A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1056689
procedure easier to use and understand, but it is in the early stages of the long change process. I will inform more on this in the next update. Speed Assignments when taken off a STAR It's understood that when vectoring an aircraft off a STAR after a Descend Via clearance has been issued, requires ATC to issue an altitude. Industry has brought forth an issue needing clarification when the STAR also contains speed restrictions. Since the aircraft is no longer on a procedure that contains a speed restriction, pilots are questioning what speed applies. A change will be made to both the AIM and the 7110.65 to address this. GNSS Computer Navigation Fixes Computer Navigation Fixes (CNFs) are those five-letter fix names found on low altitude IFR charts. They are associated with certain airways where the course changes but there is no published intersection or GPS fix. CNFs are shown (in parenthesis) and used for GPS databases only and are not to be used for ATC purpose. The 7110.65 was silent regarding CNFs and a suggestion was made to include guidance. A definition and guidance regarding CNFs should be included in the February 2019 edition of the 7110.65. Please feel free to contact me at procedures@natca.net with any questions or suggestions. ATO OPERATIONAL CONTINGENCY GROUP (ATOC) Jason Grider (ZFW) is the ATO Article 114 Representative and the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Representative. His report is below: Mr. Grider and the CO group have been busy getting out to facilities to give support to help build more complete contingency plans. The group met at Oakland Center to begin the review and rebuild of the OCP's for the ocean sectors in the Pacific. They spent two days with NATCA leaders and representatives from Tech Ops, Automation, and Airspace specialist to brainstorm new ideas to return air traffic services to the ocean after an ATC-0 event. It was determined that Anchorage Center would be the main support facility to resume services to the ocean. There are still many obstacles that must be overcome to make the plan viable. The group has also met with the national ATOP workgroup a few times to work through some of the technical issues that have been identified by the CO group. One of the problems with getting ATOP up and running in a different facility is that the sync servers for each oceanic facility are stored in house. If a building has to be evacuated, then the supporting facility may not be able to recover the data. Members of Second Level Engineering are looking at the challenges to being able to store all of the data at the Tech Center as well as each facility. This would allow automation specialist the ability to load the affected facilities active traffic into the supporting facility in a reasonable amount of time.