NATCA Bookshelf

PUBLICATION SPONSORED BY ATCA 3 ABOUT YOUR HOST COUNTRY N AT I O N A L A I R T R A F F I C CO N T R O L L E R S AS S O C I AT I O N The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) was certified in 1987 as the exclusive bargaining representative of air traffic controllers in the United States. Since that time, NATCA has expanded to represent not just the 14,000 air traffic controllers and controller trainees employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Defense and private companies, but also more than 5,000 other aviation safety professionals, including: Alaska flight service station specialists, engineers and architects, traffic management coordinators, Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) service, flight procedures specialists, aircraft certification professionals, agency operational support staff, aviation technical systems specialists, automation specialists, drug abatement employees, airports division, regional counsels, and personnel from FAA's logistics, budget, finance, acquisitions, and information technology divisions. Every day, air traffic controllers in the United States handle 70,000 flights and over two million passengers traveling within the busiest airspace in the world – with roughly 7,000 planes in the sky at any given moment. Last year, U.S. airlines served more than 750 million passengers and NATCA-represented controllers handled more than 134 million operations. Aviation annually contributes $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy and creates 11.8 million jobs. In order to maintain the highest levels of safety and efficiency, NATCA members work to improve safety procedures, modernize the system, and implement new technology. NATCA has professional controllers involved in nearly every FAA program related to modernization and the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). NATCA'S NATIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD Paul Rinaldi, President Patricia Gilbert, Executive Vice President Clint Lancaster, Alaskan Regional Vice President Kevin Peterson, Central Regional Vice President Dean Iacopelli, Eastern Regional Vice President Bryan Zilonis, Great Lakes Regional Vice President Mike Robicheau, New England Regional Vice President Doug Pincock, Northwest Mountain Regional Vice President Jim Marinitti, Southern Regional Vice President Andrew LeBovidge, Southwest Regional Vice President Ham Ghaffari, Western Pacific Regional Vice President Mike MacDonald, Region X Regional Vice President Paul Rinaldi, NATCA President Patricia Gilbert, NATCA Executive Vice President Dale Wright, OC Chairman, (also NATCA Director of Safety and Technology) Kelly Richardson, OC Deputy Chairman (also NATCA Manager of Outreach and Special Events) Sandy Tighe, OC Secretary (also Minneapolis Center) Doug Church, NATCA Director of Communications Dawn Johnson, Atlanta Center Richard Kennington, Portland, Ore. Tower Jennifer Lobdell, Detroit Terminal Radar Approach Control Linda McCray, Washington Center Chrissy Padgett, Washington Center Trisha Pesiri, Santa Barbara Tower Megan Seidman, NATCA Meeting Planning Specialist Jacqui Smith, NATCA Outreach and Special Events Coordinator Jeff St. Germain, Minneapolis Center Sarah St. Germain, Liaison to the IFATCA Office Manager Jim Ullmann, NATCA Deputy Director of Safety and Technology Jennifer Van Rooy, Denver Center NATCA'S IFATCA ANNUAL CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (OC) COLLABORATION BETWEEN NATCA AND FAA RESULTING IN SAFER, BETTER SYSTEM For NATCA, the successful completion last year of En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) deployment in 20 en route centers nationwide marked the culmination of a 14-year effort to replace the HOST computer system, including the last five years working collaboratively with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after the program's timeline was updated. There was cause for celebration of this notable achievement of full deployment of the key foundation supporting so much of NextGen modernization. After all, it was just a few short years ago that ERAM was a failure, plagued by multiple serious problems that resulted from NATCA not being involved. Before 2009, the FAA kept NATCA out of pre-decisional involvement in modernization projects. However, the hard work for project leads on both the NATCA and FAA sides, as well as controllers at the centers, was only just beginning when Washington Center became the final facility to switch on to ERAM. The project exemplifies the vast amount of collaboration taking place over the past six years in all areas of safety and technology, resulting from a 2009 contract agreement with the FAA that set the foundation for building a new, productive, collaborative partnership between the two sides. "Modernization to new technologies is best accomplished when all identified stakeholders work in a collaborative manner to ensure a superior product and allow for the best chance of successful implementation," said NATCA Deputy Director of Safety and Technology Jim Ullmann. "NATCA embraces working in collaboration for not only modernization efforts, but also as a way to ensure the best possible decisions are made for the betterment of worldwide aviation." Today, there are many hundreds of NATCA members working on safety and technology projects, ranging from NextGen to new procedures. The future is bright for safety thanks to collaboration.

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