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W E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6 N AT C A D A I LY D I S PAT C H 4 PANEL RECAPS TUESDAY: The Remote Tower Systems panel discussion Tuesday gave CFS attendees a balanced look at one of the ATC world's newest technologies. But the wisest bit of advice for how to proceed may have come from Daryl Hickey, President of Civil Air, Australia. "We don't like change for change sake," said Hickey, whose statement was met by loud applause from fellow controllers in the audience. "First, prove it is better and at least as safe as we currently have. That is why it is so good to have NATCA involved." NATCA is a collaborative participant in the current testing and development of a Remote Tower System at Leesburg, Va., near Washington Dulles Airport in Class B airspace. The technology was successfully installed at an airport in Sweden, but as NATCA Remote Tower Representative Kieron Heflin rightly pointed out, there are important differences between Sweden and U.S. air traffic. "They have a couple thousand ops in Sweden and most are scheduled. The majority of aircraft are quite larger," he said. "Leesburg is Cherokees and Cessnas. That makes a big difference. But NATCA is honored to be involved in the testing. We want to help ensure integrity in the NAS. We believe Remote Towers can augment air traffic services." Virginia SATSLab, Inc., Executive Director Keith McCrea said the goals of Remote Towers are greater safety margins for VFR traffic and reduced arrival and departure delays for IFR traffic. "What we ultimately want to do is show this technology can be transferred into the NAS," he said. Hickey said a Remote Tower trial failed at Alice Springs, Australia. Bandwidth and staffing shortages were issues. That has shaped his measured approach to the technology. "We have to find out if it really makes it safer," he said. "We need to be quite clear what level of service it actually is that we are providing." International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations President and CEO Patrik Peters sounded a tone of both optimism and caution. "Ten years ago, we were laughing at this but what we see today is superb. The movement to infrared cameras is what I found highly interesting," he said. However, he added, "Economic must not be the driver on this. It must be safe." McCrea said that the technology captures hazards, like birds, and the benefits "somewhat mitigate some of the anomalies we have." For example, the technology compresses the 360-degree field of view into 180 degrees. A controller in the audience raised a serious issue during Tuesday's pilot/controller communications panel: dropped call signs. While addressing the panel, the controller said "I don't want to be that guy," that continually has to remind pilots to use their call signs during transmissions. But panelist John Drexler, Director for ATC Procedures at Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l, was adamant in his response. "I want all of you to be that guy," he said. "Enforce appropriate phraseology. Make them do it. We need it." Panel moderator and NATCA Professional Standards Co-Lead and Procedures Representative Andy Marosvari reinforced the message, saying, "Controllers need to hear that call sign with each and every clearance." Marosvari set the tone early in the panel, stating "everything we do as controllers requires effective communications." NATCA member Jennie Sandland (Anchorage Center) said a big part of effective communications is standard phraseology. "Keep it short," she said. "Standard phraseology is so important. With (General Aviation) communications, that's even much more critical. But it takes modeling it. As controllers, we need to model that standard phraseology." A common theme of the panel was concise, effective, and clear communications during critical phases of flight. Panelists John Peschio of Southwest Airlines and Dave Callen of the Las Vegas Police Department joined Drexler in providing good insight from the flight deck perspective. "The bottom line is it really has to do with economy of speech in terms of getting what you want from us," Drexler said. "We are busy ensuring the aircraft is properly configured, and we have multi-channel operations going on at that point (in critical phase of flight). If we get a long clearance, most pilots know what to expect. They will focus on the numbers. But again, especially in the terminal environment, it's busy for you, and it's busy for us. We need to keep it simple, quick and concise." "It all comes down to communication," Peschio said. "Plain English works. Without you knowing that, there's no way for you to help us. We're all in agreement there." The panel featured several video presentations featuring several pilots who talked with NATCA about their views on effective communications. Several pilots noted the value of visiting their local air traffic control facility. Similarly, pilots and controllers in the audience who addressed the panel and the crowd stated how much they wished the Flight Deck Training program could be revamped and improved. One of the most exciting and challenging areas in aviation today is the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). NATCA UAS Representative Steve Weidner moderated a panel showcasing the spectrum of these systems. The panel included: Marke "Hoot" Gibson, FAA Senior Advisor on UAS Integration; Steve Pennington, Executive Director, Department of Defense Policy Board on FAA; Parimal Kopardekar, Program Manager, NASA Unmanned Traffic Management; Keziah Ogutu, IFATCA EVP Africa & Middle East; and Travis Mason, Chief of Staff, Google X – Project Wing. Pennington spoke about UAS use by the military, and explained that their priority is making sure UAS pilots are the best individuals for the job. UAS pilots now comprise the largest community of pilots in the Air Force, and UAS operations are growing rapidly for all sizes of aircraft. As UAS become more common, Kopardekar said that we "must respect the tradition of safety." While there are many exciting applications for UAS from security, to photography, to delivery and beyond, we need to enable efficiency and capacity to integrate them into higher altitude airspace. When the UK's Remotely Piloted Air System began conducting operations in Kenya where Ogutu works, they created some confusion for the controllers. Controllers wanted to know how to handle these large UAS. Some of the questions that came up are the essential issues we face with UAS, such as, "What rules govern these operations?" "What training do pilots and controllers need to manage them?" "What are the liabilities involved?" IFATCA took up the issue in 2005, and established its position that unmanned aircraft should be in compliance with the same ICAO standards as manned aircraft. Mason said Google X's mission is to solve huge problems with breakthrough technology to find radical solutions. One of them is the inefficiency of ground transportation. Through coordination and collaboration, they hope to keep the public safe and implement a UAS delivery service. Some of the main ways he hopes to accomplish this are UAS registration and a pilot licensing, cooperation on procedures, collision avoidance, position sharing, and airspace services regulations and policies. All of the panelists agreed that safety was the number one priority. Gibson closed the panel by underlining the essential importance of this discussion, "This is the most fundamental change in aviation in our lifetimes. What ever we do has to be done safely and as a community." ✈ Challenges of Integrating UAS into the NAS ✈ Remote Towers ✈ Pilot/Controller Communications

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