A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/872987
was is sued last year requiring all clearances to be issued through the flight lead. Additionally, the 65 provided very little guidance for ATC on joining individual aircraft into a formation, which will be included in this change. In response to an interpretati on request from the Western Service Area, AJV - 8, in collaboration with NATCA, worked on guidance for Special VFR operations and Class E extension areas. These Class E extensions are not widely understood and additional guidance will be developed to clarify the different functions that Class E airspace serves in the NAS. Many facilities, especially in the west, have low altitude airways with artificially high MEAs due to poor signal reception from the ground - based NAVAIDS. Working with AJV - 8 and Flight Stan dards, NATCA proposed and was successful in changing the guidance for the use of Minimum Obstruction Clearance Altitudes (MOCA) along published airways. The use of the MOCA will now be permitted without restriction provided the aircraft has a properly IFR certified GPS. AOPA enthusiastically promoted the change to allow the general aviation community the ability to take advantage of previously unusable altitudes to enhance the safety of flight. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or conc erns at procedures@natca.net or 208 - 870 - 1621. AIRPORT CAPACITY DECISION SUPPORT TOOL (ADEST) Kristen Laubach represents the membership as the Article 114 Representative for ADEST. Her report is below: Not much happened with Airport Capacity Decision Support Tool (ADEST) in the past month. The programmers worked on implementing an update in the background of ADEST. This change allows ADEST to continue to receive data on flight schedules and aircraft types. The up date shouldn't impact how the program runs but testing is being completed to verify no inadvertent changes were made. AIRSPACE Jim Davis (PCT) is the National Airspace Representative for NATCA. Below are reports from the various airspace team leads and Mr. Davis. Denver Metroplex Update – Sept. 7 The Denver Metroplex Team has completed the Design Phase of the project and has begun the transition to the Evaluation Phase. The team updated and finalized the TARGET's file along with the design packages for handoff to Environmental and Flight Procedures Teams. The individual facilities have begun to develop implementation and training plans. The team has also started to organize the required resources needed within the local facilities. In - depth discussions w ith local NAT CA and facility leadership, POC s, and National TBFM representatives on the need to work on updating Denver's traffic management plan and adaptations. Over 800 comments were received and reviewed by the Metroplex Team from the Community Invol vement effort. Design modifications were considered and evaluated based upon these comments. Mark Ostronic Denver M etroplex Article 114 NATCA Lead