A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1087616
The TBFM Ops team spent a lot of time reviewing issues/tickets that have been reported and not fully reviewed, or were waiting for final direction from Ops personnel. Most of these issues are related to the overall sustainment of the current TBFM and IDAC systems, but some of these are related to future NEC and TSAS initiatives. Additionally, a number of the sustainment- related issues were prioritized to ensure that current TBFM system sustainment continues, regardless of future initiative waterfall direction. The TBFM Program Office held a couple technical telcons reviewing plans for IDAC installations in the spring/summer at ZJX, ZME, and a number of towers. A few Ops team members attended these technical telcons. These were planning discussions to ensure that, if there is not another government shutdown, a number of technical questions are answered to ensure the correct installation of equipment in the spring. An in-person full briefing to facility leadership was previously held at ZJX, but due to the shutdown, a meeting has not yet been scheduled at ZME. TBFM leadership will schedule a similar onsite briefing to ZME management and NATCA leadership in March to ensure that all questions are answered. The specific dates for the training and implementation of IDAC at ZJX and ZME will be disseminated as soon as TBFM leadership gets direction as to the new priorities. NATCA TSAS sub-group lead Paul Carroll traveled to the Tech Center to join a STARS/TAMR prioritization meeting. A number of other TSAS Ops team members participated via telcon. The purpose of the meeting was to plan how TSAS-related items would fit into future STARS releases. In preparation for a final waterfall for TSAS it is important to find out in what future releases TSAS-related items will be delivered. Thank you to STARS Article 114 Rep Aaron Rose and TAMR Article 114 Rep Kyle Ness for inviting TBFM Ops team members to the meeting, and for helping TBFM Ops team members work through these items. During the week of Feb. 18, the TBFM Ops team continued to hold a comprehensive review of sustainment-related tickets that were identified during the shutdown period, and also continued the review of holdover TBFM technical issues that need Ops direction. NATCA TBFM Ops SMEs work together with not only their management counterparts on these but with FAA Second Level Engineers (SLEs) as well. During the shutdown there were a number of SLEs still working at the Tech Center to ensure the sustainment of the fielded TBFM system. These SLEs have been very helpful in getting the TBFM Ops team back up to speed in a timely manner. TBFM leadership will travel to the Tech Center to attend a planning meeting to discuss the Ops team future training. The TBFM Ops team members are regularly tasked with working together with SMEs at facilities and helping them correctly write requirements as to how their local TBFM systems should operate. The requirements are then given to local FAST (Adaptation) personnel who ensure it gets implemented correctly. Knowing some of how FAST works (organization of adaptation files, etc.) is important to ensure that Ops needs are correctly communicated. This training is often difficult for Ops team members to pick up in a timely manner with the amount of travel that is required of them. The meeting will feature a discussion on how Ops Team members can be trained quickly on this information. The better