Namviator
3rd Mar 2009, 09:49
Posted that in the local namibian newspaper...
To substantiate the heading, being an aviator is like being a world athlete, you always have to keep in shape, keep updated and every day brings new changes, additions and challenges meaning there is always something new to take on board, and having in mind the fragility of the industry, high costs are often involved.
The industry is not yet tamed in Namibia, but as an aviator you know that in order to take off, you need to experience some headwind as tailwind is doing you nor good.
Definition
Aviation, the term misunderstood by many. According to the new 7th edition Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary, Aviation is defined as "the designing, building and flying of aircraft" be it in military or civil use.
Concurrently, it defines an Aviator as the person who flies an aircraft.
Now getting into the subject matter, my argument lands on the fact that if aviation concerns only the design, building and flying of an aircraft and why aviator only refers to a pilot (person who flies an aircraft) whilst there are designers and builders involving design engineers, aeronautical engineers, aerodynamicists to name but a few.
In my opinion, Aviation refers to anything which contributes directly or indirectly to the safe operation or flying of an aircraft and that makes everyone behind the different sections aviators. Please note that an aircraft is not just an aeroplane even though it is mostly misinterpreted as an aeroplane.
An aircraft is any vehicle that flies with or without wings either transporting goods or people (passengers). Most questions often arise regarding aviation, like "can I become an aviation engineer?" No, you can't, because there is no such thing as Aviation Engineer, but the best answer to that question will be of course you can but which one of them as there are many.
Aviation is a common name, with sections and subsections starting from the abovementioned. Aircraft design, this section consists of design engineers, aviation law experts, draughtsman etc.
This section uses the conventional pencil and drawing board, but thanks to the adoption of various design software (Pro Engineer, AutoCad, Catia V5 used to the design of the A380) which enhances on the designs and simultaneously minimises workload not forgetting time and costs.
The conceptual design stage is the first stage of aircraft development.
Aircraft manufacturing is in most cases the second stage of the aircraft development. This section consists of more subsections than the design stage and is more costly compared to the design stage.
There are aeronautical engineers, aeronautical materials engineer, certification engineers, production line operatives, system engineers, etc.
After the first aircraft or prototype rolls out of the manufacturing plant, the Design Organization (DO) has to demonstrate (demonstration of compliance; DOA) to the state regulating authority that the aircraft is in compliance with its requirements. This is often regarded as the most stressful part of the aircraft development.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) came into being on the 4th of April 1947, under the invitation of the Canadian government and Montreal was chosen to home its headquarters.
The ICAO was established under the objectives of developing regulations (rulemaking) and technique of international air navigation for its contracting states.
Each contracting state has a regulating body (in our case the Directorate of Civil Aviation, DCA which falls under the Ministry of Works and Transport) which under the Chicago convention of the 17th December 1944 must organise surveillance of design, production, maintenance and navigation.
Among these responsibilities there are the issuance of Type Certificate (TC) and subsequently the Airworthiness Certificate. This convention applied to all European contracting states until on the 28th of September 2003, when the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) came into being.
The EASA took over some responsibility from its member states. Its scope of responsibilities are to-date (as it started off with only one and rapidly increasing as it extends its wings) Type Certification (which involves Certification of foreign Aircraft Maintenance Organizations; AMO), Operations and Licensing, Air Traffic Control and Airport Oversight.
Before derailing much, getting back onto the flight path or subject matter, initially before manufacturing or during the early stages of the manufacturing process the design organization (holding a Design Organization Approval, DOA) alerts the ICAO contracting state of the design by application which in turn is issued with a means of Compliance (MOC) - this stipulates the means to demonstrate compliance with the requirements.
This document has a validity of five years during which the organising has to provide the authority with the Statement of Compliance, the document declaring the compliance of the type design to type requirements issued by the authority.
The Demonstration of Compliance ranges from tests on the parts, materials systems and prototype(s) and upon the authority's acceptance or satisfaction of the Compliance Demonstrations then it's left to the issuance of the Type Certificate.
The type certificate board meeting ratifies, approves and then endorses the two statements of compliance before issuing the hard-earned Type Certificate.
However, this does not yet permit the aircraft to take off in the sky as yet; subsequently the Airworthiness Certificate flies in, and after the approval of the type certificate the end user, airline or aircraft operator (in our case Air Namibia, Wings over Africa, etc) is issued with an Airworthiness Certificate after an airworthiness inspection (inspection carried out to outline that the aircraft is airworthy, in simple words it is safe to operate) of the aircraft has been conducted by the authority's Airworthiness Inspectors. It is after this stage that the aircraft lifts off into the sky.
Support has to be given to this piece of engineering in order to enable it to sustain its reliability. It is after this stage that the Continued Airworthiness flies in, bringing along maintenance (supporting the continued airworthiness). The maintenance section consists of Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers, technicians, etc.
This section is referred to as the AMO or repair station early in the discussion under the scope of responsibility of the authority.
An AMO license is issued after an audit has been carried out by the authority.
The list continues with the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) and all this contributes to the safe operation of the aircraft. But before I bore you with all these, until next time when we will take on questions like, how do aircrafts fly? Why aeroplanes have wings?
And later on we will be looking at the careers in aviation, the procedures of aircraft design and many more as far as aviation is concerned, should we stumble on a potential sponsor for the article.
Now we know that mentalities of, I put you there, you dance to my music (the sort of mentalities that build bridges where there are no rivers) are not really the type of mentalities required to rule this industry.
To substantiate the heading, being an aviator is like being a world athlete, you always have to keep in shape, keep updated and every day brings new changes, additions and challenges meaning there is always something new to take on board, and having in mind the fragility of the industry, high costs are often involved.
The industry is not yet tamed in Namibia, but as an aviator you know that in order to take off, you need to experience some headwind as tailwind is doing you nor good.
Definition
Aviation, the term misunderstood by many. According to the new 7th edition Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary, Aviation is defined as "the designing, building and flying of aircraft" be it in military or civil use.
Concurrently, it defines an Aviator as the person who flies an aircraft.
Now getting into the subject matter, my argument lands on the fact that if aviation concerns only the design, building and flying of an aircraft and why aviator only refers to a pilot (person who flies an aircraft) whilst there are designers and builders involving design engineers, aeronautical engineers, aerodynamicists to name but a few.
In my opinion, Aviation refers to anything which contributes directly or indirectly to the safe operation or flying of an aircraft and that makes everyone behind the different sections aviators. Please note that an aircraft is not just an aeroplane even though it is mostly misinterpreted as an aeroplane.
An aircraft is any vehicle that flies with or without wings either transporting goods or people (passengers). Most questions often arise regarding aviation, like "can I become an aviation engineer?" No, you can't, because there is no such thing as Aviation Engineer, but the best answer to that question will be of course you can but which one of them as there are many.
Aviation is a common name, with sections and subsections starting from the abovementioned. Aircraft design, this section consists of design engineers, aviation law experts, draughtsman etc.
This section uses the conventional pencil and drawing board, but thanks to the adoption of various design software (Pro Engineer, AutoCad, Catia V5 used to the design of the A380) which enhances on the designs and simultaneously minimises workload not forgetting time and costs.
The conceptual design stage is the first stage of aircraft development.
Aircraft manufacturing is in most cases the second stage of the aircraft development. This section consists of more subsections than the design stage and is more costly compared to the design stage.
There are aeronautical engineers, aeronautical materials engineer, certification engineers, production line operatives, system engineers, etc.
After the first aircraft or prototype rolls out of the manufacturing plant, the Design Organization (DO) has to demonstrate (demonstration of compliance; DOA) to the state regulating authority that the aircraft is in compliance with its requirements. This is often regarded as the most stressful part of the aircraft development.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) came into being on the 4th of April 1947, under the invitation of the Canadian government and Montreal was chosen to home its headquarters.
The ICAO was established under the objectives of developing regulations (rulemaking) and technique of international air navigation for its contracting states.
Each contracting state has a regulating body (in our case the Directorate of Civil Aviation, DCA which falls under the Ministry of Works and Transport) which under the Chicago convention of the 17th December 1944 must organise surveillance of design, production, maintenance and navigation.
Among these responsibilities there are the issuance of Type Certificate (TC) and subsequently the Airworthiness Certificate. This convention applied to all European contracting states until on the 28th of September 2003, when the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) came into being.
The EASA took over some responsibility from its member states. Its scope of responsibilities are to-date (as it started off with only one and rapidly increasing as it extends its wings) Type Certification (which involves Certification of foreign Aircraft Maintenance Organizations; AMO), Operations and Licensing, Air Traffic Control and Airport Oversight.
Before derailing much, getting back onto the flight path or subject matter, initially before manufacturing or during the early stages of the manufacturing process the design organization (holding a Design Organization Approval, DOA) alerts the ICAO contracting state of the design by application which in turn is issued with a means of Compliance (MOC) - this stipulates the means to demonstrate compliance with the requirements.
This document has a validity of five years during which the organising has to provide the authority with the Statement of Compliance, the document declaring the compliance of the type design to type requirements issued by the authority.
The Demonstration of Compliance ranges from tests on the parts, materials systems and prototype(s) and upon the authority's acceptance or satisfaction of the Compliance Demonstrations then it's left to the issuance of the Type Certificate.
The type certificate board meeting ratifies, approves and then endorses the two statements of compliance before issuing the hard-earned Type Certificate.
However, this does not yet permit the aircraft to take off in the sky as yet; subsequently the Airworthiness Certificate flies in, and after the approval of the type certificate the end user, airline or aircraft operator (in our case Air Namibia, Wings over Africa, etc) is issued with an Airworthiness Certificate after an airworthiness inspection (inspection carried out to outline that the aircraft is airworthy, in simple words it is safe to operate) of the aircraft has been conducted by the authority's Airworthiness Inspectors. It is after this stage that the aircraft lifts off into the sky.
Support has to be given to this piece of engineering in order to enable it to sustain its reliability. It is after this stage that the Continued Airworthiness flies in, bringing along maintenance (supporting the continued airworthiness). The maintenance section consists of Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers, technicians, etc.
This section is referred to as the AMO or repair station early in the discussion under the scope of responsibility of the authority.
An AMO license is issued after an audit has been carried out by the authority.
The list continues with the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) and all this contributes to the safe operation of the aircraft. But before I bore you with all these, until next time when we will take on questions like, how do aircrafts fly? Why aeroplanes have wings?
And later on we will be looking at the careers in aviation, the procedures of aircraft design and many more as far as aviation is concerned, should we stumble on a potential sponsor for the article.
Now we know that mentalities of, I put you there, you dance to my music (the sort of mentalities that build bridges where there are no rivers) are not really the type of mentalities required to rule this industry.