NATCA Bookshelf

Mansfield Tower: Water, Security, FLS HSV: IAQ, Fumes TERMINAL FLIGHT DATA MANAGER (TFDM): Matt Baugh (IAH) is the Article 48 Representative for TFDM. Mr. Baugh's update is below. We were notified this month of a protest with the awarding of the TFDM contract to Leidos. We have not been given any additional information as to who or why the protest was submitted, and the timeline for protests varies depending on what it involves and how far the initiating party wishes to take it. However, we are still doing all of the work we can while staying within the confines of the law during this period. Louis Caggiano (EWR) was able to make it to DC the weeks of 10/11 and 10/17 for a crash course in TFDM. He's done a great job so far and has already begun participating in workgroups with Leidos/SAAB regarding facility implementation and security. On 10/112, the TFDM team made a trip out to Leidos to get a one-on-one view of the electronic flight system (EFS) and surface manager. This visit allowed us to get our first hands on experience with the EFS and will better serve us in our human factors and requirements meetings moving forward. It seems as though Leidos is attempting to push an out of the box EFS. With the help of Louis and Kelly, and the eventual addition of 5-7 NATCA members to the workgroup, we will continue to work towards building a system that will meet the needs of our members across the 89 facilities currently planned to get EFS. We have continued to drill down into the requirements of TFDM with Leidos/SAAB and, following last months System Requirements Review (SRR), our comments and final open action items are due at the end of the month. Once completed, Leidos will begin building a "prototype" TFDM for our initial Early User Involvement Event (EUIE), currently scheduled for 2/1 & 2/2. At this EUIE, I will attempt to get as many as 8-10 members to DC to test the equipment and provide feedback for the TFDM team to utilize moving forward. MITRE hosted a two-day demo for the 3T's (TBFM, TFDM, & TFMS) on 10/20 & 10/21. At the meeting, management and NATCA representatives from all 3T's were shown notional interfaces of the programs, and were able to discuss possible issues moving forward with the integration of all 3 systems. Several scenarios were also provided that mainly focused on the use of Integrated Departure Route Planning (IDRP) due out sometime in the next 3-5 years. This program would allow the center TM to set fix thresholds on fixes to aide in metering. Along with this capability, IDRP gives the tower TM the ability to reroute those aircraft to an open or less utilized fix to relieve pressure down stream. These procedures would need to be nailed down for each center and any underlying facility, both the tower and TRACON, in order to gain the maximum amount of benefit. On day 2, MITRE demonstrated the Departure Viewer reroute capability as well as Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSAS). Advanced Electronic Flight Strips (AEFS) We received more bad news out of the Tech Center regarding the latest 5.3.0.3 build of AEFS. Initial stress testing of the build was to begin the week of 11/14, but due to

• Cover