A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/812028
there is a specific f acility, or type of facility, that has unique processes or procedures that need to be explored further via the focus groups. Doug and I discussed having that finalized by Apr 13 th and I believe he relayed that date to Mr. Bartel. If there is a need to ge t additional SMEs, I have serious concerns about the proposed timeline. Possible impacts: 1. I advised Doug that a lot of lead time is required to get SMEs selected and secured off the schedule due to coordination between S&T and Tech Labor, actual solici tation of SMEs, and the time needed to coordinate with the field facilities prior to the watch schedule getting posted. (We are already posted through May 13th. ) 2. I expressed my concerns with the possible government shutdown at the end of the month and the associated fire drills, delays, and "clean up"/get back to normal that always occurs whether the shutdown happens or not. 3. Less of an issue, but still one I'm considering: I told Doug that I would like to be present for the demos, so that I can se e the process that MITRE goes through and capture any lessons learned before we go through this exercise with the towers and ARTCCs. He thought it was a good idea and told me that he budgeted for me for some travel this FY. Unfortunately, until my detail t ime gets worked out, I don't know how difficult it's going to be to get off the schedule for an entire week. 4. May 22 nd is NIW week. We sent out the TRACON survey to ATMs and FacReps during CFS and are not getting as much participation as hoped, so I wou ld like to avoid a week where we may have a lot of unavailability in the field. I've asked Kelly to let me know how many members are registered to participate. I know the SMEs selected on the initial bid will provide excellent knowledge and I'm hopeful th at we can still utilize them moving forward. I believe the main concern right now is not having representation from smaller TRACONs and/or combined tower/TRACONs, as well as facilities with IDS - 5 and NIDs equipment. The current terminal SMEs on the list ar e all from medium to large TRACONs with IDS - 4 or ACE - IDS equipment. The attachment also notes factoring in TMCs and FLMs in the workgroups. We've only gotten about 1/3 of the responses requested from the 18 terminal facilities. The joint "heads up" email from Doug and me was sent to all ATMs and FacReps about 10 days in advance, followed by the email with the link to the actual survey, followed by the survey extension to Apr 10th. I plan to reach out to the FacReps to request that they help us in getting more responses. If that doesn't improve the situation, I may ask for help when we get to the ARTCCs – maybe something from S&T on the Center FacRep listserv. FLIGHT DATA INPUT OUTPUT (FDIO) Corey Soignet (LFT) is the FDIO Article 114 Representative. Also included in Mr. Soignet's duties is Article 114 representation for the Electronic Flight Strip Transfer System (EFSTS). Mr. Soignet forwarded the information below for the membership. FDIO I , along with the rest of the FDIO , traveled to the BOCA facility to di scuss the new printer design. The new printer is still in the early stages and we are finalizing the final design. A