A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1156478
Members of the TBFM Ops Team met in Washington, D.C., to work with AJV representatives and other groups on order changes in regard to TBFM. This will be a continuing effort to include Ops SMEs in the work that is being done to align orders with new and existing TBFM capabilities. Terminal Sequence and Spacing TSAS Subgroup Lead - Paul Carroll (PCT) - During the week of July 15, the team had our first look at the Denver adaptation in the lab at the Tech Center. Our focus was testing the Leidos patch for Enroute swaps. We loaded i38, which has the patch that Leidos provided, in the ANG lab. We tested numerous swaps as well as re-sequence commands from both TGUI and DSR scopes in the ERAM test bed. Although the patch did produce some successful swaps, the general opinion was that the swap requirements needed to be relaxed to allow more success with swaps. The group recommends returning the issue to Leidos to re-engineer the software. We also reviewed several DR watch items that are outstanding. Since we have not been able to use the Next Gen lab since last December, we have not been able to conduct TSAS testing. Some of the issues were not noticed, which may prompt us to take them off the watch list. These items were noted last year, however, and were returned by the software developers as WAD (working as designed). No specific entries caused these events so no specific points of failure could be determined. One watch item that failed during the testing involved disabling TSAS output to STARS from the F1 panel on the TGUI. Overall, 25 discrepancy reports were filed. We will work with Leidos and Raytheon to assess the issues and provide input to resolve them. During the week of July 22, the team worked on TSAS curriculum training and schedule. The group constructed a rough schedule of work to be accomplished through post-IOC in the early part of 2022 at the request of the Program Office. This schedule will be a living document that the team will utilize to meet program goals on the path towards TSAS implementation at Denver. This schedule will need further work to identify the numerous tasks the team needs to perform prior to TSAS implementation. The team also attended numerous telcons with Leidos to address software issues. TERMINAL FLIGHT DATA MANAGER (TFDM) Aaron Rose (NCT) is the Article 114 Rep for TFDM. His report is below: On July 19, Mr. Rose became the new Article 114 Rep for TFDM. During the week of July 22, he traveled to Atlantic City, N.J., for Session One of the ATCS Operational Test (OT) Team Cadre Training. Six Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) traveled to take part in training on the TFDM system, which included AT, CIC/OS, and TMC usage. There are two more course conducts scheduled to ensure TFDM has enough SMEs to provide cadre training, deployment activities, and software testing. Contractors are also included in these classes to supplement the NATCA SMEs. Louis Caggiano (EWR) will be the software/hardware lead for the NATCA team and Bridget Brazelton (DEN) has assumed the NATCA Training lead. There is one more spot to fill, and the decision will be made soon on a NATCA deployment lead. The Article 114 Reps and sub-leads will work together to ensure TFDM is the best product for the end user. During the next week, Mr. Rose traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with the TFDM program manager and collaborate with the team. In addition, meetings with the NATCA National Office took place to discuss duty time, numbers of SMEs, and communications about TFDM.