In This Issue: AMC News
In This Issue: AMC News
Avionics Maintenance
Conference
Notice
The material in Plane Talk® is March 29 – April 1, 2010
meant only as general
information. In all cases no Hyatt Regency Phoenix
maintenance action published in
Plane Talk® should be taken that
is not in consonance with your
Phoenix, Arizona
particular company’s operating
and maintenance procedures, Via the AMC web site, you can download:
your approved maintenance
manuals, or your certification
agency’s directives. AMC Registration and Travel Information
AMC Schedule of Events
AMC Discussion Items and Index
AMC Pre-Registration List
AERONAUTICAL RADIO, INC. AMC Spouse Tour Information
AMC Hospitality Suites and Events
2551 Riva Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21401-7435 USA
http://www.aviation-ia.com/amc/upcoming/index.html
http://www.aviation-ia.com/amc/
AMC Preview
Sponsored by
How do I obtain a hotel room - The Hyatt Regency Phoenix is the site of the 2010
AMC. Hotel reservation links are on the AMC website at:
http://www.aviation-ia.com/amc/upcoming/index.html.
AMC and AAI - The Airline Avionics Institute (AAI) is an independent organization of
avionics suppliers. AAI is a membership organization with dues and other membership
requirements. Although AMC encourages suppliers to join AAI, AAI membership is not
required to attend and fully participate in all AMC activities.
AAI Exhibit/Reception - The AAI Exhibit/Reception will be held on Tuesday, March 30,
2010, at 1800 hours. Attendance is limited to airline representatives, AAI members, and
their guests only.
Phil Wright, AAI’s Business Manager, coordinates details of the reception with the hotel.
Manufacturers who wish to be included as a sponsor of the Exhibit/Reception should
contact:
Phil Wright
AAI Business Manager
+1 941-313-0471
phil@airlinesavionics.org
www.airlineavionics.org
AMC Hospitality Suites - All AMC hospitality activities will be held at the Hyatt Regency
Phoenix. AMC blocks several suites for this purpose with the hotel. The suites are
Plane Talk-First Quarter 2010 5
AMC Preview
assigned on a first come, first serve basis to any supplier. Persons desiring a hospitality
suite should contact:
Brent H. Grimes
Sr. Convention Services Manager
Hyatt Regency Phoenix
122 N. Second Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
tel: (602) 252-1234
email: brent.grimes@hyatt.com
AMC Shipping – AMC has selected Transit Air Cargo as the official freight carrier for
ground and air shipments, as well as storage, delivery, pickup and reshipment.
U.S. Shipments - For shipments originating within the USA, please contact Howard
Umeda, Transit Air Cargo, +1 800 247-1600, Ext 106, fax +1 714-571-0406, or
howard.umeda@transitair.com.
Transit Air Cargo will handle air and ocean shipments, including the inbound and
outbound customs documentation.
Our Mission
Conference Activities
AAI sponsors and pays for receptions at the AMC/AEEC, and FSEMC. The receptions
give the opportunity for AAI members to display their products and services and to
mingle with their customers, or potential customers, in a warm and comfortable
atmosphere. The receptions are considered valuable vehicles for AAI members to
become better acquainted with the representatives of the companies attending the
conferences and to initiate business dealings with them
AAI also arranges and pays for coffee for the two daily breaks at each of the
conferences. Having refreshments available immediately outside the meeting rooms
reduces tardy returns and thereby increases the efficiency of the meetings.
In Memoriam
Marijan Jozic and Sam Buckwalter on behalf of the AMC Steering Group
Be sure to print the 2010 AMC Program and bring it with you to
AMC since ARINC Industry Activities no longer provides hard copies of the Discussion Items as part
of registration.
The Excel version of the Discussion Items is useful for a cut/paste of the PNs into your internal
materials system to determine if issues raised by other operators apply to your organization as well.
This file can also be found at the AMC Index Page. If you determine specific PNs planned for
discussion are flown on your fleet types, contact the appropriate Engineering, Reliability, Material
and/or Maintenance personnel at your airline for research and data so you can support other operator’s
items on the floor of Open Forum.
Remember, as a representative of your airline at AMC, it’s important to support the Discussion Items
from other operators, as applicable, so the suppliers and airframers are sent a clear message when there
are technical issues requiring resolution. The saying You get out of it what you put into it is especially
true for AMC. You’ll notice that the more you contribute to the dialog supporting other operators,
you’re more likely to have the favor returned.
Following the Open Forum during the day, you’ll have a chance to meet the suppliers in their
hospitality suites after hours. This environment is on a more personal level, and we encourage you to
attend as many suites during AMC as you can. The product demonstrations in the suites are an
excellent learning tool. Getting to know the folks you do business with throughout the year will help
foster your efforts for problem resolutions via email and phone.
Often times, the suppliers will ask you for contacts within your airline if they want to discuss issues
that might not necessarily be your area of expertise. Be sure to bring lots of your own business cards
and try to take notes on business cards given to you by the suppliers so you can pass them on to
personnel back at your home base. Networking and establishing good working relationships is a
valuable asset of AMC.
Since the hospitality suites are furnished by the suppliers for night time activities, we discourage you
from accepting invitations to leave the hotel for dinner or socializing outside the hotel during suite
hours as it has been a Martin Story mantra: “You have 360 other days of the year to go out and eat”.
We look forward to another successful AMC in Phoenix, hosted by US Airways. Following the above
protocols will keep you coming back for future AMCs, and you’ll be valued as a productive member of
the AMC fraternity.
But the mythology is totaly different from the real life. We still have LRU’s which are making our life
more miserable than ever. We still cope with NFF, long delivery times, intelectual property
agreements, software loads and many more things. More than ever we are in trouble. The avionics
industry used to be the hot industry. It used to be dynamic, but not to quick. It was always complicated
and we always coped with introduction of new technologies. But we kept up.
And in the past the industry used to be more cooperative. If you needed data, you obtained the data
usually for free or at a nominal price. If you needed advice you received it. Engineers were always
willing to cooperate. The avionics industry of the past was the greatest industry of all. Competition was
put aside if there was a technical issue. The ultimate target was to solve the issue and keep the
airplanes flying. You could buy the LRU or even the airplane just with one page contract and
everybody was happy.
Manage the risks. Cover everything in the contract. Keep the data, technology, information only for
yourself. Let all of the others suffer. Make procedures, forms and regulations one big agonizing pain.
Heat up the market and try to gain advantage based on suffering of others. Here are just a couple of
examples to prevent the theoretical bologny.
Make the delivery time of materials longer. Stop managing all you materials and
outsource it to somebody else: a distributor. Don’t give the distributor any information
Oh, it is obviously getting hotter. The relationship between friends and peer engineers is suffering
from those artificial obstacles. Engineers who used to cooperate are now opponents. That is a much
hotter relationship than before. Still there are some hero engineers who are willing to help their
friends, airline engineers. They visit the AMC.
That is the place! The hottest place in the universe, and that is the AMC. All of the above issues
and complaints, you can discuss there. Most of your problems you can solve there.
You can find friends, and build valuable networks in the avionics industry. Don’t be surprised if
everybody will welcome you with open arms and know your name.
Below you can find some lyrics stolen from an old song, but you can use it to describe the AMC
atmosphere:
The FLS Working Group will meet March 1-3, 2010, in Marina Del Rey,
California, to review inputs to Draft 5 of Supplement 1 to ARINC
Report 667: Guidance for the Management of Field Loadable
Software.
Also incorporated into Supplement 1 to ARINC Report 667 is a detailed process overview,
flowchart, and relational guidance for every step in the software distribution process. This
overview adds value to ARINC Report 667 by explaining these procedures to airline personnel
that may not be aware of the intricacies of controlling aircraft software.
The group will review Chapters 8 and 9, as well as the appendices and attachments. Minor
revisions to Chapters 1 and 3 have been made, and will also be reviewed at this meeting. The
group will review inputs to the action items below and incorporate changes to the document
accordingly.
1. Rework Section 1.8, Process Overview including diagrams and text – Delta, Boeing
2. Change instances of ACS to ACLSP in Chapter 5 – ARINC IA Staff
3. Minor revisions to Chapter 3.0, Airline Modifiable Software – Qantas, DAL, Boeing,
Airbus, AAL
http://www.aviation-ia.com/amc/projects/fls/index.html
The EDS Working Group had a long and arduous discussion on digital signatures. The
resolution of the discussion was that for an EDS Crate to be secure independent of the
transport method, the crate will be required to be digitally signed by use of an XML digital
signature.
The confirmation of these signatures offers assurance that the EDS Crate content remains
intact and may be applied. The digital signature applied to the EDS Crate will be in accordance
with the structure defined in W3C XML Signature Recommendation, and bound to a digital
certificate that is in accordance with the appropriate assurance level described in ATA Spec
42. The working group discussed two methods of applying a digital signature.
Method 1: In this method, the crate signature contains digests computed on the crate manifest
and each file in the crate.
Method 2: In this method, the signature covers the crate manifest. Each crate item's signature
covers the files in the item.
The draft was edited to explicitly define that the two signature methods are not the same and
the implications of the methods should be understood before implementation.
The EDS Working Group has determined Draft 5 of ARINC Project Paper 827 to be mature.
Following the industry review, should there be no adverse industry comments; the EDS
Working Group has requested that Draft 5 be forwarded to the AMC for adoption
consideration.
http://www.aviation-ia.com/amc/projects/eds/index.html
LIAISON REPRESENTATIVE
Doug Mailat
AAI Representative
tel +1 (603) 891-9137