A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/770043
enhancing the display of coo rdination lists, IFDT toggle via keyboard entry, advancing automatic handoff , and improvements to DSA mode. The STARS Program Technical Report (PTR) working group meeting was held December 8 at the FAA Technical Center. The focus of this meeting was to re view the ranked list of STARS software problems and improvements and identify items that have been made obsolete or are no longer of interest. NATCA SMEs from PHL, M98 , and RSW reviewed over 60 PTRs and closed many. This will bring the PTR catalog more int o focus as the STARS software planning group looks to the list to identify future software build content. The meeting concluded with a lengthy discussion of the STARS weather presentation and recap of the evolution of efforts to improve the weather display i n the STARS software. The call to improve terminal weather presentation has been ongoing for years as controllers consistently raise concerns about the difficulty to discern weather levels based on display colors and graphics in addition to the quality of weather data from ASR radar antennas. The efforts to address these concerns ha ve taken various forms but ha ve been hampered due in part to the complex nature of the weather display as it pertains to Human Factors, requirements , and budgetary constraints . Nonetheless, the NATCA SMEs agreed that the weather display remains a significant problem in the field and a renewed effort should be undertaken to pursue a revised weather presentation that applies proposed NextGen weather constructs. Mr. Ness coordina ted with (ERAM) NATCA National Terminal Representative Jim McAllister to address two potential STARS functions that improve inter - facility handoffs and additional information exchanged between STARS and ERAM in the lines three and four of their respective dat a blocks. By working in parallel on these initiatives, each representative hopes to achieve a desired outcome in a timely manner. STARS software version S4R27a drop 2 was tested by NATCA SMEs December 14 and successfully passed OT&E. This improved vers ion resolves a Predicted Track Line (PTL) anomaly associated with tracker changes in the original R27 build. Detroit (D21) is a likely key site. This is expected to be the last software build for the S4 baseline as the legacy STARS sites transition to the S6R4 software version in the coming year. Work continues in the field to alleviate tracking issues at SCT and PCT. N90 is nearing completion of an improved AT coach parameter to better handle simulated ILS approaches. Upcoming SE Events: PTRWG January 1 9 R4 Site Briefings January 17, 19 & 24 S6R6 OT&E January 31 – February 16 TAMR Deployment Lead report submitted Scott Robillard (K90) : Merry Christmas from the NATCA STARS Deployment team. Over this holiday moratorium, the TAMR NATCA team has been prep aring for an unprecedented level of work in one calendar year. During the past three years we have been gradually increasing the level of work. This starts with site surveys approximately 18 months prior and concludes with an IOC event on STARS. For the va st majority of these transitions,