A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/589908
· The FAA has entered into a Cooperative Research and Developme nt Agreement (CRDA) with CACI. This effort will be known as Pathfinder 4 (the first 3 Pathfinder efforts have been described in previo us updates). o The purpose of this Pathfinder effort is to test UAS detec tion equipment and procedures. o The information gathered will help inform the FAA as to how to curb the unauthorized and often dangerous U AS operations around airports. Mr. Weidner participated in two telcons regarding this activity this week. · Continued to work on the Pathfinde r 3 SRMD. This is an ongoing effort given the challenges that have been presented with this Beyond Visual Line of Sight research effort. · Mr. Weidner will be on annual leave next week. WEATHER: Matt Tucker (ZTL) is the NATCA Weather Article 48 Representative. He works with several FAA offices since weather is not confined to one particular office or specialty at the FAA. Mr. Tucker's update for this week is below. · Traveled to ONT to observe the installation of the new Wind and Weather Sensor package (SWS) this system consists of an ultrasonic anemometer, temperature, dew point, and altimeter sensors. o The installation of SWS will be deployed to replace all analog wind systems, like the F420 and wind measuring equipment. o The ultrasonic wind sensors are already in service on ASOS, AWOS - C, LLWS - RS, and ITWS sites with LLWAS - NE+. o Some work needs to be done with require ments to change the algorithm so that in multiple sensor locations the gust algorithm can be run on all sensors and displayed to the controller, currently each airport only has one designated airport wind and with this system and others, winds can be more runway specific eliminating some conflicting wind reporting issues that exist between ASOS, ATIS, and other wind reporting systems. · At ONT the team brought two different displays to evaluate and right from the start one will is not acceptable due t o glare issues, two other displays have been ordered to evaluate and there will be a meeting in OKC to evaluate the new displays and to readdress a data format for displays where there are multiple wind sensors. o ONT is the key site will be operating un der a test NCP until the new displays are finalized and then will be taken to ONT for final installation. · NWP (NEXTGEN Weather Processor) o Attended the monthly program management review (PMR) with Raytheon. o The items that are of concern are schedule and budget as this system is replacing multiple weather systems that directly impact controllers. o The systems that are being replaced, ITWS, CIWS, and WARP have been in the field for a number or years and are reaching their life expectancy. Th e current deployment for NWP is late 2019 early 2020 timeframe. The budget currently only gets the program to the Tech Center for FAT and SAT. · FSNI remote clearance relay.