Christophe Hamel – Always listen to the inner voice! After many years in aviation, Christophe is also an entrepreneur in the wellness and lighting industries. What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid? I was thinking of becoming a pilot and at age 15 or so, of being the owner of a… Continue reading Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
Tag: EUROCONTROL
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
SWIM – How much information should we be sharing?
I would like to propose a simple rule: anybody asking how much information we should be sharing in air traffic management should have their Christmas bonus cancelled… Here is why. System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is the concept and set of rules, procedures and other needed elements that underpin the net-centric approach of the… Continue reading SWIM – How much information should we be sharing?
Is an aircraft an aeroplane or the other way round? The importance of proper terminology.
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… Continue reading Is an aircraft an aeroplane or the other way round? The importance of proper terminology.
Latest edition of SITA's "Air Traffic Management Highlights" now available
The latest edition of SITA’s newsletter, Air Traffic Management Highlights, dedicated to the ATM community is now available. In this publication, you will learn more about two major initiatives undertaken by our industry in 2009: • The Data Link Services Implementation Rule adoption by the European Commission and • SITA’s selection by EUROCONTROL to deliver… Continue reading Latest edition of SITA's "Air Traffic Management Highlights" now available
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – History and current practice
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The concept of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) was originally defined in the United States by a group of airlines, led by US Air, in response to what the airlines perceived as inadequate co-operation between airports, the FAA and the airlines themselves. They formed the so called CDM Group, members of which visited several… Continue reading Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – History and current practice
FAA Call to action on airline safety and pilot training
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary On February 12, 2009, a Colgan Air Bombardier Dash-8 Q400, operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407, crashed while on approach to Buffalo, New York. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted a public hearing on this accident from May 12-14, 2009. During that hearing and subsequent congressional… Continue reading FAA Call to action on airline safety and pilot training
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
SESAR and multimedia
The personal level visual communications facilities brought to us by modern technology have changed how we as individuals express ourselves and to an even higher degree how big companies talk to us. Traditional ads now sometimes resemble animated feature films and the on-screen safety briefing on some aircraft make us wonder whether we were watching… Continue reading SESAR and multimedia
NOTAM goes digital
What is 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… Continue reading NOTAM goes digital