NATCA Bookshelf

re-examining the lead operator roles and responsibilities as it relates to the ongoing Metroplex teams and the single site OSG PBN work. We expect to have a telcon with A4A and other industry representatives in the near future to discuss. Submitted by Ed Hulsey - Metroplex Study Team NATCA Article 48 Lead. National Design and implementation – July 2016 Metroplex: The Funding issue for FY17, caused mainly by community outreach should be taken care of by the end of the month. After discussion with Josh Gustin (PBN Manager) the belief is NextGen will provide the additional funding for this year. Community Outreach continues to be challenging in developing and implementing PBN in the NAS. Metroplex has developed Community Outreach plans for the sites, however funding for all the activities has become a roadblock. If the FAA wants Outreach to be part of all PBN projects, whether Metroplex or 7100.41 projects it is incumbent upon them to find the funding. Additionally issues have arisen from the Office of Environmental and Energy (AEE) briefing "policy" guidelines to non-FAA entities ie. Airports/Noise Committees and not briefing the OSG Co-leads nor have they been willing to send the guide handbook to them, because it has not been signed off by congress, you can't make this stuff up. In addition the Agency still has several groups working this issue with little or no coordination between them. There has been very little discussion about Outreach and .41a projects, which is leading to confusion on how our Co-leads need to proceed with their respective projects. National Prioritization: Although PBN/7100.41a has a defined process for PBN development, there is also OSG FPT's that send conventional procedures down the pipeline and WAS works directly with AIS (AJV-5), this leads to allot of projects building up in the queue or missing timelines, postponing them. The plan going forward is to put a team together, made up of the entire LOB that work procedure development, gather all data and determine a prioritization of projects. The initial though is to have an "open" period of time ie. Jan1-Apri1 for anyone to put requests in the IFP gateway, so that you have an actual number of projects and be able to prioritize them, if a project does not make the cut it will be sent back to the proponent to resubmit at a later date. Joint Anaylsis Team (JAT): The team met this week in Dallas to discuss NTexas Metroplex and the analysis to be used in evaluating the project. Industry is looking at block times (which is skewed in my opinion), Metroplex metrics have remained the same from the beginning of the project OPD's/Reduce track miles/ CO2 emission reductions, not time. Nick Daniels (ZFW FACREP), Brent Luna (OSG Co-lead/NTexas Co-Lead), Terry Donaldson (D-10 FACREP), Andreas Sanchez (DFW FACREP) and Nick Valadez (DAL) attended the meeting and were invaluable discussing the Metroplex designs and operation. Submitted by Mark McKelligan (ZBW) – NATCA Article 48 National D&I Rep DATACOMM: Chad Geyer (ZLA) is the Article 48 Representative for DataComm. Below is his update: The Tower Data Link Services (TDLS) Version 12 has been deployed to 42 sites and only 30 remain. 34 of those sites are Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) capable and only 21 remain. Across the country, approximately 1300 CPDLC clearances are being sent everyday with that number increasing as more sites become operational and additional aircraft begin to participate. This update will discuss how a Pre Departure Clearance (PDC) works. For an aircraft to receive a PDC clearance, the pilot or airline must enter information into a Subscriber Database. This database is managed by the FAA organization known as IFCET (Inter-facility Communication Engineering Team). They are also the organization that manages TDLS. This database maintains the addresses for where a PDC will be sent.

• Cover