On the 9th of May, the Executive Board held a meeting where the following topics were discussed:

1. Composition of board, integration of new EB members:

Unfortunately nobody volunteers to become vice-president; therefore we will continue another year without. SJ will take over the membership secretary from ZH. When KC comes back we will discuss who will continue. We will need new membership cards for all members with the new logo.

The draft minutes of the 2009 Annual General Meeting can be downloaded here. If you'd like to see the minutes or reports from this or previous AGM's, check this page.

The world's GPS systems could start to fail next year, according to a report presented to US Congress. This could cause serious problems for aviation, emergency services and ordinary drivers, as well as the military.

The US Government Accountability Office (GOA) blames mismanagement and lack of investment and predicts a one in five chance that the number of satellites will drop below the required 24 for global coverage before 2012.

Read the full report here.

Update: The board decided to slightly change the rules. Please find the new version of the competition rules here.

For the sixth time, EGATS organises a photo competition. The theme for this years' edition is 'Architecture'. Closure date is November 2009. There are some other rules and things, which you can find in this document here.

Results from the previous competitions can be seen by clicking on the 'EGATS Photo Competition' link in the menu on the left.

Good luck to all who enter.

The USA - FAA equivalent of SESAR is NextGen. The FAA have made a promo video about what they hope to achieve over the next 10 years.

For those of you struggling to understand the New Flightplan Processing System in Maastricht, perhaps the following interview can be of help. The following link will take you to the Flemish Radio 1 site, where Fred Könnemann enlightens the listeners on NFDPS inauguration-day what this new system really is and does...

Click here for the story and click on the link under 'Audio'. It's in dutch but if demand is high enough, we might just put an english translation up. Let us know via our 'Contact' page.

According to the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) report, airlines around the world 'mishandled' 42 million bags in 2007 and completely lost more than a million of them. Still according to the report, the problem was the worst it had been in recent years.

The policies of some airlines are highlighted in the report, clearly showing the red tape passengers have to deal with to try and get compensation for a delayed or lost bag.

Read the full story on the BBC website.

UPDATE: here's the booklet with the agenda, reports and minutes of the last AGM. Proxy forms can be found on the last page of the pdf file or as a word document here.

The 2009 Annual General Meeting of EGATS, will be held in the Maastricht UAC Canteen on Tuesday 31st of March. The meeting kicks off at 19.30h.

The latest findings on the impact on night shifts (the duty, not the 1984 album by the Commodores) on people's metabolism, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It shows a clear link between work-sleep cycles, metabolic disregulation and disease.

People who participated in the test produced less leptin, a hormone that signals a body to stop eating by triggering feelings of satiety. Blood glucose and insulin levels rose, both of which are linked to diabetes. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol also shot up, as did the blood pressure of the test subjects. 

Even a brief misalignment caused quite impressive changes, the research shows.

You can read more on the study here.

You can find a pdf version of the latest OUTPUT magazine here. Subjects in this issue include: Waiting for the DREAMFLIGHT, CBAS, Red Bull Air Race Rotterdam 2008, Ilia’s Charity and EBBL Visit.