When I joined Microsoft in 2004, a key task was to help streamline internal and external communication and cut through the clutter of information produced by this large, global organization. This article was published when I was Microsoft EMEA’s senior director of communications. Here are some tried-and-tested methods for generating more focused and relevant communication, and reflects on the role of new media in the mix - reprinted from Strategic Communications Management magazine.

Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation which develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. The company had a net revenue of US$39.78 billion in 2005 and has 67,862 employees worldwide.

Microsoft has changed the world. There’s nothing like an immodest corporate statement to get the critical juices flowing, but I would say this is simply a statement of fact. The worlds of work and leisure, and indeed communication, have changed beyond recognition over the last 20 – even the last two or three years. This change is not all attributable to Microsoft, obviously, but to all the leaders in technology who have helped to improve the way we communicate.

However, new doesn’t always mean different, sometimes it just means more. This articles shares some practices adopted by Microsoft to reduce the inevitable clutter generated inside a large and matrixed organization with an enthusiasm for using new and exciting technology. Communicating in a matrix environmentMicrosoft has a special responsibility in the world of IT communications to demonstrate smarter ways to integrate technology into the new world of work.

Yet as one of the largest and most complex companies creating technological innovation, our own communication challenges are perhaps as great as in any company. Like many companies with horizontal divisions for international operations and vertical divisions of product groups, Microsoft’s matrix of management decision-making and the challenge to communicate through this matrix is very complex. Internal and external communicators each have geographical, functional and product-area responsibilities as their direct focus.

This invariably means they work within communication silos roles rather than taking a broader vista of the company as a whole . Without proper planning, a journalist might receive approaches from communicators operating in each and every one of these divisions.

The challenge for internal communication is similar – information coming at employees from every direction. The importance of managing this flow of internal communication, news, story pitches and relationship building is well understood in Microsoft. Even before the explosion in new media and communication vehicles, we had developed a number of air-traffic control tools to avoid collisions. For example, we map story-pitching plans to moderate interaction with the media from diverse sources of communication across the company.

In practice this means that any communicator planning to pitch a story to the media must clear their proposal through an integration group responsible for ensuring that we prioritize the best stories, target the right journalists and avoid midair collisions on the way.

We’ve also established a regular quarterly meeting and monthly Live Meeting conference call for all PR leads in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) – regardless of their areas of responsibility. This has become a clearing house for communication plans and has helped establish the discipline of air-traffic control. The same sort of planning approach is also applied to product launch campaigns, corporate communication and internal communication. Part of the solution has been to build a sense of professional community across the divisions.

To do this, we physically brought together the communication directors and managers and facilitated their sharing of plans and priorities.We encouraged each to identify the connection points, opportunities and threats to more effective communication. Similarly, we’ve brought together all those with an internal communication responsibility from across the organization to share their planning and exchange best practice. In fact, one of our most important developments during the past year has been the establishment of an Internal Communicator Community. This team has met regularly, set up work groups to develop new cross-functional projects and solutions, and held training workshops. In a short space of time, this team has given internal communication a higher profile with senior management, increased the skills and experience of the community and started to address internal air-traffic control challenges.

We’re now developing a new approach to the annual planning process, by creating a forum for sharing internal and internal communication plans across all business disciplines to build a “one company” approach. This process preserves the integrity of individual plans where they are relevant to discrete audiences, but enables us to identify the opportunities to exploit the connection points between plans. Our objective is to use a campaign approach to integrate internal and external communication across the company.

Another method that helps us produce more focused and relevant communication is the use of a storytelling framework. This has led to the creation of a “Master Narrative,” which is a simple way to explain the elements required for every Microsoft story. In a complex business environment dealing with highly sophisticated and innovative technology, this is a distilling process that puts all communications through a message.

New communications technology is increasing pressure on communicators to make decisions that result in quality of information over quantity. Although in the business of producing new communication technology, Microsoft faces the same challenge as other large, global organizations to cut down on communication overload. Microsoft’s approach to cutting down on clutter includes careful planning and coordination, the use of a storytelling framework, self-regulation and better content management. Before communicating, practitioners at Microsoft are encouraged to test that all messages are professional, unambiguous, respectful and essential.

Cutting through the clutter at Microsoft filter to ensure that key messages are constantly  reinforced through a “One Microsoft” approach. The framework brings together the three main elements of the bigger story we want to tell about our products, people and principles. It has become a great way to filter out unimportant information and redefine relevance and timing for every campaign. The narrative is used by communicators and senior executives and their speech writers when drafting presentations and communications.

Gaining executive buy-in and leadership for the Master Narrative was essential and we’ve found that the key to promoting this approach has been to focus on the business significance of a storytelling framework, rather than it’s role as a communication tool. We’ve also been fortunate in that our EMEA regional president decided to lead the implementation of the Master Narrative by using it as the famework for his own internal and external presentations and media stories. nother of our guiding principles to reducing communication overload has been the recognition that we don’t need to communicte everything ll the time by every conceivable means.

Another significant development we’ve made at Microsoft has been to revamp our principal communication intranet site. We’ve turned it into the central repository of all facts, figures, positions, statistical analysis, evidence and stories. This doesn’t mean we’ve closed down all other sites. Instead, we’re making our main site the gateway to the others with intelligent links and plain English tutorials (or more accurately – plain language tutorials) on how to communicate better. One member of our communication team has informally changed his job title to “Content Guru.” His role is to determine whether new content needs to be created or if it already exists in another form in a different place. He’s just a phone call away from anyone in the company looking for existing resources related to messaging, positioning statements, questions and answers, briefings, presentations, speeches and so on. As with many of the other initiatives described here, this work is at an early stage, but is already beginning to make an impact.

Content management has become another key weapon in our battle to cut the clutter. With the onslaught of so many new ways to communicate, it’s easy to forget the importance of quality over quantity. The valuable test for any new communication tool is to ask how this tool will help deliver a better quality of information?

Former UK Ambassador to the US, Christopher Meyer, has observed that “speed and technology are certainly powerful weapons (in the diplomat’s armory), but without quality and context, information delivered fast is without merit.” This is good advice for all communicators when considering the challenge of new technology.

At Microsoft, we’ve re-evaluated all our communication channels over the past year and launched new tools to connect with our workforce in the most relevant way. Communication can certainly be enhanced through the judicious use of new communication technologies and can be enriched by adding social media to the communication mix. But to avoid clutter and ensure a better quality of communication, we need to exercise self-restraint in the use of our new communication toys.

Novelist E M Forster implored his readers to, “only connect!” The most important aspect of communication is not what it is, the tools, technological or otherwise – but what it does – changing perceptions and behavior. At Microsoft, we’re striving to achieve this focused approach through good air-traffic control, strong storytelling, many voices with single messages and integrated communication planning. Ultimately, the measure of our success will be judged by the impact of our communication, not the output.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLES…

1) Blogging

Blogs are not just another way to publish a press release or issue a corporate statement. To reach their audience they need to be fresh and current, frequently updated, written in the right language and style, and clearly identified as the blogger’s “own work.” Content written by PR people and crafted by agencies just doesn’t cut it in the blogosphere. Good blogging can bend the boundaries of corporate communication by turning erstwhile corporate spokespeople into community players. If the executive is a natural-born blogger, then we should unleash them. But we shouldn’t complain if they end up looking exposed and phoney if they’re not such a natural to this form of communication.

2) Podcasts and webcasts

We’ve developed both podcasting and videocasting tools for our EMEA president Neil Holloway. We needed to find a way to make his communications as lively, current, fresh and alive as possible. The format of “Neil Unplugged” provides a downloadable conversation, which enables him to connect with over 13,000 employees in 138 countries. The latest edition of Neil Unplugged has everything from chatty comments about his recent honeymoon through to facts, figures and insights on business planning and priorities.

An e-mail alert goes out with just a couple of paragraphs and a link to the video or audio content hosted on an online platform. With an index of the video files, employees can go straight to what interests them most and access it immediately or save it for later. The hit rate on this tool has been fantastic and has successfully built traffic to other parts of our intranet site.

3) E-mail postcards

This vehicle was developed for our president of Microsoft International, Jean-Philippe Courtois. Jean-Philippe, like Neil, travels a lot, but we found that very few people in the company were actually aware of what he had been doing on their behalf. Jean-Philippe is the champion of corporate social responsibility in Microsoft. He has personally led a number of initiatives creating real impact and progress in developing countries through education-focused community investment programs in partnership with UNICEF and the International Red Cross, among others. We hit upon the idea of an electronic postcard from the president sent direct to employees by e-mail from wherever he travels. Recent postcards have featured stories from Middle East visits and encounters in Africa. The style of writing is very personal and comes over as one-to-one communication. The postcards have been a real hit and have driven further traffic to related communication.

I’m sure glad my name isn’t Jesse Kennedy Jr., or something to that effect. Do you recognize just how tragedy-laden this family’s history has been? (Note: the graphic I made below is not even the full timeline of Kennedy tragedies)

I mean, what are the odds?

Pretty unbelievable, right? According to NTSB* statistics, the chances of being killed in a plane crash are 52.6 million: 1. Wow. So you’ll notice above that 4 Kennedy family members were killed in plane crashes over a time period spanning just 55 years…AND Edward was in a plane crash, but survived (although his aide was killed in that very same crash).

I mean, this is remarkable. Remarkable to the point where I honestly cannot fathom it. This family has had quite literally the worst “luck” ever. At the risk of sounding esoteric (my favorite opener to a sentence), there is some higher power going on here–something beyond our understanding of the natural 3-dimensional world. I will leave it at that, without attempting to philosophize as to what is going on here, but regardless, I’m glad I’m not a Kennedy.

*Accidents and Accident Rates by NTSB Classification 1995-2004 DOT Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 1995- 2004

The following is my Q&A that appeared in The Sun News on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. The online version can be found here.

City of Residence: Bonaire

Occupation: Director of education at the Museum of Aviation

QUESTION: Where were you raised?

ANSWER: Satellite Beach, Fla.

QUESTION: How long have you been with the Museum of Aviation?

ANSWER: I have worked here for 13 years.

QUESTION: What did you do prior to working at the museum?

ANSWER: I taught elementary school.

QUESTION: Why did you choose to get into the education field?

ANSWER: I chose to be a teacher because I enjoy learning and working with children.

QUESTION: What activity are you looking forward to the most in the coming months?

ANSWER: Feb. 15 -19, during winter break, the museum will offer camps for all grade levels. Each camp is from 9 a.m. to noon and costs $125 for the week. The camps are: Candy Camp for Pre-K through third grade, From Wright to Buzz for third through fifth grade, and Air Traffic Control for sixth through 12th grade.

QUESTION:What is a typical day like?

ANSWER: Planning special events … and working with the many visitors that come to the museum.

QUESTION: If you weren’t working with the Museum of Aviation, what would you be doing?

ANSWER: I would like to be a school system administrator.

QUESTION: What do you do in your spare time?

ANSWER: I play with my three children aged 7, 9 and 12.

QUESTION: What is your favorite restaurant?

ANSWER: Dai Ichi (Japanese Steakhouse)

Con la presencia y las palabras de la Presidenta de la República, Michelle Bachelet y el alcalde de Pudahuel, Johnny Carrasco, la Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC) inauguró el pasado 17 de noviembre el Centro de Control de Tránsito Aéreo de Santiago “Ramón López Pinto” (conocido por sus siglas en inglés ATC, Air Traffic Control), el más moderno de Latinoamérica con una inversión que sobrepasó los 5 mil millones de pesos.

El nuevo ATC-Santiago tiene como misión prevenir colisiones entre aeronaves, y entre aeronaves y obstáculos dentro su espacio de control, que va desde de Arica hasta Valdivia. El diseño de la instalación pudahuelina privilegia el ahorro energético y aprovechamiento de luz natural.

El Centro está situado en avenida San Pablo 8381, y tendrá una capacidad final de 24 posiciones de control, de las cuales 10 ya operan los controladores de Tránsito Aéreo, las 24 horas del día.

En la jornada se colocó también la primera piedra de la Escuela Técnica Aeronáutica que se erigirá en el mismo lugar. Se trata de instalaciones educativas de excelencia que demandarán una inversión cercana a los 1.200 millones de pesos. En detalle, la Escuela Técnica de 2.260 m2 contará con modernas y amplias salas de clases, laboratorios, simuladores de aeródromo y radar. La apertura está prevista para el año 2011.

Como el trabajo controlador de tráfico aéreo es compleja, debido al denso tránsito de aviones, a los posibles cambios meteorológicos y otros imprevistos. Los controladores de tránsito aéreo se seleccionan entre personas con gran percepción y proyección espacial. Yn la Escuela Técnica Aeronáutica recibirán un intensivo entrenamiento, tanto en simuladores de Torre de Control, Control de Aproximación, Control de Área y Radar, como también en Simuladores de aeródromo.

El ATC -Santiago contempla la modernización de los sistemas utilizados por los controladores de tránsito aéreo, ocupa una tecnología de monitoreo aéreo llamado ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance); sistema que coloca a Chile en la vanguardia regional de sistemas de vigilancia automática. El ADS-B trabaja con la información que las propias aeronaves envían al centro de control y permite cubrir sectores donde no tiene alcance un radar y, por lo tanto, se puede gestionar en forma más eficiente el espacio aéreo. Es el desafío que el Director General de Aeronáutica Civil, General de Brigada Aérea José Huepe  nombra como: “Espacio Aéreo de IV Generación“

Control del espacio aéreo desde Pudahuel

La DGAC administra un área de 32 millones de km2, una de las zonas más extensas del mundo de control aéreo. Este enorme territorio limita al oeste con Tahití y Nueva Zelandia, al norte con Perú y desde allí hacia el sur a través del Océano Pacífico, hasta la Antártica, en el Polo Sur. Este espacio aéreo está subdividido en cuatro Regiones de Información de Vuelo controlados por centros ubicados en Pudahuel, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas y el Centro de Control Oceánico, también el nuevo Centro de Control de Área, “Ramón López Pinto”, que administra el espacio sobre el sur del océano pacifico.

Discurso de la presidenta Bachelet, aquí.

Fuentes: El Tropezón/Upi/Prensa DGAC/JZeballos.-

Yes, it is cloudy and raining this week, and the media has been reporting a glut of stories about cloud computing already.  But the IBM Center has released a new report “Moving to the Cloud:  An Introduction to Cloud Computing in Government” that is targeted to executives, not technologists. 

The buzz in the technology world around cloud computing is almost deafening, but for good reason.  The report lays out the many reasons for its use, including economies of scale, better collaboration, and usage-based pricing (you pay only for what you use, like electricity).  For example, a school district in Tennessee established a private cloud and was able to cut its IT support costs by 60 percent.  These kind of savings catch people’s eyes.

The author, Dr. David Wyld of Southeastern Louisiana University, notes that “Cloud computing is an emerging concept.  It has many names, including:  grid computing, utility computing, and on-demand computing.  Indeed, one of the hindrances . . . is the lack of understanding of what it is—and isn’t. . . “  He relies on the definition developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which lays out the essential characteristics of cloud computing:  on-demand self-service, ubiquitous network access, locaction-independent resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.

While still a geeky definition, more importantly, Wyld points to the fact that we’ve all used cloud computing already – Gmail, YouTube, GoogleDocs, Flickr, and Ning are all common examples in the commercial world.  And Wyld says over 4,000 universities have converted their email systems to cloud computing as well.

But government has been a bit more cautious in its adoption.  Wyld gives examples of the use of cloud in government, lays out ten challenges to public managers in the use of cloud computing (like security and interoperability), and offers some predictions on the road ahead.  He also offers links to some useful video primers, like the one from the UK’s Computing Magazine as well as the one from GSA’s Apps.gov.

A key takeaway for government managers:  cloud computing has potential to transform government IT but it won’t be a silver bullet.  It will most likely be more useful for mission support services such as e-mail, web servers, data storage, and for common cross-government services such as accounting, procurement, and collaboration tools.  But agencies will likely be more cautious in using it for core mission business applications such as the Social Security payroll reporting system or the air traffic control routing system.

According to a recent survey, conducted by Investopedia, the Air Traffic Controller position was named the top paying job in America that required the minimum education. The details came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This, caught many young people’s attention to Air Traffic Control School enquiring where….Full sory on-

http://khichdiall.blogspot.com/2009/11/air-traffic-controllers-top-paying-job.html

According to an article in the Daily Telegraph OFCOM raided to bedroom of 12 year old Nickie Chamberlain after planes at Luton Airport complained they lost contact with the control tower as they were landing. The communication problem was first noticed on October 6th by air traffic controllers with aircraft on a fight path over Nickie’s house. OFCOM tracked the signal down to a set top aerial with a preamplifier. The signal booster had gone in to self oscillation and was transmitting a signal that was at times on the same frequency as that used to communicate with landing aircraft. The interference was described as similar to the feedback you get when a microphone is placed in the path of a PA speaker. Ouch!

Nickie’s Father was somewhat surprised when he came home to find an OFCOM engineer waiting for him and had to check is credentials thoroughly as he found the idea that something in his house was interfering with landing aircraft bizarre. He said ”Then we went inside and he followed the signal using a special reader to my son’s bedroom and his booster aerial – I was absolutely gobsmacked.” Mr Chamberlain was told to dispose of the £15 aerial, which Nickie had been using for two years in the bin.

Nickie said: ”When I found out what happened I was upset because I couldn’t watch cartoons or the television for a while – but it’s better than causing a plane crash.”

National Air Traffic Control said: ”The planes have multiple back-up communication systems and this is not something where any passengers were in any danger. Obviously safety is our major concern.”

Looking at the picture in the Telegraph the antenna is a Telecam TCE 2000, which is sold by Argos and various supermarkets in the UK as both a set top antenna for around £2.99 and together with signal booster for around £17.99. OFCOM say the problem is not common but bearing in mind the hundreds of thousands of these sold I would ask how many similar devices are causing interference on frequencies such as the amateur bands where complaints are less likely to receive a visit from an OFCOM engineer?

A single-engine plane crashed into an Indiana field on Wednesday after the pilot, who was seen slumped over, lost consciousness and the aircraft started flying out of control.

From the Associated Press:

Military officials do not believe the crash was terrorism-related but said the pilot may have had a health problem or have been suffering from a lack of oxygen. After air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot, F-16s from Indiana National Guard intercepted the plane and followed it for about an hour until it crashed.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Rod Russell said the pilot, who was the only person aboard the plane, died in the crash. No one on the ground was injured when it crashed, and no other details were immediately available about the pilot.

David Lykins, 54, of Muncie said he and his nephew were doing construction work when they saw the plane fly in three circles overhead, then tilt on its side with the wings pointed down and crash into trees on the edge of the field.

“I didn’t know what to think. I knew whoever was in it didn’t have control of it,” he said.

The plane departed from Grand Rapids, Mich. and then flew north to Traverse City, Mich., said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro in Chicago. It turned around in Traverse City was flying back to Grand Rapids when it lost communication with ground air traffic controllers, Molinaro said.

The plane crashed around 12:40 p.m. EDT in a field in a rural area of eastern Indiana, about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis and 185 miles south of Grand Rapids, NORAD said. John Erickson, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said the aircraft crashed on its own.

http://www.archive.org/details/SaltWaterMusicAug14th2009Hour1

DAWG FM finally was approved a few days before this episode. With that news I kicked off the show with some blues from the East Coast with GlamourPuss and John Campbelljohn.

Move on to brand new music from Teresa Ennis. Ahead of her new CD “Stars” which is coming out this fall.

Then a couple of tracks from Nova Scotia’s Emmy Alcorn’s CD “Unveil”.

End the hour with 3 covers from Allison Crowe’s CD “Tidings”. Which is primarily a Christmas CD but these are covers of The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Sarah Maclachlin.

http://www.archive.org/details/SaltWaterMusicAug14thHour2

Traditional music from Newfoundland starts the second hour with Jim Payne and Fergus O’Byrne.

Move over to rock/pop side of things with two bands I’ve had a chance to chat with.  Talked to one member of each band on the phone for interviews last year.  Grand Theft Bus and Air Traffic Control.

End the hour with Ian Foster as he was doing his last tour date in New Brunswick that night.  After that back on the way to St. John’s.  His cross country tour has come to an end for this summer.  Mix of stuff from some of his MySpace page to end the show.

I have just read a very interesting item of news. WHITEVOID has just released a 3D visualization engine for monitoring more than 16.000  Lufthansa airplanes in realtime… amazing, isn’t it?.

You can navigate throughout the world in a 3D 14 meters screen (!) while you filter content and adjust size, speed and any other parameter…

In addition there’s a 3D audio system that helps you to be absolutely involved in the scenario… I’d love to handle one of those…

You can see a very interesting video here:

http://www.fubiz.net/2009/06/23/realtime-3d-airtraffic/

During the recent Defcon hacker conference held in Las Vegas, a security researcher explained how’s the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) air traffic control system is vulnerable to hackers attacks. Even though he did not show how to that, Righter Kunkel explained a sort of workflow that could be used to compromise the ATC system by submitting fake FPLs (Flight PLans). The process is linked to the possibility of submitting your own FPL provided that you have obtained a student pilot’s certificate number that gives you access to the pilot registration page on the FAA’s website. Since, theoretically, a user can submit a large number of FPL, a certain number of fake pilots could create a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) as FAA admitted that some of its networks are not properly separated and systems not completely hardened (for instance, Kunkel said Telnet is still widely used within FAA’s networks). An internal report issued in May 2009, claims that 763 vulnerabilities affect 70 FAA’s internal web applications. Even if before understanding the security level of the network, I would like to see the type of vulnerability listed in the report (there could be some minor ones of course), basing on the current details, it is obvious that, despite being a valuable asset for the FAA, a critical system (we can consider it “mission critical”) is not properly defended. This is something that happens in both Aviation, Industry, Telco, Finance sectors, where the lack of security countermeasures can be caused by lack of budget, lack of knowledge, lack of resources, lack of security awareness, or simply because security was a requirement that came later, when the system was already operative.

Picked up from the blog of Waters and Stanton…

Advertisements for SBS virtual radar have been claiming that it has been awarded a “Gold Medal.” What gold medal and who awarded it? we ask. It seems the distributors made up the award and then awarded themselves the gold medal. This has done nothing to enhance their reputation and everything to boost sales of the rival RadarBox, which by the way is stocked by Waters and Stanton (no conflict of interest in highlighting it on their blog then!). It all reminds me of a young child who bought a set of gold stars to enhance his homework hoping his mother and father would take them at face value and not read what he had written and that the teacher would not notice what he was up to. Wrong!

For those who do not know these products allow you to see on your computer what real Air Traffic Controllers see on their screens in Real-Time. Flight number, aircraft type, altitude, heading and speed are all updated every second. Personally I cannot see the attraction but lots of people do and it would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing. I am just going off to check my collection of unusual house numbers!

Prologue

Not so much. Because we’re all subjects of catastrophic exposure. Exposure of our inner most fragility. Sensitivity is in. And it has lost its sense. In it’s oblivious effects to return — and haunt the gluttony of the machine.

1. “I” as suggested in this article, remains anonymous to this article.

2. Lite way Electronics. Go figure.

3. Industrial Corruption. Just you wait.

Chapter 1

I sat there and had dinner with them. I shouldn’t be here. I believe we’re somewhere in Brickfields. I should have turned this offer down. Here with my brother in law. Scrounging the faces of these beasts? The tamil tigers someone had told me. I’m a technician and business is out of my league. Not to mention — Corruption. I’ve lived a straight life. Descent. This shit is way out of my league. I poured the curry on my steaming rice. Sliced the clean flesh of the fish with the tip of my fingernail. They looked at me. These guys from Sri Lanka. If I were to be trusted they screamed with their pertinent eyes. 

I felt hollow. A fearful sensation that remained idle. A fear that was guessing itself. Trying to place itself in its right emotion. The food I couldn’t taste. And business talk, about transportation of equipment. Equipment I had overseen a few days later. Overseen its exchange to these monstrous men from Sri Lanka. Jaya was supposed to do it. He chickened out — saying he had to be some place some time soon. Leaving me to deal with these men.

I remained quiet. Listened. Tried desperately to laugh at their jokes. I felt myself being shoved to the corner in their presence. What was I doing here? A question that kept mind fucking me. I kept all control that I could contrive. 

A flash from a camera blew at our table. WE HAD ALL TURNED TO LOOK. Another flash followed. The photographer discretely slipped out of this south indian snazz fest with a subdued grace. 

“They took our picture.” Jaya snapped in a controlled whisper.

The drive home. It was quiet. The air outside was cold. The street lights hung over us like the anorexic arms of satan — welcoming us to the gates of hell. That gate that separated Petaling Jaya from Kuala Lumpur. 

When I got home. I crawled into the King sized bed and weeped in my wife’s chest. She had asked me what was wrong. And I had no idea how to answer.

Chapter 2

I’m old. I don’t deserve this. I had had worked in many many shitholes, but this by far, prominently fucked with my psyche. It didn’t only fuck it. Rape was involved leaving blood stains, semen and shit. 

I wrote the resignation letter and took it to my brother in law. He laughed at me and threw it on the desk.

“What the fuck is your problem old man?” He chucked. “Is it the money?”

“No” I said. “I’m not felling up to this. It’s my medical condition.”

“Well just stay with us for another month.” He said with an arrogant smirk that I had felt like chewing off his lips with my front teeth.

“Okey.” I said and walked away. This photographer started to get to me. I sensed something bad. An earnest living. Fuck that. I felt all decency in me collapsing. Giving way to hollow turmoil. 

I looked at some of this stuff they had gotten from Italy. They were selling it to a TV station. A couple of technicians huddled around it. Replacing original motors with Recons. I tried to slip away unnoticed. But failed. I resorted to not noticing.

They had made me organized the database. Sooner, other workers fed me with transmitters they had messed up. Asking me to fix them so it would look like I messed it up. I take the fall. The rape happens again, with its blood piss and shit. I felt a plot coming down on me. The co-workers collapsed into little pools of whispers as I walked by. I felt old. But I was on their feet. Now I had realized they didn’t want me because I could work. I held their secret. And they knew it. I didn’t until now. As I stare down at these Recon machines, waiting to be deported to the TV stations.

I went into my brother in laws office. I shut the door behind me. 

“I’m resigning. I have already given 2 weeks notice.” I said.

“Well, why don’t you stay on for another year.” It was a cynical reply.

“Fuck your games. I’m coming back with another letter.”

The next morning I saw my doctor. I came back with a medically approved resignation. I stopped by the office with my wife. I had told her to wait in the car. I had some documents which I hadn’t returned and was going to come back for them later. As I entered the building, the security officer shut the gate behind me. 

“Why are you resigning?” He snapped. I wondered how this shit was any of his business. Outside the gate, there were more security officers packed into a Pajero. They all played the stare game. I turned to the security officer.

“I’m medically incapable. I’ve got my resignation right here.” I walked in the office. Late evening. Most of the staff had left. Jaya wasn’t around. I walked into my brother in laws office. He was here. I dropped the medical notice on his desk. He looked at it. 

“You didn’t have to go that far.” He said. “You could have just talked to me you know.” 

“Well I didn’t fell like talking. I’ve got the manuals in the car. Do you want them?”

“Yeah. Just drop them with Ashraff.”

I left. Shut the door behind me, sensing a burden elevate. A temporal enlightenment. When I came up to the security post again, the gate was still closed.

“I got some manuals in the car for Raj.” 

He stared me down. Picked up the phone and pressed a button. He rambled some shit into the receiver. He then pushed another button and the gate made a mechanical cranking sound. Those metal bars — moving out of my way. I felt a sense of stature. Of credibility. 

I dropped the manuals of at the security post. And I drove away. However the fear kept growing. Penetrating me. Evolved into a mental condition. This was their impact. The perpetrators a sworn enemy. I woke up to them everyday, across the infinite boundaries in my eyes — staring back at me from the other end of the mirror. 

Chapter 3

The drive home gave hope to a new beginning. But new beginnings had no boundaries too, so it might as well be the end.

Sensis Corporation says the FAA will evaluate a surface-surveillance technology it has developed as part of the agency’s initiative to mitigate the danger of runway incursions at smaller U.S. airports. 

Under its LCGS (low cost ground surveillance) program, the FAA has awarded contracts to several companies to demonstrate their proposed solutions at a single airport, the results of which will be used by the agency to make decisions about possibly deploying such technology at additional U. S. airports, and who should do it.

Sensis says the LGCS, which it will install at Long Beach, California,  uses the same solid-state SMRi (surface movement radar improved) sensor that the FAA previously certified to meet requirements such as the ability to accurately perform in all weather conditions with a low rate of false alarms. 

Sensis says its LGCS controller display, which is currently in operation at all ASDE-X (airport surface detection equipment, model-X) airports, has been certified to meet the visual specifications approved by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).  And, because its architecture is based on its own ASDE-X configuration, Sensis believes it can readily integrate additional sensors for ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast), terminal radar and multilateration, which combines various sensor inputs into a single package. Similarly, the LCGS system can be easily upgraded to include the company’s ASDE-X Safety Logic conflict detection and alerting technology.

Sensis is currently deploying the FAA’s ASDE-X at 35 U.S, airports, 19 of which are operational.

The Pilots – Al Haynes was the pilot flying United 232 the day it crashed at Sioux Gateway Airport. Times magazine called Haynes heroic, and several passengers credit him with their lives. Haynes fought to keep the aircraft under control, he was flying without hydraulics and could only make right turns. After the crash Haynes continued as a pilot until he retired in 1991.

The Flight Attendants – In a story written by the Associated Press following the crash, survivors praised the flight attendants for their performance. Flight attendants were described as calm and helpful both before and after the plane went down. One passenger said that flight attendants gave instructions on what passengers should do right up to the time the aircraft hit the ground. They also assisted in helping passengers escape from the wreckage. Eight flight attendants were present on the flight, one did not survive the crash.

The Tower Crew – Sioux City Journal staff writer, John Quinlan, wrote a piece about a month after the crash in which he described the teamwork that took place among the air traffic controllers at Sioux Gateway Airport. The seven-man tower crew was in communication with pilot Haynes, emergency crews, and ground control. They were also responsible for directing other air traffic that was coming into Sioux Gateway. The air traffic control crew received much praise for the professionalism they displayed in the handling of Flight 232.

Throughout this week the Chamber blog will remember the crew, passengers, and community response to this tragedy that occurred 20 years ago. You’re invited to share your own memories. Directly comment on any post, or send your story to intern@siouxlandchamber.com

Officials Find Black Box After Yemenia Airline Crash Voice of America
Yemen flight’s black box located BBC News
Teen plane crash survivor ‘didn’t feel a thing’ CNN
Teen recovers after miracle rescue from Comoros crash AFP
1 child survives this morning’s crash of Yemenia’s flight 626 Daily KOS
Comoros crash survivor found euronews
Yemeni carrier’s safety standards questioned France 24
Comoros – plane crash Radio France Internationale

Iridium 9505 SAT Phone

We received an email from Hans…. the Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority will not issue overflight permissions unless each aircraft is equipped with an Iridium satellite phone. So after a brief search on the internet and a couple of email to Will, one of the other UK pilots, I hired an Iridium 9505 satellite phone from Mobell. The phone is due to arrive on Monday, the day before we set off for Cambridge to do the final prep of the aircraft. It comes complete with a spare battery, 12/24 volt charger (handy as the aircraft is 24 volt) and a mains charger. They even throw in a travel adaptor kit which you can keep at the end of the hire. The hire price was not too bad, but the call charges of £1.85 per minute make ringing up a friend for a chat a non starter (hint to my wife here!).

I guess having a sat phone is a good addition to the emergency kit list. At least we will be able to speak to someone in the case of an emergency… although a thought has crossed my mind, in the air, we use a frequency that is known to all air traffic control centres and is monitored 24 hours a day. Most commercial aircraft also monitor it, in fact on the last transatlantic flights we did, we used 121.5 to speak to commercial airliners to request they relay our position reports. I digress…. the thought that crossed my mind was “who do you call and on what number?” I guess then it might be prudent to print off a list of each countries ATC phone numbers and put them in a waterproof bag tied to the phone. So my next little job is to trawl through Jeppesens Airways Manual and collect the numbers.

I will update you on the Sat phone in the near future.

I have spent the morning printing out airfield approach plates and form that we will require for various parts of the trip. By far the largest number of forms required are for entry into the USA. So two copies of everything are now filed in my flight bag.

AOPA USa have a wonderful little program that I have installed on my iPhone that allows me to download all the current airfield information plates for US airfields, including FBO’s details. It saves on carrying the paper version for the states we visit or fly over. I have of course, printed out the details for the key airports. This is a backup to the main store of information held in the Nav system of the aircraft.

All the current plates have been uploaded to the “My Shared…” box in the menu bar on the right as well. I’ll upload more as I get them.

As usual, resume own navigation and watch for traffic.

S

Randy Babbitt, the new FAA Administrator, laid out the agency’s 2010 Budget to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation on June 16^th.

Babbitt told the committee: “We’ve made commitments to you, to the President and to the taxpayer about controller and safety staffing, aviation research, as well as investment in infrastructure, airports, and NextGen. This budget enables us to meet those commitments while we deliver the aviation system of the future.”

Here’s how he broke down the FAA’s overall budget:

• $15.9 billion for the FAA’s “paramount mission — advancing operational safety throughout the National Airspace System,” while maintaining capacity, and “providing investments to meet future system demands.”
• $9.3 billion for operations of which $7.3 billion is for the Air Traffic Organization, $1.2 billion for aviation safety, and the remaining $.8 billion, for support staff as well as commercial space transportation.
• $2.9 billion for F&E (facilities and equipment), of which just slightly above $2 billion will be spent in legacy areas, including things like power systems, information technology, navigational aids, and weather systems.
• $3.5 billion would go to airports to support such things as runway safety area improvements, runway incursion reduction, aviation safety management, and infrastructure improvement.
• $864.9 million would go to NextGen programs, broken down as follows:
  • $790.5 million for infrastructure used for NextGen programs such as ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast), SWIM (system wide Information management), data communications, and trajectory based operations.
  • NextGen RE&D (research, engineering and development) would get $65 million to fund work in areas such as air-to-ground integration, weather information in the cockpit, and environmental research for aircraft technologies, fuels, and metrics.
  • $9.4 million will be used for NextGen staffing as well as environmental and noise studies.

Is this sufficient and quick enough?

The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) and a coalition of nearly a dozen other aviation-related organizations, including the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA), and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), said that under the FAA’s current plan, NextGen will not achieve significant investment return for the aviation transportation system until 2025.  

Here’s how the ATA put it: “While we strongly support NextGen, the current FAA plan does not produce significant benefits…for the traveling and shipping public or for system users until 2025. For system users – airlines, business aviation and general aviation – this delay presents a special problem. The plan contemplates significant stakeholder investment, in addition to FAA investment, but no real benefit for many years. Without a timely return on investment, there is little incentive for airlines and other users to invest in new equipment and training. In short, the current FAA plan does not make a strong business case.  Airlines, air taxis, charter operators and corporate aircraft owners have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders and owners to achieve a reasonable return on their investment in this context, just as they do with respect to any other major capital expense.” 

The FAA needs to “advance the point in time when the investment in NextGen begins to pay off for both the public and vested stakeholders,” the ATA believes. “If the public and aviation stakeholders begin to realize the benefits in a few years instead of 10 or more, then the NextGen business case improves dramatically.”