Dan Parsons 31/1/23 Dan Parsons 31/1/23

#Blogathon 2023: The Month That Was ... Tough

Today is day 31, and the #blogathon has come to an end. The inspiration for this (mis)adventure was the release of ChatGPT, and, as a test, I thought I’d see if it could make my life easier. But, unfortunately, the short answer to that question is no.

Dan Parsons 30/1/23 Dan Parsons 30/1/23

The Social Scene: Necessary Human Interaction

I have spent a sizeable portion of this #blogathon discussing the power and capability of ChatGPT critically. I have used, and I assume, many other people use it directly and personally. One-on-one, so to speak. Through this approach, I have built some interesting things over the last two months - Bird Strike Bot and a fast-time simulation. However, I still enjoy the much less predictable but often fruitful world of human interaction, whether it’s an active social media life or traditional methods like networking and formal education.

Header image: Helena Lopes (via Pexels)

Dan Parsons 29/1/23 Dan Parsons 29/1/23

Critical Review of (what was) Bird Strike Bot

Please note that Twitter killed the bot and then I deleted the account.

While in yesterday’s introduction of the Bird Strike Bot, I was proud of the work I undertook, with the help of ChatGPT, to build and deploy a Twitter bot, I still think it is worth taking a critical look at its first couple of weeks to see how well it is performing.

Short answer: 😐

Header image: Pavel Danilyuk (via Pexels)

Dan Parsons 27/1/23 Dan Parsons 27/1/23

Friday Unfunny: The End is Nigh

I’ve ignored ChatGPT over the last couple of days as I dived into familiar topics. And given it’s dubious results when trying to be funny, I thought best not to repeat the sins of the last few Fridays. Instead, today I have asked ChatGPT to acknowledge the final days of the #blogathon with a poem in the style of Edgar Allan Poe.

Header image: Tom Mossholder (via Pexels)

Dan Parsons 22/1/23 Dan Parsons 22/1/23

Fast-Time Simulation: Visualisation & Making Decisions

I have only just touched the surface of this concept, and I am excited by its power, but it is time to wrap up this series on fast-time simulation. I’ve created a flight schedule, built an airport and subjected it to almost three years of punishment. Today’s post is a quick look at visualisation of the results and what decisions it could support.

Dan Parsons 21/1/23 Dan Parsons 21/1/23

Fast-Time Simulation: Chaos & Playing God

Last weekend, with the help of ChatGPT, I started learning how to do fast-time simulation in Python. Modelling operations in Excel can be fun, but I wanted to step up my game. And since I don’t have access to any full-featured simulation platforms, I thought I would teach myself how to code this stuff.

This process started with background research and creating a schedule I could use for my simulations. Then I built an airport, its apron management processes and a way of tracking the apron’s performance. This weekend, I am playing God.

Dan Parsons 18/1/23 Dan Parsons 18/1/23

Time to Revamp Aerodrome Certification?

Aerodrome certification seems like both a mature system and an emerging concept. I acknowledge that while it has been in place in states like Australia for twenty years, some states are still working through the necessary regulatory development and implementation. Regardless, I’d like to go out on a limb and suggest that the concept is underdone. It takes an overly simplistic view of aerodromes and, as such, can hamper innovation and development.

Dan Parsons 16/1/23 Dan Parsons 16/1/23

NOTAM System Failure: Not What-If but When?

Over ten years ago, I posted a short recommendation that aerodrome operators should consider the risk of a NOTAM system failure. While even I may have considered such a thing a bit of a black swan event, this scenario recently played out in the United States and Canada. Obviously, plenty of people in the FAA and NAV Canada will be working on avoiding a repeat of these events, aerodrome operators should take the time to review want happened for their own lessons learned.

Dan Parsons 15/1/23 Dan Parsons 15/1/23

Fast-Time Simulation: Building an Airport

It’s Sunday night, and while I haven’t quite finished with my first foray into fast-time simulation, I am enjoying the process. Today, I set about “building” an airport for my simulation. To make sure it worked, I ran a simulation of one day’s flight schedule. ChatGPT has been here to help me, but, as I will discuss here and in the days following, it hasn’t been as big of a help as I had hoped.

Dan Parsons 2/1/23 Dan Parsons 2/1/23

Big Brother: Tracking Passengers

Passenger tracking technology has become an increasingly important part of modern airport management. From check-in to boarding, passenger tracking systems help airports monitor travellers' movement throughout the terminal to improve the overall passenger experience. In addition, with technological advances in various spaces, airports can gather swathes of data on people's movement around their terminals within tight budgets while being mindful of privacy concerns.

Dan Parsons 1/1/23 Dan Parsons 1/1/23

Introducing the 2023 Blogathon (with a little artificial help)

This is a terrible idea. I’ve got a lot to do right now but I’ve somehow convinced myself that this new technology (that is all the buzz) can help me do this. So, here goes…