More than a decade ago I was in the thick of a war raging between airspace users and air navigation service providers. At stake was the forced implementation of Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (ES), something some ANSPs considered to be vital while the airspace users in general considered to be an expensive folly. The business… Continue reading Are Airspace Users Really the Centre of ANSP Attention?
Flight Safety Foundation Publishes First-Hand Account of Qantas Flight 32, Story and Video
In an article appearing today in the latest issue of AeroSafety World , editor J. A. Donoghue writes about Qantas Flight 32, as told by pilot-in-command Richard de Crespigny. Capt. de Crespigny was the keynote speaker at the Foundation’s International Air Safety Seminar in Singapore last November and sat down with ASW for a lengthy interview.… Continue reading Flight Safety Foundation Publishes First-Hand Account of Qantas Flight 32, Story and Video
Airbus Wing Cracks, not as Bad is it Seemed… it is Worse
Only a few weeks ago Airbus said that the cracks discovered on the wing-rib feet of some A380s were not a threat to safety and they would be repaired as part of the four-yearly maintenance regime. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) does not agree. Carriers with A380s that have accumulated more than 1,300 takeoffs… Continue reading Airbus Wing Cracks, not as Bad is it Seemed… it is Worse
An Opportunity We Should not Miss!
I was talking to an old time, well respected colleague the other day discussing his view that instead of forcing the industry to implement yet another expensive capability, full use should be made of what was already there… Once the benefits start to accrue, airspace users would be much more inclined to take the extra… Continue reading An Opportunity We Should not Miss!
The Real Cost of Flying
Since 2006, we have accepted the norm of zip-top-bagging our liquids, gels and aerosols, and ditching our water bottles at airport security checkpoints. Without going into the issue of whether or not these measures are effective from a security point of view, has anyone stopped to think about how these rules affect our wallets and… Continue reading The Real Cost of Flying
Viewfinder View 6 – Helpful Security
Not aviation related but still very nice… If a roll of paper from the cash-register needs to be rolled up again, what better resource to use than the security guy. If somebody decided to rob this hamburger joint, throwing the roll against the robber would probably have had the right surprise effect!
In Place of Praise
The end of 2011 is in fact the end of an epoch in the history of Hungarian air traffic control. I do not want to qualify this epoch, future generations might do that in the fullness of time. The fact remains, an important generation of controllers have retired. I call them the “beat-generation”. About 40… Continue reading In Place of Praise
The Space Age Airport
When we think of space-flight, we tend to picture rockets blasting into the final frontier on the tip of a column of fire, thundering energy that seems to be totally random and untamable. Of course a rocket engine is anything but unpredictable but it is a technology very different from our more traditional winged aircraft… Continue reading The Space Age Airport
Cracks in the Wings of the A380 – What Next?
Poor A380. She had a difficult birth caused in no small measure by the rather peculiar corporate structure of Airbus and the consequent mismatch of the design software used in different parts of the company… Wire harnesses turned out to be too short, then the redesigned version did not fit either. After long delays she… Continue reading Cracks in the Wings of the A380 – What Next?
Is There Life After the National Airline?
There used to be a time when each country had an airline and it was called the flag carrier. Some countries had more than one airline, but generally only one of them was recognized as the “flag carrier”. Those were the times when States regulated flights between their cities and more often than not, connections… Continue reading Is There Life After the National Airline?