A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/799968
Next up for the program was site testing of the STARS Patch for RECAT at M98 the second w eek of February. This testing took place over one day at the facility and the patch showed no issues in the ETG . Scheduled IOC for March 14th is still on schedule with training starting the following week and continuing through the firs t week of March. The third week of February was spent beginning training at MSP/M98 and Data Review for NextGen at Volpe in Boston. Training being covered , I attended the data review for the final session on Phase 2.5 for the program. The review between Volpe, MITRE, and FAA NextGen went very well with most of the data showing that the program is ready to move forward. Paired Departures will be the big showcase of Phase 2.5 and with having the data to prove the program will work , it will move to SRM Panels for approval. The meetings took p lace over four full days and at the end was some discussion/ideas on Phase 3.0 and beyond for the program , but nothing to report there as of yet. The last week of February was spent at Tech Center in Atlantic City, N . J . with NextGen to look at HITL studies and the possibilities of new advancements to ATPA for increased wake categories. This trip was spent speaking with all the labs about the capabilities of each of the SIMs to run the program and what would be most cost effective while being able to accomplish what is needed for testing. This is also in the very early stages but the team believes we can accomplish what is needed easily at WHJTC without needing full simulators with multiple ghost pilots. More to come on this as we look to develop the study. The end o f the month finished with MSP/M98 completing training for the entire facility inside of two weeks! That gave us the first week of March open and not needed for training with limited leave being requested at the end of February. Everything is on track for the IOC on March 13th and that is all for the program this month .