A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/870884
Operating Testing and Evaluation (OT&E) OT&E for S6.00 R6 drop 8 is scheduled Sept. 12 - 14. This will be the final evaluation for R6 and if successful, will allow the build to go to key site. OT&E for S6.00R7 drop 3 originally scheduled Oct. 17 – Nov. 2 has been cancelled because the build will not meet entry or exit criteria due to several discrepancy reports. Program Trouble Report Working Group (PTRWG) Mr. Ness and Ross Costa (RSW) participated in the August meeting. NATCA elevated a PTR relate d to cursor home positioning when making certain keyboard entries even though the controller has 'no - home' selected. NATCA also elevated a problem with Quick Look ALL and Quick Look Plus whereas datablocks do not behave as expected. A PTR requesting a new function to more easily display significant points on the screen was reviewed by stakeholders and ranked. STARS Software Planning Board During a recent OT&E session, NATCA SMEs identified STARS trackball parameters that are more realistic of the 1 - 10 rang e that controllers choose at their workstation. The revised parameters , while fairly simple, require a change to the software. NATCA is working with board stakeholders to get this change in an upcoming build. Field Support User evaluation of AT Coach chan ges requested by New York TRACON are ongoing at N90. The onsite evaluation allows N90 SMEs significantly more time to participate and make a thorough assessment. Mr. Ness has been coordinating with Second Level Engineering, NATCA SBS and Terminal Requirem ents to change the display of Call Sign Mismatch (CSMM) on the STARS datablock – a condition when the ADS - B callsign does not match the beacon callsign. There were over 20,000 CSMM alerts in June and controllers are spending significant time advising pilot s of their bogus transponder condition. CSMM display will be suspended until users are better educated and the NAS approached the equipage mandate in 2020. Mr. Ness participated in an ERC meeting Aug. 23 to discuss the safety issues and mitigations associ ated with Duplicate Beacon Targets at Fargo. While the issue is primarily a surveillance/reflection problem, STARS software changes may mitigate some of the tracking problems reported by Fargo. TERMIN AL FLIGHT DATA MANAGER (TFDM) Matt Baugh (IAH) is the A rticl e 114 Representative for TFDM. Mr. Baugh's update is below. The first of many Training WorkGroups (TWG) was held in Gaithersburg with Leidos and the FAA/NATCA. The main risk associated with TFDM training is that it is being developed concurrently wi th the system. Any major slip in the training schedule would mean we would not have training material for PHX prior to Initi al Operating Capability (IOC). That would cause a slip in their IOC and could lead to additional slips in the rest of the waterfall. At this time, we are on schedule and do not anticipate any further scheduling issues.