Environment. The Copenflop – Is aviation better off now?

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… Continue reading Environment. The Copenflop – Is aviation better off now?

Successful "Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Workshop" in Budapest

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… Continue reading Successful "Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Workshop" in Budapest

Will training finally meet the future?

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.… Continue reading Will training finally meet the future?

Under Control – The story of The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations

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… Continue reading Under Control – The story of The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations

EGNOS open service available

Quote from an airspace user position paper dated 1 July 2003: “Finally, the airspace users would like to recall that they have resisted the development of the European Geostationary Overlay System (EGNOS), which has been mainly developed for political reasons and for which all attempts to build a credible aviation business case have failed. As a… Continue reading EGNOS open service available

New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – a detailed example

If you have read my article on the New Directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), you will be interested in this narrative description of the envisaged working of the expanded CDM concept. I do strongly recommend that you read the New Directions article first! The example used is that of a departing flight. It… Continue reading New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – a detailed example

Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009 – Reminder

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… Continue reading Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009 – Reminder

Standing all together… separately?

Reading the upbeat communication from the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) announcing the arrival of the airspace users on board the project, it may be worthwhile to take a look at the composition of the new arrivals and start worrying… just a tad mind you but still. There are individual airlines, both big and small and associations… Continue reading Standing all together… separately?