A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/633543
spoken (reroutes, taxi routes, delay for release time) could be relayed electronically through Electronic Flight Strips (EFS) and ACARS. o Pre - taxi Reroute - During a severe weather event, ATC currently waits for a plane to taxi before they issue a reroute around severe weather. With reliable taxi - out times available, planes could be sent reroutes in advance of taxi, enablin g the pilot to know if his fuel would allow him to fly the reroute and to have the plane set up for the new route and ready for takeoff. Also, EFS would allow group reroutes to be performed, saving ATC considerable data input time. o High Fidelity modeling is now being done to estimate efficiency gains at various airports. o The SCDM lead presented a video that depicted PHX Airport under the current, non - Departure - Metering environment compared to a modeled simulation of how the airport would run if Departure Mete ring were in effect. The simulation showed a reduction in queue length by about fifty percent for the majority of the push, at a gate wait cost of seven minutes per plane on average. This queue length reduction would yield significant fuel and emissions savi ngs. • FET (Flight Evaluation Team) o The CDM/FET subgroup met in Tampa Florida to discuss current tasking on the Integrated Demand Management (IDM) and to prepare for the upcoming HITL testing at NASA Ames in March. We met for a half day on 1/19, a full day o n 1/20 and a half day on 1/21. There were 12 team members present for the meetings. Mark Evans from NASA joined the group on 1/20 to participate along with members from NASA, including Nancy Smith, on a telcon to walk through next week's HITL and to discus s expectations for the March meeting. o The January and March HITL's are going to continue work on the integration of CTOP (Collaborative Trajectory Option Program) with RTA (Required Time of Arrival) and merging with TBFM. The HITL continues to focus only o n EWR flights for now. NASA has conducted "simple" tests of this concept already using ideal/static conditions. These results were discussed at the November meeting in Dallas. The major introduction into the test for March will be winds and variable/unpred ictable releases into the problem. o The group discussed readdressing the Mexican Routes. The FET group will try to meet with Jim Bedow during the February meeting at the Command Center and explore how to best move forward with that tasking. o The DCM/FET team will meet in February (proposed for 2/10 - 12) at the Command Center to continue preparations for the March HITL. The March meeting is 3/21 - 25. • WET (Weather Evaluation Team) o Continuing tasking from last month. • FCT (Future Concept Team) o Continuing tasking from two months ago. Last month meeting cancelled and won't get together till February. TEMPORARY OPERATIONAL CONTINGENCY OFFICE (TOCO): Tammy Norman (ZTL) is the TOCO Article 48 Representative. This is a one year detail at the Eastern Service Center to work on this project. Ms. Norman's report for this month is below.