It was reported from Egersund, Norway, on 22nd September that Jeppesen Marine is contributing to the training of the next generation of seafarers in electronic navigational charts and ECDIS by supplying systems and data to one of Norway’s leading maritime training institutions, Bergen Maritime Technical School. In addition to the C-MAP Professional vector database and ENCs that Jeppesen Marine already supplies for the school’s bridge simulators, the company will now supply more than 50 C-MAP OceanView systems for route planning in an office environment.

On 22nd September it was announced from Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine HQ in Charlottesville, Virginia that the Sperry Marine business unit had received type approval from the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping for its VisionMaster FT™ family of marine radars.

It was announced from London on 9th September that Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Sperry Marine business unit has been chosen by the Brazilian Navy to supply state-of-the-art navigation systems for four new NAPA 500-ton patrol vessels, with options for six additional vessels.

New York Airspace Working Group
On 14th August the US Federal Aviation Administration convened a New York Airspace Working Group that will review current operating procedures over the Hudson and East Rivers and to recommend safety improvements before the end of August.

Ice protection systems
On 3rd August the FAA announced it had changed its certification standards for transport category aircraft to require either the automatic activation of ice protection systems or a method to tell pilots when they should be activated.

Air traffic demand down

At the end of August it was announced from Geneva by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that international scheduled traffic results for July showing passenger demand declining 2.9% compared to the same month in the previous year while freight demand was down 11.3%. The international passenger load factors stood at 80.3%.

The 21st report of the UK Airprox Board (UKAB) was published on 22nd July. It covers statistics for all of 2008 together with findings on recorded Airprox incidents within UK airspace between July and December 2008. During the last six months of 2008, 68 Airprox were reported and investigated, 22 fewer than the average of comparable figures recorded in each of the previous five years.

NAV55 was held at the end of July with a new Chairman, Mike Sollosi of the United States Coast Guard. The previous Chairman, Kees Polderman, who had served for 11 years stood down at the previous meeting.

Among other topics:

Changes to SOLAS were developed to introduce a new requirement for an annual test of AIS. This, if it is accepted, will come into force in 2012. Guidelines for Integrated Bridge Systems and performance standards for Bridge Alert Management were finalised and work began on revising the performance standards for VDRs to take advantage of the increased availability of memory over the past 12 years.

A workshop of GNC Challenges for Miniature Autonomous Systems will be sponsored by The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Munitions Directorate and facilitated by the Institute of Navigation from 26th to 28th October 2009 at the Emerald Coast Conference Center in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
This workshop is intended to bring the Depertment of Defense (DoD) technical and user community, academia, and industry together to review and discuss advances in guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) for Miniature Autonomous Systems.
Abstracts are due by 31st July 2009.

The Council of the IMO, meeting for its 102nd session in London from 29th June to 3rd July, agreed that next year’s theme for World Maritime Day will be 2010: Year of the Seafarer, endorsing a proposal from IMO Secretary-General Admiral Efthimios E. Mitropoulos.
The theme, to be celebrated throughout the year and also at a World Maritime Day parallel event in Argentina, was selected to give IMO and the international maritime community the opportunity to pay tribute to the world’s seafarers for their unique contribution to society and in recognition of the risks they shoulder in the execution of their duties in an often hostile environment.

The most important issue of the 4th Extraordinary International Hydrographic Conference was the global availability and quality of ENCs (Electronic Navigational Charts), which are the only official electronic charts published by maritime countries according to the SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) convention of the IMO. A fairly complete portfolio of ENCs is expected by IMO in the very next years, as being necessary to suit the mandatory carriage of ECDIS on most commercial vessels, which has passed MSCs approval recently.

Transas Marine Pacific together with its local agent KASI (Malaysia) Sdn
Bhd have successfully completed installation and commissioning of a
Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) for the port of Sapangar Bay,
Sabah, East Malaysia.

It was reported on 9th June that with regard to the ongoing accident investigation into the loss of Air France flight AF 447, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), in its capacity as certification authority for aircraft type designed in the EASA Member States (EU + Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), confirmed that it had at all times been fully informed by the responsible accident investigation body, BEA France.

It was announced by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal on 5th June that passenger traffic expressed in terms of passenger kilometres performed (PKP) increased marginally by 1.3% in 2008 compared to 2007, according to preliminary data provided to the organization by its Member States. This is said to represent the slowest rate of growth for the air transport industry since 2002.

At the initiation of the Civil Aviation Authority key organisations involved in the operation and regulation of offshore helicopter operations met on 18th June with representatives from the UK’s search and rescue services to discuss the operational needs of search and rescue organisations, and the role of Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT).

Revised guidance on combating piracy and armed robbery against ships was agreed by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) when it met for its 86th session. Specific guidance relating to the continued attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden was also agreed. The busy agenda also covered the adoption of amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), including a new regulation to make the carriage of electronic charts mandatory, and the approval of goal-based standards for new oil tankers and bulk carriers, for future adoption.

In recent weeks the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) issued an Anti-Piracy Planning Chart as part of an initiative driven by the EU Naval Force.

News has been received that as from 1st June the European Union Long Range Identification and Tracking of ships Data Centre (EU LRIT DC) entered in production following successful developmental testing. This is a milestone following a preparatory phase of a year-and-a-half of development work by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and its main contractor, Collecte Localisation Satellite (CLS).

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has appointed Mr. Raymond Benjamin to the post of Secretary General. Mr. Benjamin, a national of France, succeeds Dr. Taïeb Chérif whose term expires on 31st July 2009.

The appointment is for a period of three years and Mr. Benjamin will assume his functions on 1st August 2009.

The Council made the decision at the fourth meeting of its 186th Session, 27th February 2009.

Although its peak is still four years away, a new active period of Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928, predicts an international panel of experts led by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center and funded by NASA.

Despite the prediction, Earth is still vulnerable to a severe solar storm. Solar storms are eruptions of energy and matter that escape from the sun and may head toward Earth, where even a weak storm can damage satellites and power grids, disrupting communications, the electric power supply and GPS. A single strong blast of “solar wind” can threaten national security, transport, financial services and other essential functions.

Com Dev International Ltd. of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, announced at the end of April that its first experimental satellite, NTS, had successfully completed one year in orbit, validating the company’s high-performance detection capability for its advanced space-based AIS technology.

This technology enables the highly accurate tracking and monitoring of maritime traffic from pole to pole and across the globe, even in areas of high shipping density. Launched on 28th April, 2008, NTS has now mapped global shipping traffic to an extensive degree and has provided the technical foundation for an operational system which is currently under construction.

Initial operations of this system will commence in 2010, it is understood.

Here you’ll find the minutes of the IAIN Officers’ Meeting, held on May 3, 2009, including the financial statement on 2008 and the budget for 2009, Annexes A and B respectively.

Annex C, containing the annual reports of IAIN Representatives, can be found in the ‘Reports from Representatives’ section.

Here you’ll find the annual reports of IAIN Representatives, as presented to the IAIN Officers’ Meeting held on May 3, 2009. These annual reports are part of the Officers’ Meeting minutes.

Included are:

• Annual Report on the ICG (International GNSS Committee) Activities
• Annual Report on the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Activities
• Annual Report on the IHO (International Hydrographic Organisation) Activities
• Annual Report on the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) Activities
• Annual Report on the US PNT (Position, Navigation and Timing) Activities

Galileo Services Association, with 28 members among the major actors of
the GNSS downstream industry, is the leading international association of
GNSS equipment manufacturers and service providers. Since the
establishment of the association, Galileo Services’ members have
significantly invested in the Galileo downstream business, in particular
through EC Framework Programmes for Research and Development, and
have strongly supported the Galileo programme being a key player during
discussions with the Institutions.

OREGIN, the ORganisation of European GNSS equipment and service
INdustry, is the European biggest network of GNSS industries. Created in
1999, OREGIN comprises today over 160 members from 20 European
countries, ranging from large companies to the smallest innovative start ups
and SMEs, in association with university research centres.

Galileo Services and OREGIN have decided to join their forces.

Captain Robert Holleran, Jeppesen’s Chief Technical Pilot, has successfully completed the flight validation training course in accordance with FAA notice 8260.66 [Flight Validation of Satellite-Based Performance Based Navigation (PBN) and Special Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP)]. This makes Captain Holleran one of only four individuals who have received this authorization, and makes Jeppesen the first and only third-party vendor authorized to flight check PBN procedures.

Port of Gdynia AIS
The Gdynia Maritime Office has installed ten new buoy-mounted AIS aid
to navigation units from Tideland Maritime Systems as part of a major
refurbishment of facilities within the port.