A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1093105
SAFETY AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT March 4, 2019 Update AUTOMATED TERMINAL PROXIMITY ALERT (ATPA) Mike Sanders (SCT) is the Article 114 Representative for ATPA. His report is below: ATPA is now available for all STARS facilities. To enable, Air Traffic will determine the airports/runways they wish to utilize and then work with the OSF on adaptation. Training is required for all controllers at facilities using ATPA, through an ELMS course and a brief lab demonstration of ATPA entries and features. ATPA is voluntary on the part of the individual controller at his/her display. Facilities are not permitted to make any portion of ATPA mandatory. We are starting to look at early development with ATPA and curved approaches. DATACOMM Chad Geyer (ZLA) is the Article 114 Representative for DataComm. His report is below: Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) sites are now sending over 55,000 clearances a week at Tower Data Link Services (TDLS) sites. The TDLS version 12.6 deployment schedule has been redone due to the government shutdown. The exit brief will be conducted on May 2, instead of the original March 21 date. Key site deployment will begin on May 3, and an expected national ship date is planned for May 15. Version 12.6 will have fixes for stuck flight plans and other Trouble Reports. There will also be a few enhancements that include an indication for a MUL that has previously received a departure message or remove strip; plain language reason as to why a flight plan cannot be uplinked; a "contact me" button for those flights that are not able to be processed; and an indication if a message was not delivered to the DataComm Network Service (DCNS). En Route CPDLC is a different story. The shutdown occurred in the middle of ZKC, ZID, and ZME preparing a path to get to 24/7 operations. This path included mitigations for aircraft and network fixes that needed to be completed to go IOC. While the shutdown occurred, some of these high priority fixes were able to be completed. Controller currency on CPDLC operations did expire before the service could be turned on again. The long shutdown affected all programs that are currently being deployed in the NAS. Discussions between the FAA and NATCA needed to take place prior to proceeding with any activities. The parties did agree to continue with key site activities at ZKC and ZID. ZME opted out of key site activities due to the large backlog of trainees. ZKC and ZID are working on a refresher training plan and re-enabling CPDLC. When CPDLC resumes, the sites will validate the fixes that were delivered during the shutdown to improve system performance and, second, show whether or not the sites can leave CPDLC on 24/7 without generating a high volume of AIMS tickets. CPDLC should be enabled at ZKC and ZID around the end of March. Activities at the first waterfall sites also had to be halted during the shutdown. This caused some of those sites to have to start from scratch on their training and these sites have asked to move to a later deployment date to deal with other facility issues. Key site activities were approved to continue from the FAA and NATCA discussions, but the program was asked to hold any waterfall site activities so as not to put undue strain on the facilities. Because of the effects of the shutdown, the National DataComm workgroup (NDC) met to formulate a new waterfall for En Route CPDLC. This waterfall will have to be vetted with the sites, NATCA, and the FAA for approval. This new plan will also have to be coordinated with industry to ensure pilot participation and network coverage time lines.