
Strolling through the center of Brussels today my mind wandered off as my wife was shopping. I started an incognito surveillance of the security staff present in the mall, the different stores and the public areas. Of course, it was not all that hard to pick them out of the crowd, as they all wear… Continue reading Two-way communication and the efficiency of public security
Scientific elite joins SESAR
Twelve renowned scientists have been signed up to create the new Scientific Committee of the SESAR Joint Undertaking. The Committee will deal with all scientific aspects of the work programme and will focus on: • the scientific analysis of SESAR from different angles: economics, human factors, statistics, mathematics, computer science, physics, technology; • the liaison… Continue reading Scientific elite joins SESAR
Runway incursions – a portal full of help
Flying is several orders of magnitude safer than road travel, we all know that. Yet there is a curious element of commonality between those two modes of transport, representing a serious danger in both. Drivers who manage to get onto the wrong side of a motorway and aircraft or ground vehicles that blunder onto the… Continue reading Runway incursions – a portal full of help
At the cradle of SWIM
SWIM, well the name that is, was born in the early morning on a misty February day in a hotel room in Luxemburg. It was 1998.The abbreviation of System Wide Information Management, SWIM has now become an integral element of both SESAR and NextGen, the air traffic management development projects in Europe and the USA,… Continue reading At the cradle of SWIM
Cost/benefit analysis in ATM – blessing or curse?
Many years ago we were enjoying the sun and a sandwich on Schiphol’s observation deck during lunch hour when news came that one of the major airlines there had a new top executive who was neither pilot, nor engineer. He was a bean-counter! I remember the initial feeling of horror and consternation at what back… Continue reading Cost/benefit analysis in ATM – blessing or curse?
Ferry flight fun
Pilots and controllers come in all shapes and sizes. I have seen quite a few of them who started as controllers than became pilots and many of those who started their carrier as pilots but for some reason ended up in a tower or in front of the radar scope. But you hardly see people… Continue reading Ferry flight fun
Net-centric air traffic management system explained
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”… Continue reading Net-centric air traffic management system explained
Are we doing enough?
Aviation Week and Space Technology, in their August 3 issue’s Market Focus commentary painted a very bleak picture of the US and European aerospace industry’s future. Referring to developments in China, they postulated that the 2010s may well be the last decade of US and European pre-eminence in the sector. This came on top of… Continue reading Are we doing enough?
My AWACS-story
When we, then young air traffic controllers got to the Hungarian ACC to begin our on- the-job training in mid 1975, it was a very strictly restricted area yet shared the building with the Country’s air defence command positions. Armed forces of the Peoples Republic’s Army had guarded the entrance since the secrecy of a… Continue reading My AWACS-story