NATCA Bookshelf

SURFACE CONCEPT TEAM (SCT) Kyle Andrews (ORD) is the NATCA Representative to the Surface Concept Team (SCT) for Collaborative Decision Making (CDM). Mr. Andrews forwarded the information below for the membership: The SCT and CAT held a joint telcon on Feb. 28. Also attending were representatives from major airlines, NBAA, the NASA/ATD-2 team, and representatives of CDM airports. Once again, there was lengthy discussion about the benefits being realized at CLT airport as they implement Surface Metering and automated call for release. A point of emphasis is how the tech transfer from NASA to the FAA can be accomplished in such a way that the general benefits are easily translated to other airports beyond CLT. There is a concern that the automation being developed to handle live traffic is reflective of specifically the CLT Airport environment, and some benefits will be lost at introduction to future airports if the automation cannot be easily tailored to their specific details. The other major discussion focused the percentage of CDM vs. non-CDM operations at the top twelve airports (top twelve ranked by number of operations). Early in this project, there was a concern that LAS, with a significant portion of its traffic being General Aviation, would not be easily adapted to SCDM automation, because the automation is dependent on accurate pushback projections and taxi out times and this could be a hard metric for GA pilots to provide. However, the highest percentage of non-CDM aircraft occurs at JFK, which has been running a reduced form of Surface Metering for over a decade, providing measured benefits for all users. By focusing on how JFK handles its non-CDM participants, SCDM should be able to translate those benefits to airports like LAS, LAX, and FLL with their high number of non-CDM operations. TERMINAL AUTOMATION MODERNIZATION REPLACEMENT (TAMR) Aaron Rose (NCT) is the TAMR Article 114 Representative for NATCA. His report to the membership is below. HUF joined the STARS family in February, completing the 68th out of 94 ARTS 2E/1E to STARS transitions. In addition, OKC transitioned from legacy STARS to STARS G4 ELITE. Both facilities were a joy to work with and no problems reported at either site. Thank you, HUF and OKC, for watching out for your controllers and always demanding the best from NATCA TAMR representatives. Issues continue to crop up from legacy equipment throughout the National Airspace System (NAS). Sony 2K monitors at Corpus Christi need replaced as soon as possible and NATCA TAMR is attempting to deliver new Main Display Monitors (MDM) early. In the meantime, we are working with local tech ops to ensure everything that can be done to improve the displays is done. Issues with the display of weather from ASR11 and ASR8 radars continue to plague both large and small facilities. There is a new firmware build that is being tested for ASR11 radars to improve the way precipitation is interpreted. Upon completion of a successful test this firmware will be released throughout the NAS. Matt Tucker (NATCA ART 114 WX) is working with AJW (FAA Surveillance) and NATCA TAMR is pushing for the same fix on ASR8 radars. Talks are underway and more information to come in the following months. Equipment delivery was completed for the

• Cover