Aimm: 'Frequently Asked Questions'
- What is 'Aimm Movement Monitoring'? An efficent way to monitor movements, manage risk, reports, compliance, and landing fees... more details
- What is 'Aimm Airside Personnel Tracker'? An easy and immediate way to know who is airside, when and where ... more details
- Can Aimm handle Parking Fees, Fuel Purchases and other aircraft charges? Yes, without double handling... fee billing details
- What are the Costs and Benefits? Cost less than most other methods, for more benefits... more details
- How is Aimm able to do this so economically? By extensive use of data analytics and computer pattern matching... more details
- How is Aimm different from other systems and methods? Risk management and a high degree of automation ... more details
- How to know if it will suit my Aerodrome? Discuss the challenges and opportunities that your Airport faces with our Aimm staff.... more details
More detail on the above questions:
What is 'Aimm Movement Monitoring'? A complete Airspace Reporting
and Movement Management service for Aerodromes, for Landing Fee Billing, and
provide the information needed for effective Risk Management, Compliance, Noise Complaints, and Funding applications.
Part of the monthly 'Dashboard' report sent to airport managers, and board members,
within 7 days of the end of each month, to allow provide the information on which to
make
fully informed decisions.
Aimm has three Movement Monitoring versions, to suit different types of aerodrome...
1. Aimm-Lite
--- For many smaller airfields / airports 'Aimm-Lite' provides everything they need, at
a fixed cost of $295 / month on a maintained lease with standard reports. The recording
unit is plugged into the power and internet at the Airport. If a broadband
internet connection is not available the system can use the mobile phone system
for data transfer. It records all
aircraft vioice calls 24 / 7 / 365 with a time and date stamp, then analyses, archives, sorts and stores them
long term.
A report is sent within one week of the end of each month, showing
the number of each type of movement (Takeoff, Touch and Go, Landing), types of aircraft (Plane, Helicopter etc),
weights, runway in use, night / day airspace activity, day of week and other information, to
the aerodrome for management and reporting purposes.
To reduce work and cost at the 'Lite' level of service, the voice calls
are autonomously analysed by computer, rather than transcribed by human operators.
The reports produced are detailed enough for non-Certificated aerodromes for
the current (and known future) reporting
requirements of CASA in Australia and CAA in NZ, so it provides an economical
way of handling Risk Management, Aviation Authority, and Local Body Compliance reporting
for those who do NOT need to bill landing fees.
In event of a noise complaint or incident, anyone authorised by the aerodrome managment can
listen to the voice calls for any period from three years ago to the last few minutes. This can be done from any
device that has Internet access and can play a .wav file (most can). This
allows quick incident investigation without the need for an after hours visit to
the airport.
--- Risk Management.
With evolving Health & Safety requirements, it is no longer enough to 'Leave it
to the Aero Club'. A landowner is expected to pro-actively manage risk to be able to
show that they are taking 'all practicable steps' to safeguard staff, pilots, maintenance staff, and the public.
If a situation arises that requires more detailed information, Aimm-Lite airports
can upgrade to Aimm-Plus and have Aimm's Transcription Operators
enter the movements to produce a fully detailed
movement reports with every aircraft identified.
This is usually requested for situations like:
--- Incidents.
At many airfields, a Flying School or Aero Club does a good job of
the day-to-day management but, in the event of an incident
the land owner does need to be able to show that they were aware of the changing patterns of Air Traffic usage
and have been reviewing these to confirm that the facility is being appropriately managed.
If they do not have Airport
Management expertise in-house, Aimm senior staff are available to discuss any
points that raise concerns. This can take the form of a short discussion
at no charge, or a full consultancy with written reports at reasonable industry
rates. Aero Clubs / Local Aircraft Operators can provide AirCRAFT expertise but do not usually have AirPORT Management expertise.
If requested by the aerodrome (and only then), Aimm operators will send copies
of the relevant radio calls directly to an Incident Investigation Authority and certify their
accuracy and completeness.
--- Compliance / Planning Approval Information.
If the airfield / airport's operating
consent has limits, the reports provide evidence of compliance. And
--- Noise Complaints.
Most airfields / airports occasional need to be able to show which
aircraft did what, when and why. Often a complaint is generated by
a Rescue aircraft flying in unusual places or altitudes, or an aircraft that is NOT associated
with the airport, and resolving this quickly avoids escalation of the complaint.
The Airport's own staff can listen to the radio calls from the archives for the
specific period and resolve most problems themselves. Aimm operators can provide this report if the situation report needs
to be from an independent third party. And
--- Search and Rescue.
To be able to quickly playback a group of radio calls
to assist S&R, identifying what was said, by whom, and at exactly what time in an emergency.
--- Management.
Most aerodromes want an occasional 'snapshot' of movements
for a past or current period. Typically when they are due to review bulk fees
for favoured local aircraft operators, so that they have definite facts on exactly
who is doing what in order to make informed management decisions and negotiate
from a position of knowledge.
The Aimm central server monitors the on-site unit remotely to ensure that the
system remains operational.
2. Aimm-Plus:
--- This is a more powerful version that records both Voice radio calls and ADSB
positions,
to suit Airports that DO charge landing fees. It has all the functions above, plus it
provides fully detailed reports every month showing the fine detail.
It identifies for each movement: the time, date, the specific aircraft call sign
or flight number, aircraft weight, type of aircraft, aircraft operator with full name and address,
type of movement (Takeoff / Landing / TnG), and runway or helipad approach in use. These reports
are designed to meet Billing / Consent / Planning Approval / Compliance obligations, Airport
Management requirements, Funding applications, and provide detailed movement reports for grant applications,
special projects, and Master Plans.
--- The on-site unit automatically enters the ADSB movements within a few
seconds of the flights terminating. Voice data is encrypted and uploaded to Aimm's
secure internet server each night, and either Aimm staff or Airport
staff download the Voice Calls and transcribe to enter the movements.
Where the Airport chooses to have its own staff do the transcriptions, a Transcription Utility program is proved that handles the work
efficiently, and sends a timesheet detailing hours worked
is sent to both the operator and the airport management each week. If the staffer falls
behind then Aimm's operators automatically transcribe the oldest days to prevent a
large backlog developing. When required to cover sickness / holidays,
one of Aimm's transcription operators can usually take over the work on short notice.
--- Management reports are emailed within one week of the end of each month to any number of
recipients showing graphs and collated summaries of activity.
--- Detailed reports in .CSV format (or in many Billing system's specific formats) are emailed
within one week of the end of each month, with full details of each movement. This has the
name and billing addresses of the aircraft operators, and the price for each movement
according to the aerodrome's pricing rules, and is ready for import into the aerodrome's
billing system for the aerodrome to bill landing fees, usually with
no further data entry. It can also be imported as a spreadsheet for further management analysis.
--- Cost efficiency. Most Airports (or if Council owned,
the Council itself) already have efficient billing systems. By
sending the invoices direct to that (rather than having the billing done by a
third-party) there are substantial savings in the cost of collection of landing
fees. Often Aimm can provide a better service at around half
the cost of other systems by making use of modern computer analysis and
especially by eliminating the costs of paying someone else to do a job that the
Airport is already set up to do for itself. Aimm's invoice
file is available in all the import formats in common use by Airport billing
systems.
--- Whether the transcription is done by an Aimm Operator,
or the Aerodrome's own Transcription Operator, neither of them have to make pricing decisions...
when they enter the aircraft registration, Aimm looks up the price set by the
Aerodrome management for its type, weight, or a specified rate (which can be
$0) for particular aircraft, and adds the details to the CSV file billing
data.
--- ALL Voice radio call recordings and ADSB positions
that have been received are available retrospectively,
not just those that resulted in an airport movement.
Airport staff can listen
to radio calls for any period from three years ago to the last few minutes at
the aerodrome, and view the ADSB positions. As Aimm is a Cloud based system, this can be done from any
device that has Internet access and can play a 'wav' file (most can) for Voice
or receive an email for the ADSB positions.
3. Aimm-Regional:
--- Provides all the services of Aimm-Plus (above), and is designed for Regional
Airports and those with landing fees of more than $250,000 / year.
Aimm-Regional uses dual recording units installed in different buildings on
different power phases to provide full redundancy of movement capture.
Either unit is able to provide the data, and the units are monitored daily to
confirm that both are in 'operations normal'.
At many Aimm Client Airports, all members of the board or supervising committee
require this report sent to them before each monthly meeting. There are several
pages where the important detail summarised in a format that is useful for management.
What are the Costs and Benefits?
For all three systems including Aimm-Lite, the 'Dashboard' report condenses each month's activities into a concise view of the facts that Airport Management need to know... the 'who, what and when' of activity at the Airport. It is sent within a week of the end of each month to enable up-to-date and effective business decisions. In event of an incident, these reports provide written evidence that the Airfield / Airport land owner has been supervising the operations and has the information to take 'all practicable steps' to ensure the safety of the pilots, maintenance personnel and public. Even for those sites that choose to report only the ADSB data (thereby eliminating the time and cost of Voice call transcription), all Voice calls are still archived to be fetched in event of an enquiry... they are a 'Cockpit Voice recorder' for the airport.
For Aimm-Plus and Aimm-Regional, the 'Billing and Movement' report is also sent within a week, with fully priced and addressed invoices for direct import into the Airport's existing billing system, usually with no further data entry. By making use of the Airport's existing billing system rather than duplicating this itself, Aimm is considerably more cost efficient than most other methods of collecting landing fees.
--- Fixed monthly cost: In most situations: (1) Aimm-Lite, (2) Aimm-Plus if the voice call transcription is done by the airport's own staff, (3) Aimm-Plus if used in ADSB-only mode... there is a fixed monthly subscription which is the only cost.
--- If the airport prefers, the voice call transcriptions can be carried out by Aimm's Transcription Operators, charged according to the minutes of voice calls.
--- Extra services such as a mobile data link, or special reports / consultancy are charged on a time and cost basis.
--- Either Aimm's Transcription Operators, or Transcription Operators employed by the Airport, can download the filtered radio Voice calls from the Aimm Server onto any Windows computer, either at the airport or anywhere with Internet access, play them back and enter the movements.
--- Aimm does all the rest... Airspace Activity and Movement Reporting, Risk Management reminders, Regulatory Authority reports to remain in compliance, and in the case of Aimm-Plus and Aimm-Regional produce a CSV file of priced and addressed invoicing data for import into the Airport's existing billing system so the aircraft operators can be charged landing fees. Aimm has robust system monitoring, data collection and retention methods, however the service is provided solely on the understanding that no liability for loss of landing fees or any other losses arising from loss or corruption of data will be accepted by Aimm.
For more information contact us.
How is Aimm able to provide these services so cost-effectively?
The Aimm developers have a long history in Data Analytics (extracting the meaning from raw computer data) and analysis of patterns in data. With the power now available on 'Cloud' based and Distributed systems, Aimm has the computer itself do much of the work and thus considerably reduce the human input required. By making full use of the latest technology for automation, Aimm is usually able to provide a service at around half the cost of alternative methods and to a higher standard.
Major differences of Aimm from other Movement Monitoring Systems and Methods?
Aimm was deisgned from the start to be a full Movement Management system, which collects landing fees but also
provides all the other movement-related information that an Airport manager requires... for compliance,
complaints, regulatory obligations, Health-and-Safety, Risk Management, Funding applications. Collection of Landing Fees is
obviously important, but it is not the only
task an Airport Manager has to do, and Aimm provides a lot more.
The cost of the service is gradually reducng as ADSB is used by more aircraft
allowing more automation.
How to know if Aimm will meet my Airfield / Airport's needs?
Phone one of Aimm's senior management to discuss the challenges and opportities that your Airport faces, and how other Airports have used Aimm to handle these. In many cases other Airports have faced the something similar, so we can usually advise on the solution, and results that were achieved.
Aimm supplies self contained unit(s) on a maintained lease that is plugged into the power and internet at the airfield / airport. Your staff don't have to do anything else. The unit(s) monitor activity 24 / 7 / 365. Aimm staff will liase with IT and Accounting staff to sort out the 'nuts and bolts' of making it fit seamlessly into your existing systems. If a broadband landline is not available the system can use the mobile phone network for data transfer.