A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/913906
We continue to meet with the agency on budget issues as we try to support the various design teams across the country. We should have a better idea of what the 2nd quarter budget will be by mi d - December. We are still dealing with noise issues across the country; meetings continue to take place before and after implementation. Submitted by Jim Davis, NATCA National Airspace Rep AIRSPACE TE CHNICAL DEMONSTRATION 2 (ATD - 2) Pete Slattery (CLT) rep resents the membership as the Article 114 Representative for ATD - 2. His report for is below. On Wednesday, Nov . 29th, the NASA/FAA ATD - 2 system was used to implement Departure Metering at CLT for the first time. Departure Metering has been a long sought g oal of the aviation community. Metering departures is expected to result in a more manageable flow of traffic out of an airport in much the same way that a Ground Delay Program (GDP) improves aircraft flows into airports. Like GDPs, DMPs (Departure Meterin g Procedures) can be used during periods of significant demand/capacity imbalances to achieve a more predictable and manageable flow of traffic. Results of this initial attempt at CLT are being studied and analyzed to determine its effectiveness, and to pl an next steps under the IADS (Integrated Arrival, Departure, Surface) concept. All of the results of this research will be tech transferred to the FAA and studied for possible inclusion into the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) program. At CLT, Traffi c Management Controllers (TMCs) in the control tower and Ramp Managers at the main terminal ramp begin coordinating for Departure Metering approximately 30 minutes before the second bank of flights of the day (approximately 0850 - 0900 Local each day). Durin g this coordination process, both entities have access to a shared surface - modeling program known as the ' Metering What - If ' system. After going over the current airport configuration, runway utilization strategy, weather conditions, and any other impacting conditions that might affect the arrival or departure rates of the airport, both parties then observe a predicted excess queue time monitor that display all scheduled flights on a timeline graph. When this indicates that demand will outstrip capacity by a greed upon thresholds over a specified amount of time, it is agreed that Departure Metering Procedures (DMP) should go into effect. Once the determination is made that a DMP is necessary, TMCs and Ramp managers can collaboratively adjust various queue ti me levels to find the least amount of metering hold that still ensures an adequate supply of departures at the runway. This allows the airport to operate as closely as possible to maximum capacity while pushing only the necessary amount of hold time from t he runway departure queue back to the gate area. During metering, aircraft should still depart at the same time as they normally would, they will simply spend less time waiting in line at the end of the runway, and will absorb the time they usually spend i dling along the taxiway at the gate instead. After only two days of attempting this new method of managing departures, results appear to be good. It is important to keep in mind however, that this is a research project and there will likely be both posit ive and negative outcomes during these initial attempts. There are voluminous amounts of data and metrics being collected and analyzed