A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/883404
ZAB hosted a 'Discovery Site' verification of TBF M system 4.8 the week of 9/18. Ops Team members , as well as Second Level Engineering and Contract personnel , travelled to ZAB for this initial look at the 4.8 system in the ZAB support lab. This initial look at the 4.8 system was very important , as TSAS tools are being introduced into the TBFM system it must be verified that the base TBFM adaptatio ns are not adversely effected. The activity went very wel l overall and a lot of credit goes to ZAB for letting this initial discovery site test be held in their Support Lab. TRAFFIC FLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (TFMS) Brian Campos (DCC) represents the NATCA membership as their Article 114 Representative to the TFMS p roject. His report is below. Staffing and heavy thunderstorms throughout the month of July did not provide any opportunity to con duct activity for the TFMS DT. However, August timeframe provided some opportunity to work on these tasks. ABRR/PDRR signifi cant effort still ongoing to find a way to turn ABRR/PDRR with fixes that can be ada pted into TFMS by end of 2017. Through much discussion with many teams and a rework of the information being used to describe the needs of the TFMS system to run unilateral ly with ERAM, some headway was made in determining a solution to running ABRR/PDRR w ith a few time possible fixes. With all teams focus on safety while trying not to lose efficiency, the task was trying to add ress auto - changing amendments. It was discovere d the customer had been making amendment changes up to 45 minutes prior t o P - tim e in the current system. Since we were adding no new inherent risk into the system that we could continue dow n the path of auto amendments. Some concern with automation may speed up the process may discover a problem from this. To manage this, an adjustable time parameter in automation would be pushed back farther away from 45 minutes in an eff ort to move gingerly. This would create the path of safely adjusting , fixing , and i mproving the system at the pace it can safely accept. The team reviewed the current state for ABRR/PDRR, PDRR/ABRR TMC Reference card development and is close to hav ing it completed and in place prior to the next ABRR/PDRR turn on. TFMS questioner is set to go to the field in September. Information is expected to be valuable to identify a priority of tool value, current products problems due to infrequent use and collect comment s where work needs to be done. Frequent complaints from the field frame the c urrent engineering problems (ERs) not being addressed satisfactorily to make tools more efficie nt, thus improving the system. The frustration increases when receiving newer big package releases with very limited follow up enhancement (ERs) updates to the n ew too l and the systems as a whole. Surface Case uses are being designed with the help of engineering research team, direct support team of TFMS - DT, to help us work through and understand the existing requirements for the Surface Viewer and how it may integrate into TFMs. Priority of Enhancements . Although not a direct part of the TFMS DT, it has been very beneficial for the team to vet through existing tickets that is now AIMS, to categorize and validate existing ER needs to the current system. The is sue in addressing these problems ha s been left ineffectively handled for many years. The team is able to work