Satcom Guru

L band, Ku band, Ka band: Aeronautical Applications, DO-160 Qualification, Certification, Regulation, and Standardization; Modeling; Testing; Cellular; Bluetooth; WiFi; Antenna; Beam Steering; Aero Performance - CFD; Link Budget;

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Friday, August 9, 2024

VoePass Flight 2Z2283

VoePass Flight 2Z2283 crashed south of Campinas, Brazil, on Friday, 9 May 2024, with 62 (previously reported 61) persons onboard. PZ-VPB wa...

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Project Paper 793 - Third Generation Aero Satcom

Project Paper 793 is under development by the AEEC/SAE-ITC Ku/Ka-band Satcom Subcommittee. PP793 is the third generation satcom system, foll...

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Aeronautical Communication - Designations, Divisions, Domains

Aeronautical Communication is characterized in several different ways, which can get confusing. Follow along the avalanche of acronyms.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Severe Stabilizer Mistrim - Pitch Upset - Challenger 300 N300ER - One Fatality

A Bombardier Challenger 300, N300ER, encountered an upset when the flight crew disconnected the autopilot while suffering from a nose-up mis...

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Satshow 2023 Tuesday - The Exhibit Hall is Open!

Satshow 2023 is a gathering of service providers, equipment suppliers, technology wizards and a reunion of the many people involved in satel...

Monday, February 20, 2023

Engineer Week - 2023

I was asked to speak to a group of engineers today. Here were the questions I was asked and my talking points. What did I miss?

Monday, January 30, 2023

Long Live the 747

I have a fondness for the 747-400.

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Goodbye Twitter - Where to go now?

I have deleted my account on Twitter (satcom_guru). While I cannot support the platform, I am anxious to support the community that I have g...

Friday, November 11, 2022

SJ182 A Sequence to Tragedy

On 9 January 2021, a Boeing 737-500 aircraft, registration PK-CLC, was on a scheduled domestic flight, from Soekarno-Hatta International Air...

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Elon Musk Starlink Update MWC2021

Elon Musk joined the Mobile Wireless Congress for a thirty-minute keynote address. His online presentation did not reveal much new informati...

Monday, March 1, 2021

737 MAX Timeline and Links

Black: satcom.guru Blue: FAA Gray: Other Red: Accident or Accident Report

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182

Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 crashed shortly after take off from Jakarta on 9 January 2021. The flight, operated by 737-500 registered PK-CLC,...

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Mid-Value Select (MVS): Goldilocks in the House of MCAS

Angle of Attack (AoA) is measured on the 737MAX using two AoA vanes, one installed on the left side of the airplane and the other on the rig...

Friday, October 23, 2020

I know it when I see it

video of the entire presentation.

Monday, June 22, 2020

FANS - 25 year Anniversary

Future Air Navigation System (FANS) was first certificated in 1995. Boeing proposed a Type Certificate Amendment for remote certification on...

Monday, March 9, 2020

Elon Musk Keynote - Satellite 2020

Elon Musk delivered the keynote at Satellite 2020. These were my notes with some comments. innovation is insufficient the sign of succes...

Friday, February 28, 2020

The Third-Generation of Broadband Aeronautical Satellite Communications

As a new decade arrives, broadband aeronautical satellite communications are moving into a third generation. Multiple modems and multi-beam...

Monday, October 28, 2019

Flawed Assumptions Pave a Path to Disaster

When MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) was implicated after Lion Air JT610 plunged into the sea, tragically taking 189...

Friday, September 27, 2019

AEEC Ku/Ka Satcom Subcommittee - Sep 2019 Meeting Report

The SAE-ITC AEEC Ku/Ka Satcom Subcommittee met at the Boeing Integrated Aircraft Systems Lab (IASL) for three days of deliberations revolvi...

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

737 AoA and Redundancy

The undetected failure of one Angle of Attack (AoA) sensor can spawn a host of flight deck effects on the Boeing 737. AoA malfunction is th...

Monday, September 2, 2019

Postcards from Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

The Museum of Flight hosting of the Smithsonian Apollo 11 Exhibition, along with many notable additions, is drawing to a close. With the fi...

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Connecting the Dots: From Command to Action

The 737 stabilizer trim system evolved from its 707 roots with the introduction of the NG, when separate Main and Autopilot Actuators were ...

Monday, July 29, 2019

Movable Stabilizer

Swept-wing airplanes inevitably suffer from pitch-up near stall, due to the tendency for their wing tips to stall before the wing root. This...

Saturday, May 18, 2019

737 Pitch Trim Incidents

REVISED TO INCLUDE OTHER EVENTS => 23 JUNE 2019 Pitch trim is an abstract term to represent the ability to reduce column forces by mo...

Thursday, May 16, 2019

The Beat Goes On

On Wed, May 15, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Aviation Subcommittee convened a Hearing with the NTSB and FAA regarding...

Sunday, April 7, 2019

What happened on ET302?

The preliminary report for ET302 reveals many details, but not enough to know exactly every and all aspects. The following is a look at wha...

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Trim Cutout with Severe Out-of-Trim Stabilizer can be difficult to recover

The Wall Street Journal reports that the crew on ET302 used the stabilizer trim cutout switches in response to MCAS commands, but appeared ...

Thursday, March 28, 2019

AoA Vane must have Failed, the Boeing Fix is In, Senate Grills FAA

New information confirms that MAX is similar to the NG, that the AoA analog interface is connected to two different computers, the Stall Ma...

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

How Did MCAS Get Here and What Hurdles Remain?

The Seattle Times reported that the development of MCAS was limited to features that would not jeopardize differences training, including ...

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Taking the Next Steps while Awaiting on the Preliminary Report from ET302

Little new information has been released offering any specific detail on the events regarding ET302, except vague statements of similaritie...

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Ethiopian ET302 similarities to Lion Air JT610

Reports from Ethiopian investigators have implicated the same Angle of Attack (AoA) sensor malfunction that was observed on Lion Air. Lion ...

Friday, March 15, 2019

What have we learned this week?

The crash of Ethiopian ET302 brought a tragic beginning to what must be one of the worst weeks in aviation, ending with the grounding of th...

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Comparing Ethiopian ET302 to Lion Air JT043, JT610

Did Ethiopian ET302 succumb to the same situation as Lion Air JT610? The FDR and CVR data is being processed as I write this, with a publ...

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Atlas Air 5Y3591 Dove because of Nose-Down Elevator Command

The NTSB has revealed that Atlas Air 767 Freighter flight 5Y3591 dove based on nose-down elevator command. The nose was pushed over 49 degr...

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Exploring Rain Fade in an Extreme Rain Fall Zone

Rain Fade is a factor with Ku-band and Ka-band satellite communications. Rainfall rate is measured in mm/hour. The occurrence ...

Friday, March 8, 2019

5Y3591 Stabilizer Trim Actuator appears to be Nose Down

When KHOU took a video tour of the collected wreckage, they included a frame of the stabilizer trim actuator (the jackscrew).

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Limiting RF exposure to Humans in Close Proximity to Satellite Transmitters

Satellite radios produce powerful Radio Frequency (RF) emissions. A method is provided for limiting the RF exposure to humans that are in c...

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

More Questions Raised for Atlas 5Y3591 Loss of Control

Atlas 767 flight 5Y3951 was descending for 3,000 feet when it appears to have briefly leveled off at 6,200 feet, before nosing over and plun...

Sunday, February 24, 2019

NTSB Brief Atlas 5Y3591 Sun 4pm CST

NTSB chairman Sumwalt has seen video of the last five seconds to the impact of Atlas 5Y3591 and confirms it was in a steep, wings-level div...

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Atlas Air 767 Flight 5Y3591 Plunges from 6,000 Feet

Three Atlas Air crew members tragically perished when their 26 year-old Boeing 767 plunged from about 6,000 feet in about 10 seconds. T...

Friday, December 7, 2018

Stopping Distance

Runway factors change the normal stopping distance of a Boeing 737-700. A 10 knot tailwind adds about 21% to the stopping distance A ...

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Angle of Attack Vane Failure Modes

Lion Air JT610 Captain's angle of attack (AoA) measurement was about 20 degrees higher that the First Officer's AoA. The excessivel...

Friday, November 23, 2018

First Look at JT610 Flight Data

Partial release of flight data from JT610 (h/t to Don Thompson). In short summary, the left Angle of Attack (AoA) vane was substantially o...

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

737 FCC Pitch Axis Augmentation - Command Integrity Mandate for Dual Channel, Fail-Safe

A line is drawn between primary flight controls that the pilot handles directly through control column, rudder pedal, and stabilizer trim; ...

Thursday, November 15, 2018

737 MCAS - Failure is an Option

The 737MAX introduced a new feature, Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). MCAS commands the stabilizer to trim down (onl...

Monday, November 12, 2018

Stabilizer Trim

LionAir JT610 plunged into the sea from what may have been the result of runaway stabilizer trim. The details are not released, but the FA...

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Coverage Along a Route - Europe

Airlines flying routes connecting European airports fly far enough north to limit satellite elevation to less than 45 degrees. Installing a...

Friday, October 12, 2018

Close Calls Coming (TG679) and Going (IX611)

ADS-B OUT data broadcast coupled with machine learning can create a great enhancement to aviation safety. Flight Operations Quality Assuran...

Friday, September 28, 2018

Using True Time Delay to Increase Instantaneous Bandwidth in a Phased Array Antenna

The progression towards High Throughput Satellites is enabled by frequency reuse using larger and larger bandwidth signals. Bandwidths exc...

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

APEX 2018 Midway Report

APEX EXPO 2018 got started a day earlier than I expected. My report from the first two days looking at VR headsets, satcom partnerships an...

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Panasonic adds Inmarsat GX to the Routing Table

Panasonic and Inmarsat have jointly announced an agreement to work together. Panasonic will offer Inmarsat as their exclusive Ka-band sa...

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Aviation Cybersecurity 101

Thanks to Woodrow Bellamy III and Mark Holmes for inviting me to present at the Global Connected Aircraft Summit 2018. Here is my slide ...

Monday, April 30, 2018

Lion Air PK-LOO JT-892 Departed runway after touchdown

Joining final approach very late may have contributed to a Boeing 737-800 departing the runway 27 at GTO/WAMG Gorontalo Jalaluddin Airport i...

Monday, February 26, 2018

Seamless Air Alliance - Who Owns the Customer?

Delta, Airbus, OneWeb, Sprint, Airtel, and Gogo announced the formation of the Seamless Air Alliance. Equipment, certification, sate...

Friday, February 9, 2018

Malfunction in an Aero Ku/Ka-band Satcom System

Ku/Ka-band Satcom Systems offer no safety functions. No failure of the satcom system should create an unsafe effect. Users of the satco...

Sunday, January 28, 2018

PP792 Mark 2 Satcom Advanced Features

PP792 defines the form and fit characteristics of the Mark II Aviation Ku-band and Ka-band Satellite Communication (satcom) System, intende...

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Is there Gold on Virgin America?

It’s like walking into a night club.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

10 Years Later - Still Standardizing Aero Ku/Ka Satcom

With a two hour telecon in Jan 2008, the SAE/ITC AEEC Ku/Ka-band Satcom Subcommittee started to work together. What ever happened? 1...

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Regulating Radiated Emissions

https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents/bulletins/oet56/oet56e4.pdf Equipment installed on aircraft must be...

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Project Paper 792 - Dec 2017 Update

Project Paper 792 System Flat-Panel antennas, particularly those with embedded amplifiers, provide the only pathway from an effective...

Friday, November 17, 2017

Comparing Antenna Performance

While it is possible to get 2x as marketing touts, the ThinKom (2Ku) antenna achieves about 1.5 times the spectral efficiency as a compe...

Monday, November 13, 2017

Defense in Depth

Defense-in-Depth is a security concept that applies successive barriers to unauthorized access. Aeronautical communication includes a ...

Friday, October 27, 2017

Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Test Program

Robert (Bob) Montgomery participated in the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Test program, conducted by NASA Dryden at Edwards in 1977. ...

Monday, October 23, 2017

Google Loon - Floating Nest of Radio Technologies

Google is deploying a High Altitude Platform System (HAPS) in the form of balloons that float around 20 km in altitude above a servi...

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Managing Network Security and QoS: PP848

Air Transport Airplanes are faced with a monumental challenge to upgrade and embrace modern IP radio networks. Network security has risen ...

Friday, September 1, 2017

“Otto”, your new First Officer

Will air transport airplanes carrying many people for commercial purposes move to fully autonomous, no human pilot onboard? The Fi...

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Antenna Performance along an Airline Route

Aircraft fly from a departure airport to a destination airport along a route that is ideally a great circle connecting the two airports. W...

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Choosing an Airline Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP)

Airlines have been providing passengers radio communication services at their seat since 1937. In 2017, airline passengers yearn for f...

Monday, April 17, 2017

Spectral Efficiency - The Fitness of Wireless Communication

Spectral efficiency –the effective data rate that can be achieved from a given slice of spectrum.

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