A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/961329
This is an historic flight and a large step forward towards full UAS integration into the NAS. PRESIDENTIAL UAS INTEGRATION PILOT PROGRAM The DOT and FAA are very close to announcing at least ten municipalities that will be a part of the Presidential UAS Integration Pilot Program. The selected municipalities and the ideas proposed will dictate how these pilot programs may affect air traffic. Mr. Richards and Mr. Weidner will be working closely with the agency as these efforts progress. UAS SAFETY TEAM (UAST) NATCA is an active participant in the UAST. The UAST is modeled after the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) and the General Aviati on Joint Steering Committee (GAJST). The UAST recently launched a website as a resource for UAS safety. The website can be found here (www.unmannedaircraftsafetyteam.org). Mr. Weidner represents NATCA on the UAST. UAS QUESTIONS As a reminder, any UAS rela ted questions can be addressed to Mr. Weidner and Mr. Richards at UAS@natca.net. NATCA Safety and Tech Update Week of April 2, 2018 ATO OPERATIONAL CONTINGENCY GROUP (ATOC) Jason Grider (ZFW) is the Article 114 Representative for NATCA. Also, included in Mr. Grider's duties is Article 114 representation for the Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Mr. Grider's report for this month is below: ATOC has been spending the last several months pre paring to roll out the new approach to contingency plans for the NAS. Back in 2015 the TOCO group initiated a plan that would have all ARTCC s in the CONUS divest all of their high - altitude airspace to neighboring facilities. This plan depended on the insti llation of new equipment in every ARTCC. To this date, none of the equipment has been installed. ATOC is taking the TOCO plan and refining it to be able to work with existing equipment. They are looking at what a facility can do currently. The ATOC team traveled to ZMA for the first demo of the new concepts. Representatives from ZMA and ZSU were in attendance for this kickoff meeting. ATOC presented some of the new ideas that they will be taking to all ARTCC's during the next year. The team included Jason Grider as the NATCA article 114 representative as well as SME's from TechOps and 2nd level engineering to answer questions and provide expertise to the facilities. Additionally, a group from ATAC brought along one of their I - Sim platforms to demonstrate t heir abilities to simulate traffic flows through airspace. The SME's were very impressed with the functionality and ability to make changes to simulations on the fly. The ATOC group will continue to evaluate the best way to use this type of technology. The ZSU SME's were able to brief the group at ZMA on the challenges they faced in the wake of two major hurricanes this past year. They were able to work with ATOC and