Om deze vijfde verjaardag en uitbreiding van activiteiten te vieren, krijgt u tot 31 januari bij elke webbestelling een gratis uitgave van bitbook cadeau.
Uw leesplezier is onze drijfveer.
Team bitbook
]]>De boeklancering was een initiatief van Het Willemfonds Brussels Gewest en uitgeverij Bitbook in samenwerking met urban.brussels en in aanwezigheid van een vertegenwoordiger van het kabinet van Brussels staatssecretaris bevoegd voor Erfgoed, Pascal Smet. Door het commercieel succes van deze publicatie heeft de uitgeverij reeds een herdruk aangekondigd van het boek.
Koop het boek : https://www.bitbook.be/collections/frontpage/products/joseph-diongre-1878-1963
De eerste architectuurwandeling staat begin september geprogrammeerd in Schaarbeek. Nadien zijn er nog wandelingen in Sin-Jans-Molenbeek, Vorst en Sint-Gillis.
Het Eclecticisme - het combineren van kenmerken van verschillende bouwstijlen of kunststromingen tot een bevallig geheel - behoort tot een van de veelvuldig gehanteerde bouwstijlen van architect Diongre. Ook subtiele Art nouveau-invloeden sieren sommige van zijn bouwwerken in Schaarbeek, een gemeente waar hij veel projecten realiseerde, en waar hij tevens meermaals gelauwerd werd voor zijn stijlvolle realisaties.
Zondag 04 september 2022 om 14u30. Afspraak aan de hoofdingang van het gemeentehuis van Schaarbeek, Collignonplein.
De modernistische kerk van de hand van Diongre tekent de skyline van het hart van de gemeente. Met Molenbeek - reeds in de eerste helft van de 20ste eeuw in volle expansie - had hij bovendien een bevoorrechte relatie. Hij ontwierp er ook tal van sociale wooneenheden en een pittoreske Tuinwijk die tot op vandaag zijn naam draagt.
Zondag 25 september 2022 om 14u30. Afspraak aan het hoofdportaal van de St.-Jan-de-Doperkerk, Gemeenteplein.
De opdrachtgevers van Diongre waren erg divers: lokale overheden, sociale coöperatieven, kunstenaars, politici en welstellende burgers. In Sint-Gillis tekende Diongre robuuste sociale wooneenheden, voorzien van eigentijds comfort, terwijl hij in Vorst enkele opmerkelijke, burgerlijke Art Deco-woningen realiseerde.
Zondag 23 oktober 2022 om 14u30. Afspraak aan het hoofdportaal van de Sint-Augustinuskerk, 'Hoogte Honderdplein', Vorst.
Praktisch:
Deelnameprijs: 5 EUR p.p. (-18-jaar: gratis)
Inschrijven is verplicht via suzanne.terhaar@willemfonds.be uiterlijk 1 week voor de wandeling.
De wandelingen duren telkens ca. 2 uur en worden afgesloten met een drankje, aangeboden door het Willemsfonds en uitgeverij Bitbook.
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Alhambra propose une immersion totale dans le monde du sans-abrisme bruxellois à travers l’histoire d’amour singulière qui unit La Flanelle, personnage haut en couleur, à Tonio, musicien de rue. Leurs soirées alternent entre séjours aux urgences, nuitées dans des hôtels décrépits du quartier de l’Alhambra et incursions dans le monde des cabarets burlesques. À grand renfort de cocaïne et d’alcool, le couple sombre peu à peu dans une spirale infernale. La cession des droits intervient en même temps que la parution de la traduction française du roman sous le titre Coupés du monde.
« L’histoire racontée par Filip Keymeulen prend le lecteur aux tripes et présente des qualités cinématographiques particulières. Sans compter que tout auteur rêve d’appendre que son manuscrit peut être porté à l’écran. Le fait que ce soit justement une société de production bruxelloise qui acquiert les droits est un gage d’authenticité pour ce formidable récit », explique l’éditeur, Bruno Depover.
Par le passé, Frederik Vrancken a fait partie de l’équipe de production de Hellhole (Bas Devos), Animals (Nabil Ben Yadir), Waste Land (Pieter Van Hees) ainsi que de plusieurs longs et courts métrages à l’étranger.
]]>Alhambra duikt loodrecht in de Brusselse daklozenwereld en vertelt het bijzondere liefdesverhaal van de flamboyante La Flanelle en straatmuzikant Tonio. Wanneer ze hun nachten niet doorbrengen op de spoedafdeling, wordt er gelogeerd in afgeleefde hotels van de Alhambrawijk of duiken ze in het burleske nachtleven. Geholpen door cocaïne en alcohol, zakken ze steeds dieper weg. De roman is gelijktijdig gelanceerd in het Frans onder de titel : Coupés du monde.
'Het verhaal van Filip Keymeulen kruipt onmiddellijk onder de huid en heeft bijzondere filmische kwaliteiten. Bovendien is het voor elke auteur een droom om te horen als een manuscript kans maakt op verfilming. Dat net een Brussels productiehuis de filmrechten opkocht, is een zegen voor de authenticiteit van dit fantastisch verhaal', verklaart uitgever Bruno Depover.
Frederik Vrancken was in het verleden betrokken bij de productie van Hellhole (Bas Devos), Animals (Nabil Ben Yadir), Waste Land (Pieter Van Hees) en verschillende buitenlandse producties en kortfilms.
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L'auteur a publié 35 livres, dont les titres les plus populaires, des thrillers psychologiques, ont été vendus a plus de 650.000 exemplaires. Un de ses derniers romans "Aan jou de keuze" est paru en français sous le titre "A toi de voir". L'écrivain a remporté en 2008 le prix Hercule-Poirot.
Luc Deflo était en outre l'auteur de scénarios et pièces de théâtre.
]]>According to aviation experts, automation has dramatically improved safety over the last 30 years. But recent accidents, as the one with Saratov, point to increasing problems with automation and the lack of airmanship among the younger generation of pilots.
Most passengers don’t seem to realize it when they flying smoothly across the sky that the aircraft is basically is flying by itself. After departure, most pilots turn on the Automatic Pilot (AP) and they switch it off, right before landing. The interesting thing is that it’s not the pilots but the airlines who insist on flying on AP.
Stjepan Bedic (Safety Manager at Kermas Aviation)“In today’s world, the aviation has lost the good airmanship and common sense, which is are cornerstones of aviation. Safety management systems (SMS) was turned from a good thing into a bureaucratic mess. People who manage it forgot that the final goal is safety not SMS or statistics.”
Can you give an example? “You have a rule for so called stabilized approach. This means that on approach the aircraft has to be in landing configuration, with correct speed and altitude at certaing height above the ground usually 1000 ft. So airlines are monitoring all the flight parameters to ensure that the airplanes are always stabilized for landing.
What’s the risk? “Basically, if you arrive to fast, or configure too late, it may result in a runway overrun and things like that so this is how it works the Safety Manager realizes the company has 5% unstabilized approaches. Meaning: five out of hundred landings were not performed in compliance with the speed, altitude, rate of descent or some other parameter so they make a goal of reducing this to let’s say 2 %. They do this by training, but also by sending e-mails to pilots. So pilots get scared. They refuse to fly the airplane manually. They use the Auto Pilot all the way to 100 ft, because they are afraid, if they fly manually, maybe they have a rate of descent of 1200 feet per minute, and the limit imposed by SMS is 1000 ft.
So most pilots land on AP? “Most of the time they land themselves, but they switch off the autopilot just before landing, being afraid that if they fly the whole approach manually, they might exceed some parameter and get e-mail notifications etc. However, the parameters they exceed, in 99% of the time it’s not serious. It could be a rate of descent 1200 feet per minute instead of 900 feet per minute. Which does not affect safety in any way.”
So what’s the downside of this situation? “Now you have a situation where pilots fly a manual approach manually only two times per year, in a simulator. And the Safety Manager gets what he has aimed for, the rate of unstabilized approaches decreases to 2%. However, the goal of Safety Management is SAFETY, not percentage of unstabilized approaches.”
Stefano Furlanis, Captain with Ethiopean Airlines agrees with this assesment. Not automation in itself is the problem, but the overdependency on it.
“Let me give you an example of how colleagues of mine were not able to do a visual approach. We were on a visual approach in Valencia Spain on a B737, when the First Officer turned on final 10.000 feet high and when he finally looked up, he asked me: “Where is the runway??”. I said .. “Below us.” “Do you think we have to Go Around??” “Well we are 7 miles on final 13.000 feet high .. I think so”. He had followed blindly the Vertical Profile Deviation Indicator and turned on final without questioning of the validity of the display’s informations … I told him to prepare for a Go-Around, I first advidsed the tower, then I told him to execute it, after pushing the Go-Around switches he basically froze. I had to clean up the aircraft myself and perform the checklist while he was staring at … I don’t know what and dead silent. Fortunately automatics were flying the aircraft. “
Another example: “I was flying on a B777 to Male, Maldives with the First Officer as Pilot Flying. We are at some 25.000 ft when we called Male Approach and we got cleared to a lower altitude and for a certain arrival procedure. We were off course with autopilot engaged and a fully computer managed descent both laterally and vertically (LNAV VNAV modes engaged). At this point Male Approach asked us if we’d like to perform a visual approach for that runway. I replied “Standby”, turn to the first officer and ask “Are you OK with it” “Yes off course,” he replied.
So I accepted the offer, feeling happy about it, because many airlines nowadays practically forbid visual approach. I was expecting a number of things like increase in speed, selection of a different mode like FLCH (Flight Level Change), deployment of Speed Brakes and a mini briefing on how he was going to manage the aircraft’s energy and path. Instead there was nothing and LNAV, VNAV still engaged. I figured out an ideal path to the threshold, 40 miles at most, factoring wind and deceleration .. I would like to be now at 9000 ft but we are at 23000 ft. The Flight Management Computer shows 80 miles to touch down. I see it coming .. Still descending at 1200 ft/min .. A/P, LNAV, VNAV, F/D, A/T .. all engaged .. no reaction.
“Buddy I think we are coming in high.. “ I say. “Why? I don’t think so” the First Officer replies .. At this point he goes Heading Select and veers off the arrival track for a wide left base turn. “I don’t think we are going to make it” I say again. We are now I figure about 20 miles to go, clean and at some 18.000 ft .. interesting to say the least. “Man you’r 12.000 ft high”, “Why? I was on path all time long” he replies, so I lean over and with my fingers I kind of measured our “distance to go”. I can see his expression changing … I suggested: “How about an immediate right turn by 90 degrees?”, “Yes yes he replied. What happened? This pilot hadn’t flown a real visual approach in years!
“I guess he didn’t have that passion for flying that leads some aviators to never fully trust automation but to use old fashioned methods to determine their own situation regardless of what the screen says (distance, altitude, wind, speed, airport elevation, weight, configuration changes and last but not least: looking outside!). The pilot could not abandon automation. He could not figure it out by himself, turning on base 12.000 ft high, showing complete loss of awareness, both of aircraft and self.”
So there are pilots out there who are not able to perform a visual approach? That’s kind of worrying. Who are to blame for this situation? Furlanis: “In first place the airlines. They have realised how cheaper and convenient it is to hire not somebody talented, but just somebody and give him or her a very quick and narrow Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)-training, based to create the ultimate SYSTEM OPERATOR which with a uniform on can well resemble a real pilot. Now this system operator will do just fine because airplanes fly themselves pretty good, the never (almost) break down, the reliability of the whole system is so amazing.”
“There is a big plus: These individuals can be resourced in masses quickly, can be trained quickly since we are no longer requiring them to build some rare skills .. all they have to do is to read the book and apply the rules and much the little button. I know you focus on automation dependancy but procedure dependancy is dangerous as well. Especially when procedures are no longer written for safety but to enable monkeys to fly.” “You can recognise those pilots because they usually hang on S.O.P. as if beyond them there would be The Absolute Void. I’ve heard once a Captain telling me: “Keep the A/P engaged until on final, if you want to have fun flying go to the aeroclub.”
So what’s the solution? “We fly airplanes within their limits, within the manufacturer limits, within the certification limits, within the regulations limits, within the operator’s procedures… We never allow anything to happen. And that’s exactly how we end up ignoring the real aircraft’s limits and our own limits. We don’t even know how we personally would react to uncertainties. Everything unusual lays outside of a rock solid comfort zone. Everything is fine until the shit hits the fan. Allowing a small controllable situation to develop until a reasonable limit, was the way I was trained by the old generation of captains. And I feel blessed by it. Almost nobody anymore has turboprop experience, nobody flies anything light in their spare time.
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On Wednesday September 27th I interviewed Jacques Rocca, the Head of Airbus media content, on the ongoing investigation into the accident with the Airbus 330 that crashed in the Atlantic on June 1, 2009. According to experts that represent the victims, there were no less than 22 breakdowns and failures on the plane, the most noteworthy the flawed heating system of the speedometers (pitot tubes), but also software-related problems with the alarms: No incoming messages of unrealiable speed indications and a flawed stall alarm.
Mr Rocca, what is the situation of the trial against Airbus and Air France?us and Air France?
There is no trial yet, there is a (criminal) investigation but this was slowed down when the investigating judge Mme. Zimmerman took leave in 2015 and handed over the case to a college of different judges. It is still not sure that there will be a trial, but if there will be one, this probably won’t be until 2019. (the victims’ lawyers have different projections, see this article)
What is Airbus’ defense on the technical failures on the machine?
Regarding the investigation, we are bound to secrecy according to annex 13 of the ICAO convention, the aicraft constructors that we cannot comment as long as the investigation is going on.* What I can say is that Airbus and Air France collaborated closely with the BEA (the French counterpart of the NTSB) and invested millions in the search and recovery operation of the wreck.
Did Airbus call supplier Thales into the investigation?
No, normally only the aircraft constructor is investigated here, the suppliers are not part of this.
But in case if Airbus gets convicted for the faulty pitot tubes, wouldn’t the company seek compensations with the supplier that furnished those parts? I don’t think so. But according to the expertise, the faulty pitot tubes were not the only element that unchained the event.
You are pointing at the human error
Among others…
You mean the pilots made mistakes.
For example.
Is it normal that a procedure like that takes such long time? Almost 10 years and no advance.
Yes, in France, criminal procedures take a long time. And the retirement of judge Zimmerman did not help.
Did Airbus change the instructions of how to fly an A330 after the accident?
No, we didn’t change the instructions to the pilots. The ones who did were the airlines, like Air France.
Like the anti stall training at high altitudes?
I think the fact that pilots, in case of loss of speed indications, need to fly hands-on with their sidestick and not rely on Automatic Pilot. But Airbus did not change the flying manuals.
Did Airbus change the software on the A330, after the Rio-Paris accident?
We change and upgrade software all the time. There was no specific update on the A330 after the accident. We were not asked to do so, neither by the EASA, nor by the FAA. The plane was certified and there was no reason to change this
Was Airbus in the course of the investigation, obliged to turn over the codes of the software to supervising agencies?
After the accident, as a part of the investigation, the entire conditions of the accident were recreated in a simulator, in the presence by the experts appointed by Judge Zimmerman. So all the elements were there to see what happened on the AF447.
*Thales Group declined to give a comment on the flawed heating system of the AA pitot tubes, citing also Annex 13 of the ICAO convention.
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