NATCA Bookshelf

six new Tower Suites for Chicago O'Hare tower. Install will start in late March to early April. Mr. Rose spent a week in Marlborough, Mass., with Operational Support Facility (OSF) NATCA and Kyle Ness (M98 NATCA) reviewing an upcoming software build. We refer to these early looks as play dates. Randy Garcia (Denver OSF and Terminal Automation lead) led a team which reviewed upwards of 30 improvements the OSF uses and will eventually make life easier while creating adaptations. Mr. Ness and Mr. Rose reviewed 20 improvements. This new software will be released late in 2018 or early 2019. R3F software, which will only be released at SoCal TRACON (SCT), was tested the week of March 12. Mr. Rose worked with Mike Sanders and Matt Morter (SCT NATCA) to review the tracking update which will be released in the next software build, R6A. Testing completed March 15 with install on the SCT operational string on March 29. NATCA TAMR is continuing to work with Raytheon and FAA PMO on the new Tower Display Monitors (TDM). Operational tests at the William J. Hughes Technical Center last month produced 4 discrepancy reports. There is an issue with reading text from a position greater than 45 degrees away from the display. Glare in natural light is the other issue that needs to be mitigated. EIZO, the company which produces the monitor, is developing filters and one display which is bonded, meaning the glass is bonded directly to the LCD screen. More testing with mitigations will be held in the May timeframe. March 13, 2018 TAMR held its Article 114 meeting via telcon. Discussed how R8 software would be released and how facilities not on the Terminal Spacing and Sequencing (TSAS) tool would have usable software. We agreed to have two OT&E events. One with TSAS enabled and one with TSAS inhibited. This will ensure TSAS facilities will have updated software even though TSAS may not be found suitable. Discussed TDM production, mitigations, and waterfall impacts. Potomac TRACON is in the midst of testing the new optical trackball. Two are installed on the training and support string with two more being delivered by end of March. All four will be installed on the operational string in early April and used on a daily basis. This will prove the reliability prior to the agency purchasing hundreds as replacements. Mr. Rose participated in numerous telcons throughout the month. Weekly telcons include NATCA/TAMR PO, SRMP, and Hardware systems engineering. Completed OKC IOC telcon, SAAT bi-weekly, STARS/TSAS, EGE CAI out brief, TAMR look ahead, and MKE ELITE shakedown telcon. TAMR NATCA Training submitted by Ross Costa (RSW) Mr. Costa traveled to ALO for an on-site training briefing in mid-February. During this meeting, we discussed the training schedule. We also held an additional meeting with Management and NATCA to discuss the entire transition to STARS. We have scheduled S6R7 Material Review for April 2-6. Bill Spence (BTV NATCA) will be travelling to El Segundo for this review. We have also scheduled a March 22nd test at Raytheon to ensure that the R7 functionality changes are tested by Mr. Spence. We are working closely with Mike Sanders (SCT NATCA) who is currently designing an ELMS course for ATPA. We will attempt to incorporate some edits into our STARS course materials.

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