Jeppesen

But context and domain knowledge are really hard to replicate.

And I would just use a couple of case studies, like Jeppesen, which is a company that has been helping commercial airlines fly planes safely for like 90 years.

That's a lot of context.

So if you're a dispatcher for United and you're trying to decide whether a crew can fly from Heathrow to New York, I'll use a real example that hopefully listeners can understand, a general model, if you ask that question, they'll connect via API to the flight record and they'll look and they'll have some general aviation knowledge from scraping the internet and give you a general answer.

But if you use Jeppesen's AI, they'll look at the exact FAA regulation that it governs, which is not normal language to read the FAA documents.

They'll look at the weather patterns.

They'll look at how long you have to be on the tarmac.

Obviously, we're moving from systems of record to now systems of intelligence to systems of action.

They're in-house, Nomadic, Nomadic people.

Um, we have actually a fairly sophisticated planning system that we've been grandfathered in with Jeppesen for 20 years now.

So the product that we have for flight planning doesn't even exist anymore.

[laughs]

September 20th is not far off, and the supplemental procedures and updated instrument approach procedures that international operators need to update their flight management systems and manuals take time to flow through the publication cycle.

This is where you check your Jeppesen or Navtech updates carefully.

This is where your operations manual and your company procedures need to reflect the new airspace reality before that departure is filed.

There is also a broader issue here that I want to give some time to, because I think it is worth understanding the policy landscape, not just the operational one.

Every instrument rating ever issued in this country traces its lineage to that program.

Every approach plate you've ever pulled up on the Jeppesen app, every precision approach glide slope you've ever intercepted, every ceiling and visibility minimum that defines whether you can shoot the approach or need to divert, all of it is downstream from the work Doolittle's team did at the Full Flight Laboratory.

Think about what that means for every flight you've operated in instrument meteorological conditions.

Every time you've punched into a layer and settled behind the panel, trusting the gyros over your gut, you are doing exactly what Jimmy Doolittle proved was possible.

The FAA and airport operators identify specific locations on the surface, movement area where pilots have historically had problems: a taxiway that intersects a runway at an awkward angle in low visibility, a holding short point that gets ambiguous when it's dark and raining, an intersection where the geometry of the taxiway system makes it easy to overshoot.

Each numbered hotspot on the Jeppesen ten-nine cross-references a description of the specific hazard at that location.

Before you taxi an unfamiliar airport in instrument conditions, the hotspot table on the ten-nine is worth reading line by line.

Now let's talk about runway data, because this is where the ten-nine gives you more than you might expect.

You'll see approach lighting system designations that reference configuration types.

You'll see notations for precision approach path indicators, what most pilots know as PAPI, and visual approach slope indicators.

Runway end identifier lights, centerline lights, touchdown zone lights, all of it has a specific code on the Jeppesen ten-nine.

Here’s my strong recommendation: before you fly Jeppesen charts operationally, open the Jeppesen chart introduction section, the one that comes at the front of the binder before any of the actual charts, and spend thirty minutes with the lighting legend.

In the near term, expect enhanced NOTAM activity around UK airspace, possible slot restriction modifications, and updated contingency routing guidance from Eurocontrol.

If you fly internationally and use Jeppesen or NavBlue for charts and routing data, keep an eye on their ops notices over the next two to four weeks.

These events tend to generate updated guidance for oceanic entry points, alternates, and fuel planning requirements when UK alternates might be affected.

Let me give you some context on why this matters even if you never intend to fly in UK airspace.

And, uh, and what we found is, you know, like, we built the course, like, with this, like, kind of design that, you know, solo was at, like, lesson 15, right? And you had a bunch of ground and you had a bunch of stuff.

And if you look at the, you know, you look at other curriculums out there, you look at Sportys and King Schools and, uh, Gleim and, you know, like, Jeppesen, and you're, like, we know of all these things.

Like, we are u- users of the aviation system.

We think general aviation and personal aviation is we want everyone to do better, right? You know, so we want to, you know, we, we look at all that stuff.

or potentially AI-controlled.

So I had a face-to-face meeting with an executive from Jeppesen, who is a company that coordinates all global flights.

And I kept the conversation light for 10 minutes.

At the moment I mentioned geoengineering, he turned his back and walked away.