NATCA Bookshelf

NASA has given several briefings over the last month to various FAA and Industry groups about the progress being made with ATD-2 at CLT. These groups include the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC SC), the Surface Collaborative Team (SCT), and the NextGen Integration Working Group (Surface) (NIWG). I have represented NATCA at many of these briefings. The most significant statistics NASA reveals during their presentations are: • Surface metering during just one bank at CLT has saved approximately 51,868 lbs. of fuel and 72 tons of CO2, equivalent to planting 1,858 trees. • Efficient use of overhead stream scheduling has saved over 20 hours of surface delay on CLT airport surface. • Saving 42,824 lbs. of fuel by taking some overhead stream hold at the gate rather than in the AMA. • Accentuating the difference between restrictions due to surface congestion versus those due to overhead stream constraints. Progress towards integrating ATD-2 with the Advanced Electronic Flight Strip system (AEFS) continues. NASA and the FAA are addressing security concerns and hope to have a solution that is acceptable to all parties in time for Phase 2 of ATD-2 which begins this coming September. Sharing data between these two systems is currently the only way that controllers will be able to become active participants in future departure metering programs. More on this as further info becomes available. Finally, NATCA President Paul Rinaldi, as well as NATCA Directory of Safety and Technology Jim Ullmann, attended a full day briefing and demo of ATD-2 and AEFS at CLT on Feb. 16 The day began at NASA's ATD-2 Lab in the old CLT terminal on the south side of the airport. NASA spent nearly two hours going over every aspect of the program including the technical aspects of the system as well as its history and future plans. After that, the group transitioned to the CLT tower/TRACON facility where Paul and Jim saw the equipment in use with live traffic. Controllers and TMCs were able to give firsthand accounts and opinions of how the equipment actually works and what they like and don't like about the systems. Having this type of feedback directly from the users is invaluable input during the early stages of design and development for future systems such as TFDM that will become part of every terminal controllers' work environment in the very near future. See Matt Baugh's TFDM updates for timelines on TFDM progress and deployment. Paul and Jim's visit concluded at the CLT airport ramp tower where they were able to see the Industry side of NASA's ATD-2 project. The necessity of close collaboration between ramp and ATC personnel comes into sharp focus when you see the effects and benefits of data sharing in use with live traffic in real time. We thank Paul and Jim for their visit and hope it was helpful for their understanding of the new paradigm that this program and TFDM will bring to operations at many busy terminals in the very near future. We also thank NASA for taking the time to present a very in-depth and informative presentation and for being careful listeners to the needs and concerns of NATCA as we enter into a completely new way of managing traffic on the surface of the busiest airports in the world.

• Cover