A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/862302
Sept. 2017 – meeting with the larger Safety Group (including industry) for a debriefing of the HITL results. Decision point at the Sept. 2017 meeting; Discussing benefits Decision on whether or not to convene an SRM Panel to identify safety hazards, Decision whether or not to further develop EDO based on HITL results, Determination of feasibility or non - feasibility Risks – If determination of non - feasibility cannot be made at Safety Group then an SRM Panel needs to convene This will be after Oct. 31st date, which will not meet PBN NIWG milestones. SRMP could convene 1st quarter of FY18 Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC Roundtables Based on meetings that have occurred with Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC communitie s, there will be a Full Working Group following the processes with FAA 7100.41 kicking off durin g the week of August 21, 2017. Washington National (DCA) is the trigger mechanism for this project based on the request from the DCA Roundtable. With DCA's clo se proximity and interconnectivity to other airports, it was recommended that work requested from the Baltimore Roundtable as well as request from Potomac TRACON (PCT) regarding Washington Dulles (IAD) "ILS Trip Arrivals" and northern STAR amendments be in cluded. There are additional meetings scheduled for September 26 - 28, 2017 and October 17 - 19, 2017, which will occur at PCT. The target publication date for these changes will be November 11, 2018 for DCA and February 28, 2019 for BWI & IAD. UNMANNED AI RCR AFT SYSTEMS (UAS) Steve Weidner (ZMP) is the NATCA Article 114 Representative for UAS. Jeff Richards (ZAU) is assisting Mr. Weidner on this project due to the workload and activity associated with it. Below is the update for the membership. NATCA/FAA WORKGROUPS The NATCA/FAA Lost Link Standardization sub - workgroup will hold its first meeting in Was hington , D . C . on September 12 - 14. Five NATCA SME s ( two en route, two terminal, and one oceanic) were selected to participate in this activity. The SME s are Danny Wat son (ZAB), Jeremy McGinty (ZAU), Jamie Sanders (COS), Joe Klimes (TRI ), and Abigail Anderson (ZOA). This workgroup will formulate recommendations to the FAA on standard ized UAS lost link procedures. Our thanks to all who volunteered to participate in this workgroup. UAS FACILITY MAPS In an effort to improve the quality of Part 107 authorization requests coming into the FAA, the agency is making public the UAS Facility Maps that each terminal f acility was asked to complete. The agency has found that absent any guidance on what altitudes may be authorized around airports, proponents are simply requesting 400' AGL for every flight - whether they need it or not. This is leading to a high rate of disapprovals and greatly increased coordination time with the af fected facilities. With the maps publicly available, it is believed that the proponents will become more precise with their authorization requests. The second groups of maps wer e made available on June 22nd. The agency will continue to publish new maps , along with any map updates on the nor mal 56 - day chart update dates. The next set of UAS Facility