A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/862302
majority of Class G or Uncontrolled Airspace above 1, 200 AGL has been converted to controlled airspace, the definition in the 7110.65 did not provide sufficient guidance as to the separation requirements in uncontrolled airspace. This change defines Class G as "Uncontrolled Airspace" and reminds controllers that although flight through Class G is permitted as requested by the pilot, there are no separation standards within Uncontrolled Airspace. However, ATC still retains responsibility to prevent collisions between aircraft and must issue traffic advisories and safety alerts to those aircraft receiving services. Previously, the 7110.65 never defined the terms Chop and Mountain Wave, commonly used for ride reports on a daily basis in the NAS. At the suggestion of several controllers at various facilities, NAT CA and the FAA collaborated on a change that would introduce definitions for these terms. The current guidance for Formation Flights is poorly worded and applied differently throughout the NAS. After a Memo was sent out confusing the issue even further, NATCA and AJV - 8 worked on language that would clearly define both controller and pilot roles and responsibilities for Formation Flights, to include both join up and break up of these flights. I am in Washington D . C . a minimum of two weeks every month repr esenting NATCA in the FAA Procedures office. Please don't hesitate to contact me at procedures@natca.net or 208 - 870 - 1621 if you have any questions, suggestions , or comments. AIRPORT CAPACITY DECISION SUPPORT TOO L (ADEST) Kristen Laubach represents the membership as the Article 114 Representative for ADEST. Her report is below. There has been some progress with the Airport Capacity Decision Support Tool (ADEST) over the past months. The programmers completed a ba sic version of ADEST for 10 airports and these have been moved into a s taging environment for testing. While testing we found problems with both the manual override and mile in trail functions of the program. These appear to have been corrected but the tea m continues to do more testing. The NOTAMS page also continues to have issues. Recently the page went blank and wasn't showing any NOTAMS or updates. This is being looked into. Once this basic version of ADEST is in working order the team will start colle cting and inputting specifics from each airport. REMOTE RADIO CONTROL SYSTEM (RRCS): C orrie Conrad (PDX) is the R RCS Article 114 Representative. Ms. Conrad's report to the membership is below. RRCS Planned Activites: • Complete RRCS OCT Report – August 201 7 • Submit Source Selection Official (SSO) Report documentation to RRCS SSO for review and approval – September 2017 • SNA is the designated key site for the new RRCS procurement project