Category: Viewpoint

Editorial view on topical subjects

Oceanic airspace, the proving ground for future separation techniques

It was more than a decade before SESAR that I first heard the term “free flight”, a new paradigm for separating aircraft that would replace concentrated decision making with a distributed one by giving the flight crew the responsibility for ensuring separation between their aircraft. This is the normal state of affairs for VFR flights… Continue reading Oceanic airspace, the proving ground for future separation techniques

Supermarkets and air traffic control – what is the connection?

It is tough times in Belgium these days. After the shocking news that Opel will close its car plant in Antwerp leaving thousands without work, it is now the Carrefour supermarket chain that announced the closure of 21 of its locations in the country. For our non-European readers, Carrefour is a French chain similar to… Continue reading Supermarkets and air traffic control – what is the connection?

A kid in the tower, a pilot without license and other things

The unprecedented success of the air transport industry is due mainly to the spectacular improvements in safety booked overt the years. True, the convenience of being able to travel to the other end of Europe for a meeting and back the same day count for a lot, but without the safety factor, few passengers would… Continue reading A kid in the tower, a pilot without license and other things

CANAC2 operational – is there a future for CANAC2?

February 10 was a day many in Belgium will remember for a long time. Most of the populace for the longest ever traffic jams, 950 kilometers in total, caused by early morning snow bringing chaos to the motorways. For a select few, February 10 will mark CANAC2’s going into live operations. CANAC is Belgium’s cutting… Continue reading CANAC2 operational – is there a future for CANAC2?

Blogs, aviation and the rest of the social media

When we started Roger-Wilco, a lot of people questioned the format. For some, a blog was not the right format for dealing with the serious questions of air traffic management. I could see the point in as much as a lot of blogs are indeed little more than a place for certain individuals to air… Continue reading Blogs, aviation and the rest of the social media

My FAB my Castle – is there hope for the European air traffic management enterprise?

I guess from a purely political point of view, criticizing the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) concept is probably not correct. I will not criticize the FABs. What I will do is share a few thoughts with you and also raise a few questions. Who knows, someone may even have the answers. So what is a… Continue reading My FAB my Castle – is there hope for the European air traffic management enterprise?

U.K. airspace "developments"?

A short article in Aviation Week and Space Technology caught my eye the other day. “Restructuring U.K. Skies” was the title and it announced that the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was beginning the process of defining airspace out to 2030, with industry-wide dialogue to begin in 2010. I counted the number of times the… Continue reading U.K. airspace "developments"?

NCS – What? Not CNS?!

Whoever came up with the abbreviation CNS (a.k.a. Communications/Navigation/Surveillance) probably had no idea how much damage their invention would cause in air traffic management by perpetuating the kind of silo mentality that keeps many organizations hopelessly divided and experts retreating into their respective ivory towers. If at least the inventors had the good sense of… Continue reading NCS – What? Not CNS?!

GDP and the Key Performance Indicators of air traffic management

Time magazine in their 2 November issue published a very interesting essay. The author, Steven Faris, argues that using GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to judge how well a country was doing is wrong and misleading. The idea behind GDP was only to show how much money is changing hands, nothing more, nothing less. Should we… Continue reading GDP and the Key Performance Indicators of air traffic management