NATCA Bookshelf

CSA PBN – Columbus and San Antonio projects are being prepped for flight simulation runs done by our industry partners. Both projects will go for noise modeling in the next few weeks. The next step will be to brief each airport and discuss the noise simulations and any design concerns reported during the simulation runs. The KORD draft procedures are complete and ready for submission for modeling, evaluated by the city of Chicago. There are a number of pressures on the production pipeline and the many FAA Orders that mandate how instrument flight procedure work is approved, completed, and implemented. NATCA has been working (for the better part of two years) with the Operational Support Groups (OSG), PBN Program Office, Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) and Flight Standards (AFS) on a singular Instrument Flight Procedure (IFP) that could bring all procedure development into one consistent process and move forward in supporting national level priorities and strategies. NATCA's vision for these changes ensure facility collaboration and eliminate changes to the NAS that aren't appropriately coordinated in the field. These recent efforts have been abandoned by AIS and AFS. These two organizations are ready to implement a new 8260.43C that doesn't have the appropriate infrastructure and planning in place to simplify the process, reduce timelines for publication, or ensure complete air traffic facility collaboration. The current version being implemented does not match earlier drafts that were collaborated on. There has been considerable work going into preparations for a singular IFP process. The new 8260.43C mandates how projects are approved and scheduled. Because the new .43C is completely changing how potential projects are approved, work on the new IFP process has had to stop and adapt to the new .43C. If given the appropriate time and development, both the new IFP process and the new prioritization process could co-exist and complement each other. The SDF (Louisville International-Standiford Field, Louisville, Ky.) project has been handed off from ESA to CSA. This project was requested by UPS and will focus on improving airspace and procedures for KSDF, ZID, and all surrounding ATC facilities. At SDF, UPS bases their largest package sorting facility. Preliminary information is being gathered and a short site visit will occur in mid-December. At this visit, we will discuss SDF facility needs and observe the mid-shift inbound and outbound pushes for the tower and TRACON. We will meet with the LRAA (Louisville Regional Airport Authority) and discuss their needs, interests, and support for a project. Finally, we will meet with UPS Flight Operations and observe their overnight processes at their sort facility. The effort to help ARTCCs focus on their VOR MON mitigations is underway and evolving into a standard method that can be applied to any navaid removal and mitigation conversation. In early November, Central PBN was with ZKC, our Flight Procedures Team (FPT), the OSG Airspace and Procedure Specialist, and the Environmental Specialist. ZKC had already developed a full ARTCC strategy for T-route development. These ideas were further discussed, combined, and connected to

• Cover
• ERAW received a briefing from Second Level Engineering and the Program Office on the Alternate Display Path in support of R-side Tech Refresh. The goal is to allow the AIX processor to provide data to the glass in the event of an MDM failure due to th...
• SE2 Use Case Updates
• o 4th Line – The team reached agreement on the 4th Line use case referencing the ON/OFF switch functionality. Once all team members concur, the use case will be sent to SLE.
• o Airspace Transfer – The team discussed the changes to the use case and a section was added for the "Push" function. The team also decided that language should be added to capture review of national procedures.
• DataComm CHI
• o The uplink type for Speed and Route Generic Uplinks was discussed. A recommendation was made to modify the classification of the Confirm Speed (uM134) and Confirm Assigned Route uplinks from Temporary Generic Uplinks to Permanent Generic Uplinks. Th...
• ER 195554 AHI and Point Outs
• o The team reviewed and reached agreement on the problem statement, "The desired behavior is to add system functionality that will insert an AHI (Auto Handoff Inhibit) for an aircraft from the initiating sector to the receiving sector after the receiv...
• ER 194653 Pending Font and Brightness
• o The team discussed and reached consensus on the problem statement, "Its desired behavior is to change the button functions on the SAA Filter Menu so that both hot and pending airspaces can be changed independently."
• Altimeter CAR
• o The team discussed updating altimeters at a more frequent rate. A task team has been created to work the issue with SLE and respond to the CAR.
• ER 186070 Weather Updates
• o The ER describes a situation where the weather report for a specific station did not update and the old weather remained displayed. A draft problem statement will be created with a desired behavior of reporting weather observations as missing, if th...
• PDRR/ABRR
• o Critical AIMS 196440 was written against PDRR and a software fix is needed to correct the issue. The ERAM fix will be delivered in April 2019, and the TFMS fix in 2020 or later. The initial suggestion is to disable PDRR at the facility level until t...