A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/572176
TERMINAL AUTOMATION MODERNIZATION REPLACEMENT (TAMR): Mitch Herrick (MIA) leads the TAMR Team as the TAMR Article 48 Representative. Below are reports from Mr. Herrick and the leaders of the TAMR Teams. • Mr. Herrick's update: o This week there were several discussions related to Offshore an d the Agency's endeavor to mod ernize or replace Micro EARTS. NATCA's representative at the PMO Jeff Woods is coordinating the effort and we are discussing travel to Guam, Anchorage, Honolulu , and Puerto Rico for SMEs to assess the systems and begin develop ing requirements for a replacement system of STARS/ERAM or potentially both. There have been a number of discussions with the Agency and we are hopeful that this proc ess begins to take shape soon. o Mr. Herrick was in Washington, D . C ., this week for a meetin g with ATO Communications, NATCA Communications and the TAMR Program office to discuss various initiatives surrounding public relations, Communicating for Safety, Facebook, FAA website and NATCA Insider. There a re plans to go out to facilities that have pr eviously transitioned to STARS and do interviews with them about their experiences and observations of the program and the STARS system that they now utili ze. • STARS/TAMR Phase 3 Segment 1 update by Doug Peterson , D10 o A holiday shortened work week was not able not keep Sout hern California TRACON off the Segment 1 " hot list. " SCT is Segment One ' s most recent transition and has been running STARS for 6 weeks. The high intensity focus of last week that had SCT considering a return to CARTS while trouble report s are being resolved, has calmed by several levels of magnitude, but one particular instance of invalid tracking updates was reported this week that required immediate resolution. This case of a bad track update during opposite direction operations during the mid - shift a t LAX caused significant concern, but was resolved through adaptation within 24 hours. The top concerns at SCT are still tracking updates and target reports. Many related reports have been resolved and adaptation improvements continue to be made. Significant progress is expected with the next software update in mid - November. o In other meetings this week , new software build contents for software versions S6R3a and S6R3b were approved and an STR working group meeting covered requirements for thr ee new functions in an upcoming build. As always a significant amount of time was spent soliciting and coordinating NATCA SME participants for coming events. IOC planning meetings were held for S t. Louis (T75) and Minneapolis (M98) TRACONs. Th e Segment 1 t eam will be going to M98 next week for the sixth of eleven Segment 1 IOC transitions. o The ARTS IIE replacement with STARS G4 ELITE started in 2012 with design. Deployment of the system has been occurring at a rapid pace since it was Key Sited at ABE on 4/1 5/14. During those 16 short months, 11 ARTS IIEs have left the NAS and those facilities have entered the NextGen world with cutting edge STARS technology.