Tag Archives: Navigation

477 Air Navigation with iFly GPS

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We talk with Adventure Pilot’s Brian Rutherford about aircraft route planning, air navigation, and iFly GPS. Also, Ryanair flight cancellations and pilot pay, a Bombardier CSeries order, and headway made for NextGen.

Guest

Adventure Pilot’s Brian Rutherford and the iFly GPS air navigation solution.

Adventure Pilot’s Brian Rutherford and the iFly GPS air navigation solution.

Brian Rutherford is sales and marketing manager for Adventure Pilot, makers of iFly GPS air navigation solutions. Brian describes the current air navigation landscape, the role of GPS and ADS-B, and how they work together. We look at the iFly GPS offerings and features.

iFly GPS is a multi-platform air navigation solution for iOS, Android, Windows, and dedicated systems that provides support for ADS-B traffic and weather. iFly GPS moving map navigation includes advanced features like geo-referenced hi-def VFR and IFR charts, de-cluttered vector mode, AutoTaxi+, RealView, and the comprehensive Active Alert System.

Brian holds a private pilot’s certificate and comes from the world of online retail, working at an Amazon subsidy called Woot.com as a buyer. He was a Sr. Brand Manager for a licensed apparel company called BioWorld. Brian also served on the board of EAA Chapter 1246, one of the largest chapters with 100+ dues-paying members.

Find Adventure Pilot on Instagram and Facebook, and be sure to listen for the special 10% discount code available to Airplane Geeks listeners!

Aviation News

Pilots’ pay rise set to cost Ryanair £88m a year

Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has had to offer pilots a pay raise to get them to keep flying. This after “a rostering debacle” when the airline changed its holiday year. See also Ryanair cancels flights after ‘messing up’ pilot holidays and Ryanair may face legal action over flight cancellations.

Bombardier gets new CSeries jet order, but deliveries cut too

Engine delays from Pratt & Whitney will reduce 2017 CSeries deliveries to 20-22 from the 30 aircraft planned. Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare told analysts “This is a short-term issue that Pratt is actively addressing.” Meanwhile, Bombardier negotiated a letter of intent for 31 firm and 30 option CSeries orders from an unnamed European customer. The airframer says the order is not related to news that Airbus plans to take a majority stake in the program.

NextGen Progressing: Airlines Fail to Equip

AOPA describes NextGen progress contained in the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General report: FAA Has Made Progress Implementing NextGen Priorities, but Additional Actions Are Needed To Improve Risk Management. AOPA says the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC) has four priorities: multiple runway options, performance-based navigation, surface operations, and data communications (or DataComm):

Multiple runway options allow the FAA to reduce the separation between aircraft because of improved wake categorization standards. The FAA has implemented this capability at some busy U.S. airports including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Performance-based navigation lets aircraft fly more directly from departure to arrival using satellite signals. Initial operational capability is three months ahead of schedule in the Northern California Metroplex. Between September 2014 and April 2015, the FAA conducted a phased implementation of 44 routes covering the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.

Surface operations have improved. The FAA has implemented the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Surface Visualization Tool (SVT) ahead of schedule at five terminal radar approach control facilities. The system allows tracon controllers to better monitor congestion and plan for changes on airport runways and taxiways, especially during inclement weather.

Data comm has been implemented at towers across the nation, approximately two and a half years ahead of schedule.

AOPA says, “Despite the achievements being made with NextGen technology and modernization, the airlines and their front groups remain critical of the current airspace system and are calling to overhaul it entirely.”

The OIG report states, “FAA is making significant progress in implementing the four NAC priorities. However, the Agency lacks a comprehensive process for effectively identifying or assessing risks, which could hinder its ability to fully implement its priorities. For example, while FAA took some steps to identify risks, it did not fully engage or include all stakeholders or effectively evaluate the severity of the identified risks to ensure its implementation milestones were realistic. In addition, FAA is not proactively mitigating risks to keep the NAC priorities on track. In particular, FAA and industry will need to mitigate several complex risks for capabilities expected for implementation and benefits delivery in the 2019–2020 timeframe, such as resolving issues with DataComm technology installed in aircraft. However, the Agency has not developed a detailed mitigation plan to address identified risks, involved industry in its decision-making process, or transparently reported its progress in this area.”

Mentioned

Stratux – A Raspberry Pi-based homebuilt ADS-B In receiver. Also available in the iFlyGPS store. For more information, see Live Weather and Traffic for Less Than $120 from EAA.

H.R. 4188: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 621 Kansas Avenue in Atchison, Kansas, as the “Amelia Earhart Post Office Building.”

OGTA #11 – South Dakota Warrior: the John Waldron Story

John Mollison tells us that “Old Guys and Their Airplanes” (OGTA) released the award-winning documentary film South Dakota Warrior. The film explores the character behind World War Two’s Battle of Midway hero, LtCDR John C. Waldron.

Waldron established himself in history by leading his torpedo bomber squadron (VT-8) in what appeared to be a futile attack against the Japanese carrier fleet during the opening moments of the crucial battle on June 4, 1942. The story causes the viewer to examine the qualities and responsibilities of leadership. Waldron, along with 28 other men of his squadron, was killed during the battle. He valued his Native American (Lakota) heritage and made reference to this fact as a personal inspiration.

Sky Spotters – an entertaining comic from XKCD.

Credit

Intro music courtesy Brother Love from his Album Of The Year CD. Outtro by Bruno Misonne from The Sound of Flaps.

 

Episode 261 – Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications

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Air Tractor 502

Guest Matt Desch is the CEO of Iridium Communications, the world’s largest satellite system with almost 650,000 customers around the globe. Matt is a commercial/instrument/multi rated pilot and owns a Cessna T210. He also volunteers as a member of the Board of Trustees for AOPA, and flies for Angel Flight as well.

The $3 Billion Iridium NEXT program is set to launch 81 new satellites in a low-earth orbit constellation that will include ADS-B receivers to support the NextGen navigation system. These satellites will relay aircraft signals into the air traffic controllers in real-time to enable world-wide navigation. This will allow, for example, vastly reduced aircraft separation over the Atlantic, yielding and more efficient flights.  The service will be provided through Aireon, a joint venture between Iridium and Nav Canada.

Find Iridium on Twitter as @IridiumComm and on Facebook. Matt tweets as @IridiumBoss.

The week’s aviation news:

David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week: the Air Tractor AT-502.

Grant and Steve

Grant and Steve

In this week’s Australia Desk:

It’s Edition 200 of the Australia Desk!

First Boeing 787 in Jetstar livery rolls out of the Everett paint shop.

Worldwide Saber Reservation System crash takes Virgin Australia down with it.

A Virgin B737 collides with a Jetstar A320 during pushback at Melbourne Airport – up to $2million damage.

The New Zealand Government has issued a travel warning concerning flights taken in Tonga on board the Chinese produced MA60 turboprop aircraft, citing safety concerns.

Ryan Campbell continues his Teen World Flight, leaving the USA & Canada and touching down in Reykjavic, Iceland.  He’s heading to the UK and Europe from there.  Track his aircraft – VH-OLS.

AOPA Australia are holding a Safety Seminar in Perth on August 31st & September 1st at the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia, at Jandakot Airport.  Highly recommended for local pilots.

Here’s to the next 200 Aus Desks!

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

This week we continue our discussion with Oussama Salah on the Middle East and North Africa. We conclude the discussion on cargo and how a new airport should be built to fully integrate into the whole road, rail and sea transportation system. We also discuss the ‘evolutionary’ low cost versus full fair process with the news that FlyDubai is bringing Business Class into its existing low cost fleet.

www.linkedin.com/in/oussamasalah

www.oussamastake.blogspot.com

Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.

DC-10 Water Tanker drop by Stephen Tornblom

DC-10 Water Tanker drop by Stephen Tornblom

Mentioned:

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.

Episode 245 – Time and Navigation at the Smithsonian

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Time and Navigation

David Vanderhoof was invited to be a social media participant for the opening of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s new exhibit, Time and Navigation: The untold story of getting from here to there. He brings us recordings and interviews from the event.

The full selection of audio recordings, (with play times):

How did the aviators "shoot" the sun and stars?

The Winnie Mae, the airplane Wiley Post flew in his record-breaking flights around the world in 1931 and 1933

Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There, Fact Sheet:

Opening April 12, 2013, National Mall building, Gallery 213

Presented in collaboration with the National Museum of American History

Sections: Navigating at Sea; Navigating in the Air; Navigating in Space; Inventing Satellite Navigation; and Navigation for Everyone.

Sponsored by: Northrop Grumman Corporation, Exelis Inc., Honeywell, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of Transportation, Magellan, National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation & Timing, Rockwell Collins and the Institute of Navigation.

“Time and Navigation” explores how revolutions in timekeeping over three centuries have influenced how people find their way. Through artifacts dating from centuries ago to today, the exhibition traces how timekeeping and navigational technologies evolved to help navigators find their way in different modes of travel, in different eras and different environments. Methods are traced through the decades to show that of all the issues facing navigation, one challenge stands out: The need to determine accurate time.

Twelve Things People Might Not Know about Time and Navigation

1. Although it was possible to navigate at sea before 1700, very precise positions could not be determined without accurate time and reliable clocks.

2. The earliest sea-going marine chronometer made in the United States was produced by Bostonian William Cranch Bond during the War of 1812.

3. Calculating position only by monitoring time, speed and direction is called Dead Reckoning. Measuring movement using only internal sensors is known as Inertial Navigation. Observing the sun, moon, or stars at precise times to determine position is known as Celestial Navigation. Radio Navigation systems use radio signals to maintain a course or fix a position.

4. The first several Soviet and American spacecraft sent to the moon missed it completely and crashed on the moon or were lost in space. Subsequent missions achieved their objectives as better techniques for guidance and navigation were developed.

5. When the first men went to the moon (Apollo 8), they used a sextant to help them navigate.

6. A spacecraft travelling across the solar system navigates by means of precisely timed radio signals sent back and forth to Earth. Navigators on Earth track its location and speed and transmit course adjustments. These techniques allow navigators to guide a probe to a planetary rendezvous or a pinpoint landing.

7. Space shuttles used onboard star trackers to locate their position in space with high accuracy. Once the shuttle reached orbit, the tracker automatically locked onto a star to orient the spacecraft.

8. The fundamental unit of time, the second, was defined in the past by the rotation of the Earth. Since 1967, the second has been defined by the signature frequency of a form of the element cesium.

9. A navigator on a ship at sea 100 years ago needed to know the time to the second. GPS satellite navigation works by measuring time to billionths of a second.

10. Albert Einstein’s understanding of space and time and relativity contributed to global navigation. Because GPS satellites experience lower gravity and move at high speeds, their clocks operate at a different rate than clocks on Earth. Since all the clocks in the system must be synchronized, a net correction of 38 millionths of a second per day must be added to the satellite clock’s time.

11. Increasingly reliable clocks and improved navigation methods have allowed navigators to calculate spacecraft positions with greater accuracy. By 2012 missions could be tracked with 100,000 times the accuracy possible in the early 1960s.

12. Atomic clocks in GPS satellites keep time to within three nanoseconds—three-billionths of a second.

The week’s aviation news:

In this week’s Australia Desk:

Grant is back on deck this week as we discuss the release of the new Qantas uniforms, revealed this week to much fanfare. Eight former Royal Australian Navy Kaman SH-2G Super Sea Sprite helicopters, which never saw service after the programme was scrapped two years ago, have been purchased by the New Zealand Government for their Navy at a cost of $A200million ($NZ244million – $US210million). And keeping in the recent theme of aviation lobby groups wading into the upcoming federal election early, the Australian Airports Association is asking the government to consider backing a fund to assist struggling remote area airstrips to the tune of $20million.

Links:

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

This week we look at what’s been happening in the Benelux countries and France with Frenchez Pietersz from Aviation Platform. New low cost carriers, KLM baggage fees and the threat of european hub domination from Schipol all get discussed.

Follow Aviation Platform on Twitter as @AviPlatform on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.

Mentioned:

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.