NATCA Bookshelf

National Office Week in Review: March 7, 2018

A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association

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• Tower and TRACON demo work with SMEs (continuing work pending scoping document). FLIGHT DATA INPUT OUTPUT (FDIO) Corey Soignet (LFT) is the FDIO Article 114 Representative. Also included in Mr. Soignet's duties is Article 114 representation for the Electronic Flight Strip Transfer System (EFSTS). Mr. Soignet forwarded the information below for the membership. FDIO The first article testing is still ongoing. The FDIO Team is still identifying and completing all software tweaks to the new printer and is preparing for key site testing. The first key site install is scheduled for the end of March. ACY will be the first key site to test the new printer. Five additional key sites have been selected and consist of a tower and TRACON. Due to their unique printer demands, we are also planning on using Honolulu, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. EFSTS There is nothing to update at this time. FIDI There is nothing to update at this time. INTEGRATED DISPLAY SYSTEM REPLACEMENT (IDS-R) Richie Smith (N90) leads NATCA's efforts on the IDS-R project as the Article 114 Representative. Below is Mr. Smith's report. The next software build for NIDS is currently under construction and testing at the vendor's facilities and FAA/NATCA testing is scheduled for the week of April 23 at the Tech Center. This will hopefully lead to a key site release in the middle of June with a national release to follow. No key site has been negotiated yet. The future of the NIDS operating system is still being debated. A new OS passed testing in the spring of 2017 but never released because the FAA never took into account how to upgrade the OS without the system being shut down and rebuilt from the ground up. This may not be a big impact at a small up/down network but at places like I90 or SCT the interruption of service (possibly days) is unacceptable. Many theories exist as to how to accomplish an uninterrupted upgrade but none have been tested or proven. As a reminder, no one at a facility should be making changes to NIDS databases other than local documentation. Recently a large network was experiencing issues that were found to be caused by local personnel making uncoordinated changes to the database. All changes need to go through the national database team. Also, any issues should be entered into the AIMS system for two reasons: first to track the issue's progress and second, the system helps identify and track issues that may be a nationally experienced problem versus something only experienced locally. If anyone needs any help or has any questions about NIDS, please contact NATCA's IDSR Representative Richie Smith at IDSR@natca.net. NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS)

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