NATCA Bookshelf

Program Trouble Report Working Group (PTRWG) NATCA SMEs from PHL and SCT will participate in the February meeting. Items of interest to NATCA are: AT Coach, ADS-B functionality, Altimeter display, CA functions and assigned altitude process. Field Support Mr. Ness travelled to Seattle TRACON to support software cutover to the R4a build. Detroit TRACON successfully transitioned to R4a as well after a significant coasting issue was fixed in adaptation. Mr. Ness has been supporting the Nashville ATCT training department as they plan their upcoming transition to R4a. TAMR Deployment and Common Terminal Digitizer (CTD) Update Submitted by Jim VanZee (GRR) February has seen TAMR related activity begin to spool up again, primarily in the area of Tech Refresh. Surveys for upgrading VFR towers to STARS LITE are spooling up, and Bobby Faulkner (D01) is our NATCA lead for all of these sites. Segment 2 (ARTS IIE to STARS ELITE) activity continues with installs actively in progress at numerous sites, as well as working with the CTD leadership to adjust/plan accordingly around CTD deployment timelines. The most significant activity for the month was the successful cutover of K90 to A90 on Feb. 11. Thanks to excellent work, preplanning, and advanced testing/troubleshooting by all involved, the cutover and STARS adaptation happened pretty seamlessly. This will be an important site from which to gather lessons learned as we prepare to move into some more complicated consolidations moving forward. February Significant TAMR Activities: • Equipment deliveries • Sarasota (SRQ) 2/2/18 • Aspen (ASE) 2/13/18 • Peoria (PIA) 2/20/18 • Site Surveys (Tech Refresh) • Eagle (EGE) (LITE to RT off Denver (D01)) 2/20/18 • Easton (ESN) (LITE to RT off Potomac (PCT)) 2/26/18 Common Terminal Digitizer A User Evaluation took place the week of January 22nd at RFD ATCT. Many of the software fixes tested resulted in the closure or priority reduction of trouble items identified at previous evaluations. Action items remain open on three main Air Traffic related items that need to be resolved or mitigated in order to proceed with key site deployment: Proper filtering and outputting of false weather (AP), accurate display of real weather (and associated intensity) in close proximity to the RADAR site, and unexpected loss of primary search radar during CP/LP transition. Concurrently, the program is working toward final approval of the TechOps training path for personnel certification and maintenance procedures. These are expected to be approved and finalized prior to the first scheduled CTD/STARS key site IOC in June 2018.

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