The International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) holds its Congress in Prague from 20-24 October 2015. The fourth Forum on Resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) will be held from 1600-1800 on 20 October 2015, immediately preceding the Conference in the same venue.

This follows three very successful events at ENC 2014 in Rotterdam, at ION ITM 2015 at Dana Point California and at ENC 2015 in Bordeaux. The motivation for these events is the increasing reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems in all transport sectors, for timing and other essential infrastructure throughout the World.

Note: there is no charge for this event, those wishing to attend are invited to register their interest with the organisers, nick-dot-ward-at-gla-hyphen-rrnav-dot-org

The day’s programme can be found here.

News has been received of this event organised by the College of Maritime Transport & Technology (CMTT) to be held at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, Abu Qir, Alexandria, Egypt.

IMTTC 2015 aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working in the maritime industry and academia to provide them with a platform to report on the latest developments, achievements, deployments, technology trends and research findings as well as initiatives related to maritime transport and technology.

More details and a call for papers at the conference page: http://imttc.aast.edu.

The World Maritime Day theme for 2015 is ‘Maritime education and training’. This was adopted to focus attention on the wider spectrum of maritime education and training, in particular its adequacy and quality, as the bedrock of a safe and secure shipping industry, which needs to preserve the quality, practical skills and competence of qualified human resources, in order to ensure sustainability.

At the International Maritime Organization (IMO) the 1978 STCW Convention and Code, as amended, set the international benchmark for the training and education of seafarers. While compliance with its standards is essential for serving on board ships, the skills and competence of seafarers, and indeed, the human element ashore, can only be adequately underpinned, updated and maintained through effective maritime education and training.

Although World Maritime Day will be celebrated at IMO Headquarters on 24 September other events and activities focusing on maritime education and training are being held throughout the year.

© Crown 2015

The extraordinary feats of the Royal Air Force’s Battle of Britain heroes, who fought to save Britain from invasion 75 years ago, were honoured during a special service at Westminster Abbey on 20 September. The Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication, led by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, saw veterans parade through the Abbey with the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour – listing the 2,936 aircrew who fought in the Battle – and included readings from RAF personnel including Chaplain-in-Chief, The Venerable Jonathan Chaffey, and others.

After the service onlookers were treated to a six-ship flypast illustrated), over the Abbey as two Hurricanes and four Spitfires from RAF Coningsby’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight roared overhead.

© Crown 2015

The Royal Air Force Red Arrows have flown with the Vulcan bomber for the final time in a show of great British aviation icons. Jets from the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team performed a flypast with the mighty Cold War aircraft at the Southport Air Show, on Britain’s north-west coast on 19 September.

Thousands of people cheered and waved as the Red Arrows’ nine distinctive
British- built Hawk aircraft made a V-shape ahead of the Vulcan. This striking formation flew over water, along the coast, having joined up over the sea about ten miles from Prestatyn. It was the highlight of the air show, at which both the Vulcan and Red Arrows also displayed individually.

Fine-tuning a SCANTER radar system

It was announced from Aarhus, Denmark, on 11 September that Terma will be introducing its latest naval radar at the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2015 to be held at London’s EXCEL from 15 to 18 September.

TERMA will introduce its new C-Flex COMPACT Mission System for smaller vessels. It provides situational awareness, supports efficient planning and decision making, and contains tools for intelligence and legal evidence collection. Its capabilities are derived from Terma’s full C-Flex CMS range and thus has a very solid base it is understood.

© Crown Copyright 2015

The UK Ministry of Defence announced on 11 September that Royal Air Force Typhoon jets had flown from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland to intercept Russian ‘Blackjack’ aircraft flying in international air space.

© Crown Copyright 2015

An ICAO Delegation led by Secretary General Dr Fang Liu, and including ICAO’s Regional Director for Western and Central Africa, Mr Mam Sait Jallow, and its Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Mr Barry Kashambo, visited Nairobi, Kenya, and Addis Ababa, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, from 18-20 August 2015. This was reported from ICAO HQ in Montreal on 27 August.

On 19 August Secretary General Liu met HE Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC). Also present at the meeting was Mr Mankopane Daniel Tshepo Peege, Representative of South Africa on the ICAO Council. Their fruitful and friendly discussions covered the ongoing implementation of the Memorandum of Cooperation signed by the two organizations in 2010, as well as various goals common to ICAO’s current Strategic Objectives and the AU Agenda 2063. Skilled personnel training and technical assistance priorities were also high on the two leaders’ agendas.

ICAO Secretary General, Dr Fang Liu, meeting with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, HE Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (photo top, left), and the President of Ethiopia, HE Dr Mulatu Teshome Wirtu (photo bottom, right), during her recent mission to Addis Ababa and Nairobi. – Photo ©ICAO.

Anthony Parker, Sales Manager – Sub-Saharan Africa of Tideland Signal Limited based in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, in the UK reports that his company will be organising an aids to navigation workshop for Africa.

Training will take place at Transnet Port Authority, Durban, South Africa on 8 & 9 December, 2015 with the objective of familiarising those who attend with aids to navigation functions and maintenance in order to optimise equipment capabilities and performance, observing recommended safety precautions.

The instructors are three factory-trained aids to navigation engineers and 20 to 30 participants are anticipated.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) announced on 2 September that after extensive ground and space testing, SES-5 GEO satellite has now entered into European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) operational platform broadcasting EGNOS Signal-In-Space (SIS).

EGNOS is operated by the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), under contract by the GSA on behalf of the European Commission. SES-5 – which replaces Inmarsat-4F2 – will ensure reliable EGNOS services until 2026. It has been introduced through EGNOS System Release V241M, which will enable a range of performance improvements. In particular, EGNOS will offer even greater stability during periods of high ionospheric activity.

ESA’s introduction to EGNOS.

Finavia Corporation has signed an agreement on air traffic controller training with Lennuliiklusteeninduse AS (EANS), a company responsible for air navigation services in Estonia. EANS will acquire an air control course from Finavia in order to obtain additional staff. This was reported by Finavia in Vantaa, Finland on 1 September.

EANS organised a bidding process for international training providers in order to urgently fill its increasing service needs with skilled professionals. Finaviabased Avia College will train seven Estonian air control students during the next air traffic controller course. The strength of Finnish air traffic controller training is its high-quality training programme focused on professional expertise which can be completed in 18 months.

Finnish air traffic controller.

DGPS reference station anenna

The (US) Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) service augments GPS by providing increased accuracy and integrity using land-based reference stations to transmit correction messages over radiobeacon frequencies.

It is understood that a number of factors have contributed to declining use of NDGPS and, based on an assessment by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DOT, and USACE, DHS, DOT, and USACE are proposing to shutdown and decommission 62 DGPS sites, which will leave 22 operational sites available to users in coastal areas. A notice inviting public comment on the shutdown and decommissioning of these DGPS sites has been published and termination of the NDGPS broadcasts at these sites is planned to occur on 15 January 2016.

NDGPS coverage

Cutaway view of the Soyuz rocket fairing carrying a pair of Galileo satellites. – photo © ESA – J. Huart, 2014

Europe’s latest Galileo satellites are fully fuelled, leaving them ready to be attached to their launcher upper stage in preparation for their 11 September launch, it was reported by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 28 August.

Galileo 9 and 10 are due to launch atop a Soyuz launcher at 0408 GMT on 11 September from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Technicians donned SCAPE (Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble) suits to fill each satellite with sufficient hydrazine fuel for their planned twelve years of operations in space. This fuel is needed for fine-tuning of their orbital paths following their launch, followed by routine orbital and attitude control in the course of their working lives.

Each Galileo satellite needs to keep its navigation antenna trained on Earth’s disc at all times, employing dedicated infrared Earth and Sun sensors for this purpose.

This marked the first time Galileo had been fuelled within the Guiana Space Centre’s 3SB preparation building. Previously the S5 fuelling building was dedicated to this purpose, but upgrades by Arianespace mean fuelling can now take place at the same location where they will subsequently be attached to their Fregat upper stage, streamlining the satellite preparation process.

On 20 August 2015, Ariane 5 flight VA225 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Eutelsat-8 West B and Intelsat-34, into their planned orbits. – Photo © ESA; Id 345766

An Ariane 5 lifted off this week from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and delivered two telecom satellites into their planned orbits. The launch of flight VA225 occurred on 20 August at 2034 GMT (2234 CEST, 1734 local time).

Eutelsat-8 West B, with a mass of 5782 kg and mounted in the upper position atop Ariane’s Sylda dual-payload carrier, was the first to be released about 28 minutes into the mission. Following a series of burns controlled by Ariane’s computer, the Sylda structure encasing the 3300 kg Intelsat-34 was then jettisoned. Intelsat-34 was released into its own transfer orbit about 13 minutes after the first satellite.

On 12 August ESA signed contracts for the development of the Ariane 6 new-generation launcher, its launch base and the Vega C evolution of the current ESA small launcher.

The contracts, signed at ESA’s Paris Head Office with Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL), France’s CNES space agency and ELV, respectively, cover all development work on Ariane 6 and its launch base for a maiden flight in 2020, and on Vega C for its 2018 debut.
Said Jan Woerner, Director General of ESA: ‘These contracts will allow the development of a family of European launchers, highly competitive in the world market and ensuring autonomous access to space at fully competitive prices for ESA’s Member States.

Illustrations showing data recording fuel consumption, roll, motion, pitch, wind, sea, swell and other conditions.

ABB and Dutch weather forecasting specialist, MeteoGroup, have won an order to outfit 140 container vessels with software to optimize routes, it was reported by ABB in Zurich on 17 August.

ABB is working with MeteoGroup to equip 140 container ships from Maersk Line with advisory software to optimize routes, boost maritime safety and protect precious cargo based on factors including hull design and weather. This will, it is understood, assist the vessels avoid conditions that could be harmful to the them, to crew or cargo.

Inmarsat 3-satellite-constellation-around-the-world.

It was reported on 17 August by Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, that the third satellite in the transformational Global Xpress (GX) programme – Inmarsat-5 F3 (I-5 F3) – has been scheduled for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1244 (BST) on 28 August.

The third Global Xpress satellite to be launched, I-5 F3, will cover the Pacific Ocean Region and will, together with Inmarsat-5 F1 and Inmarsat-5 F2, create the world’s first globally available, high-speed mobile broadband service, delivered through a single provider, it is understood.

©Crown copyright, 2015 MOD News Licence 14082015A

If ever there was an illustration of the awesome power projected by the Royal Navy’s helicopters – this image is it. The Lynx helicopter from 815 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, lit up the night sky with her decoy flares as part of an exercise in the Indian Ocean.

Decoy flares – or Infra Red Counter Measures – attract heat-seeking missiles, drawing them away from the helicopter’s engines and onto a much hotter target.

News has been received from Caroline Selim, Conference Organiser at the Arab Institute of Navigation (AIN) that the biannual Melaha Conference is back next year with the theme GNSS WAY Ahead to be held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh in the Tropitel Naama Bay Hotel.

Further details may be found on the Melaha Conference website. There you can check the venue topics, location and participation procedures and take advantage of early bird bookings with discounted registration fees.

Conference topics include: new GNSS Developments, products and services, innovation, jamming, applications.

UK airports have seen the strongest start to a year since 2008 – with first quarter passenger numbers now close to levels which were last seen during the prerecession years.

Between January and March 2015, UK terminals handled 50.2m passengers, making this year’s Q1 the busiest since the same period in 2008, just prior to the global financial crisis, which accounted for 51.4m passengers.

The first three months of 2015 also recorded the largest growth in passenger numbers (7.5%) of any quarter in the last ten years. Figures show this increase was primarily the result of growth in European traffic (9%) and domestic traffic (7%).

Commercial flights for Q1 2015 have also increased (471,000) showing the strongest growth (2.9%) of any quarter for nine years, since Q1 2006.

Mr Nguyen Ngoc Trong, Executive Vice President, Vietnam Airlines (second right), welcoming the pilots, Captains Dang Ngoc Co (second left) and Tran Tuan Hung (left)

National carrier Vietnam Airlines has announced the arrival in Hanoi of the first of its new B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. After touching down at the capital’s Noi Bai Airport at 1710 (local time) on 2 August aircraft VN-A861 was officially welcomed by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Trong, Executive Vice President of Vietnam Airlines.

This aircraft will go straight into operation on domestic services between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from 4 August, before making its international debut on Vietnam Airlines’ nonstop routes to London in September – making it the first Asian airline to operate both Boeing and Airbus’ modern next-generation aircraft at the same time. The airline will also become the first to operate the new B787-9 Dreamliner nonstop between South East Asia and Europe, it is understood.

This is the first of a total of 19 Boeing 787s which will be delivered to Vietnam Airlines by 2019, as part of a major fleet upgrade programme which also includes 14 Airbus A350-900 XWBs. These new aircraft will replace the airline’s entire fleet of wide bodied aircraft while maintaining its costeffectiveness on long-haul and intercontinental routes. Vietnam Airlines’ next Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is due to be delivered on 10 August 2015.

Left to right: Matthew Banks, Deck Officer Cadet; Captain Nigel Hope, Director of Maritime Training at Trinity House; Thomas Dutton, Deck Officer Cadet

At the beginning of July the Jubilee Sailing Trust and Trinity House announced their new cadet training programme at an event on board SV Tenacious at West India Docks in London.

The first cadet to be taking part in the joint three year programme, Matthew Banks from Cornwall, will study for a Foundation Degree in Maritime Studies at the Warsash Maritime Academy. This will allow him to gain the necessary knowledge before joining Tenacious for unique practical seamanship training on the UK’s largest square rigged sail training tall ship; he will then broaden his sea experience with sea time on board different types of ships, including tanker, container, ferry and cruise ships. As part of this unique cadetship programme, he will also complete additional training in the traditional arts of ship rigging, sail making and boat building.

SV Tenacious at West India Docks, London

For Exercise Indradanush the IAF has flown their Russian built Flanker jet fighters, along with transport and tanker aircraft, across three continents to train with their RAF counterparts. Designed to reinforce the strategic relationship and enhance the mutual operational understanding between the two air forces, pilots and ground forces from both nations are participating in a series of increasingly complex training scenarios. – © Crown copyright 2013

On 27 July it was reported that Royal Air Force and Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft were dogfighting in a major airpower training exercise in the skies above Britain.

It was announced from Cairo on 26 July that IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, reported the inauguration of Saudi Arabia’s new award-winning Medina Airport that day. This was the result of a pioneering public-private partnership project under IFC’s supervision as Lead Advisor.

The $1.2 billion eco-friendly new airport was inaugurated by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. IFC helped Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) structure the PPP, the first of its kind in a Gulf Cooperation Council country. The 25-year deal was awarded to a consortium comprising TAV Airports Holding of Turkey, Al Rajhi Holdings, and Saudi Oger in 2012.

The (UK) Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the national telecoms regulator (Ofcom) will be taking the stage at December’s UK Drone Show in Birmingham to impart the latest drone and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) information to experts in the drone industry. This event, to be held on 5 and 6 December at Birmingham’s NEC Arena, will see the CAA present and discuss UAV and drone regulations with commercial and consumer customers for the first time in what is said to be the UK’s only public exhibition dedicated to the safe use of drone and UAV technology.

The regulator is expected to outline current thinking on how oversight of the rapidly expanding UAV sector will evolve over the short to medium term. As well as addressing issues such as misuse and dangerous flying by recreational users, Ofcom will also be outlining the latest reports from the regulatory body.