A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/660202
original me mo th at was forwarded to the field. The memo is being rewritten for clarification. • March 1 5 - 17, the TOCO hosted members of the OSG Field Team. Several topics were discussed , focusing on the remaining Core 30 airp orts and Tier 1 NAS facilities. Collectively , we wrote guides for the TRACONS, up - down facilities, an d towers to create their OCPs. WEATHER: Matt Tucker (ZTL) is NATCA's Article 48 Representative for Weather. His update for the membership is below. • Collaborative Aviation Weather Statement (CAWS) o T he CAWS went live for thi s convective season on March 1 . The new rules for issuance are in effect and look like they will reduce the amount of CAWS being issued when there is no impact to the NAS or only when the CCFP is not correct. The NWS has created a validation tool to show actual weather radar playbacks against the forecasted CAWS product. This tool should help reduce extraneous CAWS and help the weather service forecaste rs produce a more timely and acc u r ate product. This year the CAWS is being emphas ized for only when the CCFP is not accurate. The in accuracy will actually be an impact to the NAS, i .e ., a missed area in the plains will not require a CAWS, but a missed storm in the golden triangle will require a CAWS as the impact to the NAS is greater in that area. • NEXTGEN Weather Processor and C ommon Support Services - Weather o The program is planning to have two human factors teams, one for the maintenance and control functionality and one for the Aviation Weather Display (AWD). The M&C effort is being c oordinated between the two prime contractors so that both company designs resemble each other to make maintenance training and controller training on the maintenance panel easier and less complex. Raytheon has hired a new human factors engineer and I gave her the ATC 101 tour of the facilities in the Boston a rea to get her acquainted to the type of facilities that controllers work in and the type of weather products that are used. Multiple discussions have been held to plan for the upcoming human factors me eting for the AWD. The meeting is scheduled for the last week of April at Raytheon. The team has been name d and all but the command center members have been released. The command center will be a heavy user of the AWD so their participation is very importa nt to the program. o Program concerns for the NWP/CSS - WX are bandwidth issues and the agencies desire to try reducing the product availability to different types of facilities. This direction is contrary to what the requirements user groups developed and wha t the program has been advertising to the air traffic community. This position goes against what has been agreed to and will have to be addressed during the human factors meetings that are coming up. • IFATCA 55th Annual Conference o Presented a paper to Comm ittee B on the ICAO Meteorology Panel and the work that has been assigned by the Air Navigation Commission (ANC). A couple of the topics covered by the paper where the need for