A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/660202
Decision Len s for the prioritization of ARTCC facilities to receive funding for divestme nt plan technical requirements. This waterfall will be viewed loosely until s ite s urveys have been completed, and then m odified as needed. • TOCO conducted strategy meeting on February 26, 2016 to prepare for the Harris Corporat ion meeting in Melbourne, FL. The TOCO's project manager and tech ops specialist visited Harris Corp. Feb . 2 9 - March 3. They met with their representat ives and members of FAA Technical Op erations Services and the PMO. o The purpose of this visit was to coordinate with Harris what it would take for FTI support of an ATC Zero event and to create properly coordin ated implementation schedules. When the TOCO de veloped the tech ops requirements last fall, only a ROM estimate was created, assuming no circuits were on the backbone . o The TOCO will begin s ite s urveys next week, beginning with ZTL being th e test site. These site surveys will validate the needed require ments and serve as a dry run for a worst - case scenario. The s ite s urveys are the actual c ost - estimate for requirements. Tech ops cannot develop their playbooks until after the s ite s urveys. o The TOCO participated in a telcon meeting on March 8 concerning th e placement of the technical requirements on the Technical Operations Services "TechNet" tool to enable shared information with Harris Co rp. and supporting facilities. The attendees included personnel from Technical Operations, the PMO , and the Command Cen ter. • Members of the TOCO traveled to the Tech Center to observe the Offshore Analysis Demo of NextGen System, as we continue developing OCPs for the non - CONUS facilities (Guam, Hawaii, Anchorage, and San Juan). This demo had controllers, management , and me mbers of PASS and tech ops from each of the facili ties to view ERAM adaptation. I have many concerns with the thought of implementing ERAM to these facilities: o There is no physical space for the ERAM equipment at the n on - CONUS facilities. o The existing equi pment is non - standard and outdated compared to the NAS, and it is known that the tech ops employees at these facilities are last to get assigned currency/certification training on equipment at the end of the year , and therefore, they don't go. Someone has to be flown in to SJU to certify the equipment from the tech center. There would be a tr aining issue to bring in ERAM. SJU is losing four or five people this year, leaving a serious shortage. o There would training issues for the cont rollers with current sta ffing. Having the n on - CONUS facilities on the same system would defini tely make upgrades easier in the future, but there are some major obstacles. • The memo concerning the updating of OEP/EAP orders was sent to the Directors of Air Traffic Operations and Te chnical Operat ions. It was signed on March 1 by the Vice President of Technical Operations and distributed to the field. Compliance with instructions is due in 60 days from the receipt of the memo. TOCO attended a telcon for the direction to update conting ency and facility security orders OEP/EAP documents on March 1 1. Bill Carver, AJT - 22 HQ Ops, and all were in agreement, stopping the 60 - day clock and revise. The stop was never coordinated with Vaughn Turner and Tim Arel, the signatories on the