The International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), in conjunction with the Chalmers University of Technology, NNVO (the Dutch VTS Operator Training Foundation) and the Port of London Authority, will host an IALA Workshop on Human Factors and Ergonomics in VTS, from 12 to 16 October 2015. The workshop will be held at Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden.

The workshop is directed towards those involved in management and operation of VTS Centres, VTS Training Organisations and those with expertise/an interest in human factor management. The working language of the workshop will be English.

There is a limit of 60 delegates and registration will be on a first-come, first-served, basis.

Take a look at the flyer for further details.

Airborne or acoustically transmitted noise is always present in aircraft, but measures can be taken to reduce it. Announced in early April from Lystrup, Denmark, Terma’s Active Noise Reduction is highly adaptable and supports even the noisiest aircraft platforms, it is understood. This technology can reduce pilot fatigue, hearing loss and improve speech intelligibility.

3D-Audio helps pilots deal with threat warnings within a complete 360 degree sphere of the aircraft. It alerts them from the exact direction of the danger and also when a threat changes path, which is particularly important in the case of missile attack. Pilots with access to 3D-Audio can initiate instant evasive manoeuvres – without the need to process any information mentally.

Over the next three years the firms will initially work on a 3D-Audio/ANR headset for demonstration with BAE Systems’ helmet, followed by final product development. Terma and BAE Systems will then perform aircraft integration and certification before serial helmet production commences.

The radar monitors the airspace around the wind turbines and ensures that the obstruction lights are activated only when an aircraft is within a defined distance from the turbines

It has been announced from Arlington, Virginia, that Terma North America (Terma) will supply a radar system in co-ordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test Obstruction Lighting Control (OLC) technology at a large wind farm in Tehachapi, California.

Said Matt Erpelding, Director of Business Development for Terma’s Command,
Control, and Sensors business unit: “Normally, the obstruction lights are
enabled around the clock for safety. Terma’s solution will allow the aviation obstruction lights to remain off for aesthetic reasons, and then ensure the lights are switched on only when an airplane is in the vicinity, thus preserving aviation safety as well.”

On 9 April Simrad announced its new E5024 ECDIS system, an IMO type approved navigation device aimed at the commercial shipping markets.

This system is an IMO type-approved navigation system, designed for use aboard SOLAS vessels including large passenger ships, tankers, and cargo ships subject to the ECDIS Carriage Mandate. It is understood that this equipment is ideal for vessels required to retrofit ECDIS to meet amended SOLAS requirements, the modular E5024 ECDIS system is said to offer simple installation in either single-station or dual-station (PLECDIS) configurations.

The new Papette Uplink Station in Tahiti, French Polynesia, used for uplinking navigation messages to users rebroadcast from Galileo satellites. © ESA

On 9 April the European Space Agency (ESA) reported that the worldwide Ground Mission Segment providing all Galileo navigation messages has completed a full-scale hardware and software migration to version V2.0, and is now fully operational again.

The Ground Mission Segment was turned off on 26 January, allowing the migration to take place over the month of February. The following month was taken up with detailed checking by operations and system, concluding in a final ‘check point’ on 31 March to validate the successful migration.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced global passenger traffic results for February showing a strengthening in demand growth compared to February 2014.

Total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 6.2%, which was an improvement on the January year-over-year increase of 4.5%. Monthly results were positively impacted by the Lunar New Year holiday which occurred in February this year, one month later than in 2014. February capacity (available seat kilometres or ASKs) increased by 5.6%, and load factor rose 0.5 percentage points to 78.5%.

Said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO: ‘Lunar New Year celebrations, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, certainly contributed to the robust February performance, but it is also clear that solid demand for connectivity is offsetting economic weakness in some regions including the Eurozone.’

It was announced from Montreal on 1 April that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will be hosting a series of important open and invitation-only meetings this May, as it continues to further its strategic objectives and enhance the aviation network supporting its Africa and Indian Ocean (AFI) Region.

Dubbed ‘AFI Aviation Week’, the group of meetings will take place from 18-21 May in Maputo, Mozambique. They will include the first meeting of the AFI Security/Facilitation (SECFAL) Initiative Steering Committee (invitation-only) on 18 May; the Fifteenth Comprehensive Regional Implementation Plan for Aviation Safety in Africa (AFI Plan) Steering Committee Meeting (invitation-only) on 19 May; the Second AFI Aviation Safety Symposium (open session) on 20 May; and lastly a meeting of the AFI Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF, invitation-only) on 21 May.

New links are being forged to unite all European ATM stakeholders in a bold collaborative venture to provide essential services for the benefit of all airspace users. This was announced by EUROCONTROL on 19 March.

Better known as centralised services, once implemented, they should make for net savings of up to €1.6 billion over ten years as overlapping ATM investments on a national basis are reduced, it is understood. By eliminating fragmentation and its consequent costs, centralised services will enhance performance in general and safety performance in particular; they will improve interoperability and ensure that Europe’s air navigation service providers (ANSPs) have access to the world’s most advanced ATM technology.

The seventh and eighth Galileo satellites, set for launch together at the end of the week ahead, have been fitted together onto the dispenser that will carry them during their flight to orbit. Next, the dispenser plus satellites will be placed onto the Fregat upper stage of their Soyuz ST-B launcher.

As much a spacecraft as a launch stage, the re-ignitable Fregat will haul the Galileo satellites most of the way up to their final orbital altitude, once the first three stages of the Soyuz have taken them up to their initial orbit.

Europe’s seventh and eighth Galileo satellites, fixed to their dispenser, being transported to the 3SB preparation building on 18 March. It is here that they are mated to their Fregat upper stage and then encapsulated within their launch fairing. The pair of satellites will be launched by Soyuz ST-B on 27 March 2015. Note the protective metal panels covering the solar wings folded against the sides of the Galileo satellites. – © ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE-Service Optique CSG

Readers are advised that 30 March 2015 is the closing date for submission of abstracts.

Details of the topics to be discussed are to be found on the attached Call for Presenters pdf.

Terma 5502 unit at Vienna Airport

It was announced from Lystrup, Denmark, on 11 March that Terma has been contracted by Avibit Air Traffic Solutions to deliver and install a SCANTER 5502 Surface Movement Radar (SMR) to Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS) in Düsseldorf Airport. The New Generation of Solid State SCANTER radar will be working along with the already operational SCANTER 2001 installed in nine German airports and underline the long-term relationship between Terma A/S and DFS going back to the first installation in 1999.

Munich Airport has also chosen SCANTER 5502 to replace the current Terma
240100, it is understood.

Terma 5502 unit at Nice Airport

Galileo satellite being prepared for fit check. This test ensures the 7th and 8th Galileo satellites fit onto their dual-launch dispenser. The dispenser sits atop the Fregat upper stage of their Soyuz ST-B launcher. – © ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE – Service Optique CSG

Since the seventh and eighth Galileo satellites arrived in French Guiana last month (February), they have undergone several tests – including one System Compatibility Test Campaign each, where they are linked up to the rest of the global Galileo ground segment as if they are already live in orbit.

The all-important fit check was passed in the middle of February. The two satellites were installed separately onto their dual-launch dispenser, to check they fitted correctly.

Last week saw the finalisation of their hardware and software, and the charging of their batteries – on which the satellites will be reliant from the short but crucial period from their launch to the unfurling of their solar arrays in orbit.

The pair of satellites is now ready to be transferred to the Spaceport’s S5A fuelling facility, where they will receive the fuel to keep them controllable during their twelve-year working lives.

As part of its ongoing investigation into the accident at LaGuardia Airport on 5 March where Delta Air Lines flight 1086, which originated in Atlanta, Georgia, veered off the runway during landing, the NTSB released from Washington an investigative update the following day.

Ships assigned to Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) arrived in Varna on 7 March for a scheduled port visit during the Group’s deployment to the Black Sea.

Led by Rear-Admiral Brad Williamson of the United States Navy, SNMG2 currently comprises the flagship USS Vicksburg, from Canada HMCS Fredericton, from Turkey TCG Turgutreis (illustrated), FGS Spessart of the Federal German Navy, from Italy ITS Aliseo, and ROS Regina Maria of the Romanian Navy.

© US Navy – photo by Lt. Robyn Gerstenslager

It was reported on 4 March that Terma will supply a radar system to the national test centre for large wind turbines in Østerild in Thy, Denmark. The system will ensure that aviation obstruction lights are switched on only when aircraft are in the vicinity. Usually, the obstruction lights are switched on around the clock.

The Danish Technical University (DTU), which is responsible for the installation and operation of the Østerild test centre, has decided to install a radar system together with companies Siemens and Vestas. DTU has contracted with Terma for the supply of a SCANTER 5202 X-band radar optimized for air surveillance.

Inmarsat announced the successful launch of its second Global Xpress (GX) satellite on board an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 1 February.

The Inmarsat-5 F2 (I-5 F2) satellite was correctly acquired by the Inmarsat
Paumalu ground station at 1810 GMT on 1 February, and launch provider ILS confirmed a successful spacecraft separation at 0402 GMT on 2 February.

Over the following weeks the Inmarsat operations team has commanded the satellite to perform a series of manoeuvres to raise I-5 F2 to a geo-synchronous elliptical orbit, and by the end of February it was expected to have completed deployment of its solar arrays and reflectors.

Fugro, the world’s largest integrated supplier of survey and geotechnical related services collects, processes and interprets data relative to the earth’s surface and the soils and rocks beneath and provides advice based on the results to clients in various market sectors around the world

Fugro has further extended its technology leadership in the field of GNSS augmentation systems for offshore positioning applications with the launch of its G4 service. The new satellite correction service is the first to take advantage of all four GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems): GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. GNSS augmentation services significantly improve positional accuracy compared to unaided GNSS receivers, which are commonly used in the consumer sector.

It was reported from Barcelona on 13 February that Colombia’s National Maritime Authority, DIMAR, had renewed the marine marking in Barranquilla (Colombia). The Barcelona-based company Almarin carried out the supply and establishment of twenty-eight buoys for the Magdalena river and also provided eight shore-based beacons. Included in this project were four buoys for the neighbouring Santa Marta Port.

With this project DIMAR continues its process of homogenization and improvement of the aids to navigation in Colombia, in accordance with IALA requirements, and as part of its primary goal of improving safety and security for mariners in Colombian waters.

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced from Washington on 15 February that it proposed a framework of regulations that would allow routine use of certain small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in today’s aviation system, while maintaining flexibility to accommodate future technological innovations.

The FAA proposal offers safety rules for small UAS (under 55 pounds or approx. 25kg in weight) conducting non-recreational operations. The rule would limit flights to daylight and visual-line-of-sight operations. It also addresses
height restrictions, operator certification, optional use of a visual observer, aircraft registration and marking, and operational limits.

Ship recycling yards in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh need to be part of the global scheme of sound ship recycling and those yards in Alang which have invested in fully upgrading their facilities to meet the terms of internationally agreed rules should be rewarded by winning more business. This was the view expressed by Akihiro Tamura, Director of Shipbuilding Policy at the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), shortly after returning from a fact finding trip to Indian recycling yards in Alang.

It was announced from Montreal on 3 February that Member States of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) confirmed their support for the Organization’s comprehensive conflict zone risk mitigation work programme, including a proposal to develop a prototype online resource for global conflict zone risk information.

More than 850 government and industry participants at ICAO’s High Level Safety Conference confirmed their strong backing for the UN aviation agency’s conflict zone objectives in recommendations that will now be guided by the 36-State ICAO Council.

One of two Galileo satellites, safely in its protective container, being unloaded from their Air France Boeing 747 at Cayenne-Félix Eboué Airport in French
Guiana on 5 February 2015. © ESA – Paul Muller

Another two Galileo satellites have touched down in French Guiana ready to take their place in Europe’s satellite navigation constellation, it was reported by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 6 February.

The pair, safely cocooned inside their air-conditioned containers inside an Air France Boeing 747, landed at Cayenne-Félix Eboué Airport on 5 February. They were then taken by lorry to be installed in the cleanroom surroundings of Europe’s Spaceport to begin final preparations for launch.

The seventh and eighth Galileo satellites will be launched together by Soyuz in late March, resuming the interrupted building of the satellite navigation
constellation.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) has responded to the (UK) Airports Commission’s consultation on options for a new runway, which presented the Commission’s analysis of proposals shortlisted last year: two for expansion at Heathrow Airport and one proposal at Gatwick Airport. CILT has concluded that Heathrow is the best transport option, but that the impacts must be capped.

Based in Corby in the East Midlands CILT states that the Heathrow runway options are better from an overall transport perspective simply because the airport is closer to the centre of gravity of the population and economic activity.

On 29 January 2015, Eurocontrol announced that there were no en route ATFM (air traffic flow management) delays in the European Network, as verified by post-operations analysis experts at the Network Operations Centre. This is only the third time since 2010 that this has happened – the others being on Christmas Day in 2012 and 2014.

The Network Manager registered a traffic demand of 23,397 flights and a total network delay of 12,044 minutes (an average of about 31 seconds per flight), all attributed to weather and airports, none for en route.

On 27 January the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne following a visit to the A&P Group in Falmouth (SW England) announced that the UK Government has awarded a &pind;15 million defence contract for the A&P Group that will create sixteen new jobs in Falmouth, Cornwall including six new apprenticeships. This work is for the installation of equipment to enhance four new tankers in order that they are ready for operations with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary on delivery.

A&P Group is one of Europe’s leading ship repair companies, is a major provider of marine engineering services to the UK Ministry of Defence and Foreign Navies. The Group operates seven dry docks across three strategic locations in the UK: the Tyne, the Tees and at Falmouth.