Participants at the Avionics Maintenance Conference plugged away at the list of 233 discussion topics, compiled in a thick booklet, that are meant to settle airline-vendor beefs over parts and service. There is nothing better (or worse) than a jury of your peers and customers. Holding forth at microphones positioned around a conference hall configured with airline representatives in the center and vendors on either side, company representatives explained, defended, even apologized for delayed deliveries or faulty parts. The discussion topics range from the substantial–for example, how to standardize and digitize the hundreds of service bulletins airlines receive each year–to the relatively minor. “Why is Honeywell giving an email address of somebody who has no intention to answer questions?” KLM huffed.

Make no mistake; this is a two-way street. Air Canada queried why Honeywell hadn’t provided price lists and schematics for latest revisions to an air data intertial reference unit. Honeywell asked whether Air Canada indeed flies the Airbus A320 and Boeing 767 aircraft referenced, “to clarify whether operators and MROs (maintenance, repair and overhaul organizations) are asking questions not necessarily pertaining to their fleet type.” KLM also complained that the relevant person at Goodrich is hard to find. After explaining the situation, Goodrich’s representative offered that, “in the future, when unsure of the contact person, our Web site can be of great help.”

There has been talk of funding and organizational issues with AMC, but this is constructive discussion and good theater. Let’s hope this forum continues.

The Avionics Maintenance Conference (AMC) opened today with a clear appeal to non-contributing airlines to step up and support the annual technical meeting organized by ARINC. “Unfortunately, there is a lack of interest regarding the funding of AMC,” Axel Mueller of Lufthansa Technik, who chairs the AMC Steering Committee, said at the outset. “Nothing in life is for free, so in order to have a successful AMC, we need to financially support it in a balanced and fair manner.”

Mueller then announced an “operators-only” session Tuesday that sounded like some airlines would be taken to the woodshed for avoiding new membership agreements. “We will express our concerns during that meeting,” he said, diplomatically. “We will also have to discuss the consequences if funding issues are not resolved.”

If airlines need to reduce their operating costs to better afford things like, say, AMC membership, they could look to exhibitors at the Avionics magazine product showcase for direction. For instance, Inertial Aerospace Services, of Highland Heights, Ohio, has saved American Airlines (a committed AMC supporter, by the way) $2 million annually by repairing the display glass assembly associated with Honeywell LCD displays.

As the name suggests Inertial Aerospace Services specializes in the repair and overhaul of inertial navigation and reference equipment; it claims it was the first non-OEM company to begin doing so more than 10 years ago. More recently, the company added things like LCD subassemblies and pilot cursor controls to its repertoire. “These are repairs that the OEMs deemed as throwaways,” said Tony Wright, Inertial Aerospace Services director of marketing.

Wright explained that it used to cost $76,000 (since reduced) to replace, rather than repair, a display glass assembly, and American Airlines was changing out 10 a month. “You can’t even get a glass from Honeywell any more,“ he said. “You have to upgrade the whole unit.“ At the AMC conference four years ago, “everybody screamed and hollered. That’s when we got into the game. American Airlines … was begging us to get this done.” Inertial Aerospace Services usually can overhaul an assembly for 50 percent cheaper, he said.

John Leslie, president of North American Aviation Supply, was visiting from Shirley, Long Island. His company overhauls things like electrical power generators, relays and micro-pumps that move water to aircraft lavatories and galleys. He wants to be the sole repairer in these areas; otherwise he’s not interested. “It’s nice for us to be able to pick and choose our markets,” Leslie said. “We’re not everything to everyone.” But in its chosen markets, “we can do it quicker and better than OEMs can.”

It would be a shame if financial troubles undermined AMC. Whether on the conference floor, the exhibit floor or in the numerous, company-sponsored suites overflowing with wine and cheese and good cheer, it is, above all else, an opportunity to discuss new ideas and alternatives. There might even be some money saved.

Dateline: Amsterdam

Avionics 2007 wrapped up today (Thursday) after two days of sustained activity on the exhibition floor and the prospect of further growth next year. This year’s conference featured 75 exhibitors, 50 percent more than in 2006, and by the first day, reportedly, 75 had rebooked for next year’s conference. The aptly named Avionics 2008 will return to this charming city of bicycles and canals, but at a new venue to be announced.

Why the growth? Avionics will be the linchpin of the future air traffic management environment, and already figure prominently in the building blocks of that environment, including Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast and Required Navigational Performance. Presenters at the conference portion, including representatives of Rockwell Collins, cargo airline UPS and Avtech Sweden AB, are at the leading edge of those developments at places like Louisville, Ken. (the UPS hub), and Stockholm-Arlanda Airport.

But just like GPS became a commodity technology readily available in handheld devices, new-generation systems like ADS-B are going mainstream. On the exhibition floor, Muirhead Avionics of the UK, serving as the agent for Kinetic Avionic Products Ltd., advertised Kinetic’s SBS-1 “Real-Time Virtual Radar,” a low-cost, Mode S receiver with ADS-B capability for training purposes and the “aviation enthusiast.” The system, including receiver, antenna, Basestation software and USB cable, retails for a tidy 500 British pounds. Connected to an everyday PC, the system displays ADS-B aircraft hits, including heading, altitude, vertical climb rate, lat/long and call number.

Aircraft spotting has risen to new heights. “There’s a lot of people who want them,” said Muirhead Sales Manager Gino Masoero. “They’re selling like hot cakes.”

Day 1 at the Avionics 2007 conference. The weather analogy in my opening remarks fell flat. Tuesday saw a driving rain and unsettling wind gusts in Amsterdam. Battling across the plaza to reach the Expo XXI conference center evoked epic images - let’s say the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854. But the audience on Wednesday didn’t seem moved by Tennyson’s prose recalling that fateful cavalry charge: Ours is “not to reason why … but to do and die.”

Nevertheless, these are epic times in aviation. A panel of experts in the area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles argued forcibly that UAVs are proliferating and, interestingly, driving development of air-traffic management concepts that will affect their manned counterparts. Of note for avionics suppliers: “sense and avoid” systems making use of electro-optical, infrared, radar or other sensors to ensure proper separation and collision avoidance will be de rigeur.

Afternoon presentations emphasized the importance of flight management systems in achieving “performance-based” requirements of the future Air Traffic Management environment. Okko Bleeker, director of European research and development for Rockwell Collins, was a late addition to the agenda, but gave perhaps the most interesting presentation. Bleeker said Rockwell Collins has coupled flight management and ground-based “deconfliction” functions to produce significant efficiencies on Scandinavian Airlines flights. The coordinated air/ground functions could make human intervention of flight paths the exception, rather than the rule, Bleeker said.

The conversation continues with presentations on 4-D Navigation, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast and Required Navigational Performance.

Some of us like to position ourselves (in our dreams, anyway) as central figures in historically trying times. But there is some justification for that sentiment among those, like myself, who are trooping to Amsterdam this week for the “Avionics 2007” conference and exhibition. After all, none other than FAA says “we are at a critical point” in the transition to NextGen, the new buzz word formerly known as the Next-Generation Air Transportation System. I personally liked “Free Flight,” but nothing’s for free—certainly not NextGen.

How will we cope with double or triple the air traffic we have today? I can’t see us handling much more based on the snake of a queue and frayed tempers I experienced recently at Washington Dulles International. Who—or what—will referee the flock of VLJs and UAVs rolling off the production lines? Will Net-Centric Operations really be seamless and flawless and impervious to sabotage? What is it with these software guys, and why does the future of air travel seem to rest in their hands? Can they really deliver source code that is “provably secure?”

These are just some of the musings I’m entertaining in the run-up to Avionics 2007, March 7-8, at Expo XXII in Amsterdam. No doubt the high-level presenters we have lined up, representing Eurocontrol, the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory, Australia’s Defense Science Technology Organization, Airbus, Boeing, Rockwell Collins—to name a few—will provide valuable insight on these matters.

Somewhat by an accident of history, I have been designated the conference chairman—the wielder of the gavel and the decider for lunch. Just how I pictured it: a central figure in historically trying times.