A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/860752
Seven VORs will be removed from the charts on Aug . 17th. They are: BRD - Brainerd, Minn. DDD - Port C ity, Iowa HUW - Hutton, Mo. RIS - Riverside, Mo. STE - Steven's Pt, Wis. DKK - Dunkir k, N.Y. JKS - Jacks Creek, Tenn. No new NR studies have been initiated this month. WAKE TURBULENCE Kevin Connelly (SAT) is the Article 114 Representative to the Wak e Turbulence Of fice for NATCA. His update for the week is below. July has been a slow month for RECAT as there were no planned implementations for AJV during the month. After a successful rollout of a modified Phase 2.0 at MIA ATCT/TRACON in May the focus of the program has been on a Humans In The Loop (HITL) study for the potential increase in categories. During the month there has been extensive work on scenarios and schedule being set for both the Tower and TRACON portions of the study. Earlier this month there was a solicitation for TRACON SMEs sent to the bargaining unit, as we need both current RECAT controllers and those that have no experience working RECAT for the testing. The goal will be to see if there is any difference in capabilities of the workforce to inc rease from the current RECAT standard of six complex categories and one simple category (rule), and the 7110.65 standard of four categories and one rule (small plus), to a potential 8, 10, or 12 complex categories. The objective of having a greater number of groupi ngs for airplanes into wake categories is to be able to decrease separ ation standards between groups. The HITL will have six TRACON SMEs chosen as well as six t ower SMEs from those that responded to the solicitation. The TRACON study is set to occur on Septe mber 11 - 15th and the t ower study is scheduled for October 30 – November 3rd. In addition to the HITL , there have been some issues with the next facility to rollout Phase 2.0 PCT. Due to the unique issues presented in the DC area with helicopter and other VIP t raffic , it has been determined there will be a pause in RECAT rollouts. The next facilities in the waterfall will also see similar issues to include PHX/LAS this fall. Until the HITL study is done to determine if extra categories can be added to the program safely with the current tools available to control lers, it has been requested to pause all future rollouts. In addition , there has been some push from AJV at FAA HQ to go to a nationwide standard and that will be looked into as well during this time created by pausing rollouts of the program.