A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/572176
This meeting will ensure that the last minute changes (primarily coming from industry Boeing/Airbus and EASA/Euro Control) are consistent with the intent of the agreements across the last 10 years of wor k. • There were a lot of last minute changes that we worked through in D . C . last week, but Mr. Conde anticipates many more via the State Comment vehicle. • After that meeting, the plan is to stand down the SC214 group for 18 months to 2 years and let the publi cations move forward. This would allow us to address any future work with the Agency as the verification and implementation of Services come on line in the 2018 timeframe. o While it is possible that there will be some validation work on A - IM and Dynamic RNP in the 2017 period that is the reason for our meeting with the Agency on the 21st of this month. We can address getting the Agency to pay for the last SC214 trip in December and then discuss the Bi - Annual OPLINK meetings separately. o Mr. Conde will coordin ate with Chad Geyer, NATCA's DataComm Article 48 Representative to address the overall presentation to the Agency. HEADSETS: This past week the department became aware of a letter and products sent to Facility Representatives by a NATCA member to modify t he headsets. NATCA strongly opposes the use of this modification tool due to according to our NVS Article 48 Representative will void the warranty on a headset. The NEB has put out guidance and also mentioned the possibility of controllers being at risk fo r disciplinary action if their headset is damaged by this modification. The "Headset Gun" should n ot be installed on any headset. If there are any questions please do not hesitate to email Jon Shedden, NATCA's NAS Voice System Article 48 Representative at nvs@natca.net . DATACOMM: Chad Geyer (ZLA) serves the membership as the DataComm Article 48 Representative. Mr. Geyer forwarded the information below for this week's update. • HOU has declared IOC. o This means that CPDLC operations are being conducted by controllers. o Thanks to Shane Hammond (NATCA) and Alex Ali (Management), the local 48 team, for all of their hard work. o The group worked together in a very collaborative manner. • Four sites are currently running version 12 o f TDLS at their facilities BOI, SLC, IAH, and HOU. o Three of the sites are using CPDLC functionality. o The new software has allowed SLC to run in Auto Mode and HOU and IAH now run a more efficient Auto Mode. Auto Mode is the ability of TDLS to automatically process initial PDC and CPDLC clearances without controller interaction. o The system populates option fields with information associated with a SID and Transition assigned by ERAM and allows the controller to manually process clearances they do not want to send in Auto Mode. • The sites will continue to receive builds to fix PTR's in the system and will receive an enhanced "UBER CHI" around the end of November. These enhancements will be used for the deployment of the waterfall beginning next year.