Fireside Chat

Paul Rinaldi - NATCA President

Michael Huerta - FAA Administrator

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Huerta testified yesterday in front of congress regarding FAA Reauthorization
Structuring questions were addressed including the idea of privitization.

Huerta Maintains that the FAA wants 3 things:
Maintain our Record of Safety
Safely deploy new technology
Ensure new technology works in the operation and collaboration exists

In regards to privatization, Huerta explained to congress the differences between the private tech market who roll out products when they are "good enough" vs. the safety culture that we have worked so hard to build. 

During Huertas Tenure since 2010: 23 extensions, 2 shutdowns, 1 furlough and Sequester have occured yet we have still been able to continue our rollout of NextGen.

Paul - "Our Funding mechanism is broken, we need predictable stable funding. We are willing to look at adjusting the structure of funding."
Huerta - "Restructuring alone does not bring stable funding.  We need resources, flexibility, and the ability to transfer funds amongst FAA programs."

Regarding the 2020 mandate G.A. pilots looking for changes/exceptions
Huerta - "FAA has equipped as agreed upon, users should do the same"
Looking for alternatives or removing barriers to equippage and will possibly look at subsidizing the cost for G.A.

Regarding Sequester - 
Paul - "How are we going to prioritize when there is no money?"
Huerta - "We are a billion dollars short of projections of expected funding yet we haven't cut any planned services.  The president has stated sequester is bad public policy and stops congress from having to prioritize funding."

Paul  "If we sequester on oct 1 will OKC shutdown?"
Huerta "I dont want to speculate, we need to focus on getting congress to support reauthorization and not deal with this foolishness.  We also don't know what our hit (monetarily) would be if it did happen."  

Regarding Consolodation-
Paul - "Regarding Consolidation, how do we replace aging centers, and looking at Chicago ARTCC is consolodation smart? Do we need 20?
Huerta -  "20? I dont know what the magic number is.  We wouldn't take it down to 3.  It's possible to be too big to be efficient.  We need to put together a team and answer what problems are we trying to solve.

Regarding Huerta's Legacy-  

Paul - "When you walk away as administrator, what do you want to have as your legacy?"
Huerta - "3 or 4 things: I came in 2010 to deploy nextgen.  When I leave we will be deploying, executing and using it.  Safety, lay to rest old topics but continue to look for new threats
We are the gold standard, we must reassert and solidify the FAA as setting the standard globally.
Lastly, as we bring in the new generation I hope that we are an attractive employer and continue to innovate and exist as a great place to work.

Questions from the audience:

How do we fund or get away from political landscape?

Huerta -

Airline ticket tax revenues have not grown with overall fees due to ancillary fees that are exempt from tax.

Regarding Fuel Tax, nextgen is trying to reduce fuel consumption and in turn reducing funds.

General Fund Subsidy represents (give or take) a third of the operational budget.  We have to answer funding questions if we want to move away from being subsidized.

Regarding User fees, there is no consensus but we don't want to discourage pilots from filing flight plans.

We are looking at registry fees as they are roughly $5 per aircraft for 3-5 years.

What can we can do to ensure collaboration in all facilities?

Huerta -  "Celebrate Successes"

Can we fasttrack CTI grads?  How do we staff as a fast as possible?

Huerta - "We did that with the last bid for people with prior experience, but on the hire of last year 2/3rds were CTI grads, so it is helping students get hired."

Safety Risk Management

Mark DiPalmo NATCA and Maggie Geraghty ATO Safety

https://my.faa.gov/org/linebusiness/ato/safety/sms.html

The culture of the FAA/NATCA is what drives the safety policies.  None of this works unless we truly believe in this.

An SRM Panel is made up of aviation experts and SMEs.

Any change in the NAS needs SRM.  Always and for ANYTHING.

·       SRM Process

o   Review Current System

o   Review Proposed Change

o   Develop Preliminary Hazard List

o   Hazard Analysis Worksheet

o   Monitoring Plan

o   SRM Document

ADS-B Workshop

ADS-B has been deployed in many facilities with a great amount of transparency to the controllers by adding the data into existing radar mosaics. ADS- B ground stations are already mostly installed well ahead of the 2020 mandate. The 2020 ADS-B mandate requires all aircraft operating in Class A,B,and C airspace and any altitude above 10,000 except class G to have ADS-B OUT capabilities.

ADS-B has two modes, IN and OUT. OUT is the broadcast from the A/C including ID, Position and altitude. This is the mode that will be required by the 2020 mandate. ADS-B IN is information being sent to the A/C which would include TIS-B and FIS-B. TIS-B (Traffic Information Service) provides position reports on Non ADS-B aircraft secondary radar returns, Similar to TCAS.  FIS-B (Flight Information Service) provides terrain information, Weather and other products.

In Seattle Center airspace ADS-B can cover all of the airspace at 3000AGL. This may be further improved if Space Based ADS-B is adopted by the FAA. A constellation of 60 satellites will be launched beginning this year by Aireon Corp, to provide a top down receiver network for ADS-B to supplement the ground based systems. This system has a larger latency than the ground based system but would provide world wide surveillance for Oceanic Operations, and to a lesser degree greater mountainous terrain tracking.

ATC Training Workshop

Tom Adcock
NATCA National Training Rep.

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OKC Updates:

FAA Has dual hiring sources - 

1.) Experienced Bid - Closed last week (2200 applicants) to help bring people on board by May 1st.  700-800 likely candidates that mostly will go directly to the facility.  

2.) No experience - Announcement opens March 23rd, uses validated BioQ data from current controllers, first pass BioQ then ATSAT
1st class to report Aug 2015
Appx 1000 slots for FY15
Appx 1300 for FY16 (Class Makeup 55% Enroute, 45% Terminal)

BioQ is to reduce the amount of people taking the ATSAT that requires $200-300 pp cost

Currently about an 80% pass rate in OKC

Curriculum changes: 
AT basics optional for CTI and military
Tower Sim Using PV and cumulative grading method
Travel MOU for new hires adding time

Recurrent Training -

Hoping to differentiate modules for terminal vs enroute
Allow facility managers discretion regarding material possibly

OJTI redesign - 

OJTI course was determined to be outdated and needed to be updated with new ideas and techniques to assist OJT's 
A collaborative workgroup has been developed
OJTI supplemental has been completed and should be rolled out summer of 2015 with an expected completion in early 2016

CIC Redesign - 

Collaborative Workgroup formed to develop new training
Expected completion Dec. 2015

FDT- 

2014 - 2674 FDTs completed
2015 - 294 FDTs to date
Working on electronic filing of FDTs to help in reduction of lead times.  Hoping for rollout this summer.  

IPG (Instructor Program Guides/Stage 3 and 4) Rewrites-

Working to eliminate disparity among like type facilities
Workgroup formed to establish uniform grading for qualification training

ATCOTS/CTC Contract expires Sept. 2015, bid is out and should be announced shortly.

Air Traffic Control Modernization & Safety

Dr. David Harrison, Director of Safety, NATS UK

Aaron Curtis, Prospect ATCOs Branch, UK

Patrik Peters, President and CEO, IFATCA

Lynn Ray, Vice President of Mission Support, ATO

Jeff Woods, National PMO Representative, NATCA

Joe DePete, First Vice President, ALPA

Peter Duffey, President, Canadian Air Traffic Control Association

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n the UK they have the ability to interrogate an aircraft altitude entry with mode S. If the controller says FL250 and enters the altitude into the data block, the system will also read what altitude was entered by the pilot in the aircraft and alert if the information doesn't match up.

“[iFACTS] has a nice little feature where if the computer entry is different that the Mode S data input by the pilot, the system will alert me. Its saved me quite a few times, actually.”

— Aaron Curtis

The UK also uses mode S to read what altimeter is set in each aircraft. Cuts down on verbiage compared to the steps we have to do in order to get that information.

“The most important data (to determine if PBN is safer) is voluntary reporting.

With PBN, from a technical standpoint we are well on our way….from a cultural standpoint, we still have some work to do.”

— Lynn Ray

PBN is still in it's infancy and it's too early to see if this is really enhancing safety or if it's introducing new problems.  The initial goal for PBN was efficiency more than safety.  They are now using the data from the early stages and are shifting the focus to safety. A good portion of the data derives from ATSAP identifying systemic issues.  FedEx has seen a 20% increase in arrivals since the implementation of PBN/OPDs which speaks to the increase of efficiency.

“[FEDEX Aviation] has seen a 20% increase in capacity and saved 4 million in fuel. reduced average flight time by 2 minutes in the air and 3 on the ground.”

— Joe DePete

Nav Canada is in a situation where they don't buy new equipment, they build it.  The controllers identify a need and work with engineers to create new technology for the job.  They have a digital strip display that controllers designed and built with the help of engineers, that has been successful.

National Safety Initiative

Steve Hansen, Chariman, NATCA NSC

Jospeph Teixeira, Vice President Safety & Technical Training, ATO

Kim Stover, Acting Director of Operations, Central Service Area South, ATO

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A discussion providing an overview of ATO goals based on the 2012 changes to the QA order.

Data is QC/OSA driven.  These are what drive the top 5 (Corrective Action Plan)  each year as well Webinars including 2014/2015's Parachute Ops, WX, and VFR/IFR conflict resolutions.

In order to further these initiatives the ATO will provide:

QC training

Safety tools and training

Support of PFS (Partnership for safety) and Monthly Safety Awareness Discussions

Recurrent Training (Discussed ways of improving these rollouts based on time constraints and keeping things more relevant to specific facility types)

Provide tools to the Local Safety Councils 

Promote Safety Reporting (ATSAP)

Tom Costello, NBC News

The key aviation reporter for NBC.  First reporter to cover the Archie League Awards in 2004 and again in 2012 where it was aired on Today.  Extensive and accurate reporting of our career field for the Malaysia crashes, GA accidents, drone near misses, and the Chicago Center incident of the past year. 

“Reminding the public that flying is by far the safest mode of transportation is an important responsibility.”

— Tom Costello

ZAU, Chicago Center Outage

Panel

Bryan Zilonis, Great Lakes Regional Vice President, NATCA Terry Biggio, Vice

President of Air Traffic Services, ATO Toby Hauck, Chicago Center Facility

Representative, NATCA Bill Cound, Air Traffic Manager, Chicago Center, ATO

Matt Walters, South Bend Facility Representative, NATCA

Dan Pawelski, Air Traffic Manager, South Bend, ATO

Mike Thompson, Minneapolis Center Facility Representative, NATCA

Ron Sekenski, Staff Manager, Minneapolis Center, ATO

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An inspirational video recap, as well as panel discussing the events surrounding the Chicago Center fire in Sept. of 2014.  Everyone gave their personal accounts of the day and the weeks that followed.  Time and time again the stories piled up with astounding stories of professionalism and Controllers and supporting staff going above and beyond to get the system back to capacity. Within four days O'hare was back to the number one busiest airport in the nation.  This involved controllers deploying to all of the surrounding facilities, sleeping on futons, driving across the country with necessary equipment and leaving families behind in order to step up and keep the nations airspace running smoothly.  This was a time to truly feel honored by our brothers and sisters stepping up and going above and beyond anything that was ever expected or required of them.   Awards were given to a small pool of people representing each of the affected facilities although it was noted that almost everyone across the NAS was somewhat impacted and helped in any way possible.  

Assistant Administrator for NextGen, Edward Bolton

PBN (performance based navigation) is being developed in north Texas as well as OPDs (optimized profile descent) for DC which translates to about 97K metric tons in CO2 emissions yearly.  Also, spearheading ground movement improvements across the country to cut down on costs and pollution.  This is now.

Planning to place electronic strip displays in the terminal environment.

Right now 743 million passengers currently using the system and predictions say 1.5 billion in 20 years.  We need to collaborate to be successful in the future in order to facilitate this.

They feel like they can get to the levels of the predicted demand by setting real short term goals constantly.

Aviation Weather Panel

Panel

Reed Timmer, Storm Chasers

Tony Smith, ATCSCC Facility Representative, NATCA

Keith Gordon, Director of Aviation for Flynn-Gallagher Associates & NBAA

Marc Henegar, Air Traffic Services Group, ALPA

Matt Tucker, National Weather Representative, NATCA

Andy Marosvari, Professional Standards Rep, National Safety Committee, NATCA

Greg Byus, ATCSCC Air Traffic Manager (acting), ATO

Kim Stover, Director of Operations (acting), Central Service Area South

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The Command Center cites weather as the biggest impact on rates.  The Command Center tries to be as proactive with weather as possible.  Constantly evaluating forecasts and weather trends.  They can look as far as 8 hours ahead for preplanning for trans continental flights. In a tracon environment, they need about 3 hours of lead time to implement GDP's. They were queried about how can they better protect controllers by  better implementing extreme rate changes. They have a NAS Vision 2015 where they look at severe events from the past and make steps to remedy this.  They are in the collebrative process of coming up with a more fluid process for rates.

“With XM satellite weather, I can make long range strategic decisions about my route.”

— Keith Gordon

Timely weather dissemination is a must. If you see something depicted, call it. If you get a PIREP, report it. WARP update coming this summer. 

“[Airborne Radar] can only see 45 degree left or Right and Radar power is attenuated by precipitation.”

— Marc Henegar

Pilots have very limited weather equipment.  They appreciate weather advisories and, at times, only see the closest weather precipitation.  If you have moderate weather with a small cell of extreme painted inside, the pilot may only pick up the closest precip (mod) and not see the extreme.  They also would like to know what the rest of the flow has been doing.  If they ask to deviate left but everyone has been going right, tell them.  Typically, the lesser equipment is often in the air carriers and not GA.  They are restricted to about a 40 degree cone in front of them on their WX readouts.  More than that is a blind spot.

“PIREPs are the most valuable [WX] report we can get.”

— Marc Henegar

In 2 weeks, funding for a singular (for example, STARs has different WX than ERAM) next gen weather system could be approved and could give us the ability to identify lightning.

“We don’t see hail (on Airborn Radar), but we feel it.”

— Keith Gordon

Advancing Safety Through Voluntary Reporting Panel

Panel

Mike Schilz, Safety Information Analysis Programs, ALPA

Peggy Gilligan, Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, FAA

Steve Hansen, Chairman, National Safety Committee, NATCA

Joseph Teixeira, Vice President, Safety & Technical Training, ATC

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ASAP/ATSAP not a get out of Jail card. A way to identify systemic issues and create a safer system. 

“ASAP is not a get out of jail free card, I don’t care what anyone says.”

— Mike Schilz

ASIAS is the processing of raw data from multiple sources (ATSAP, ASAP, FOQA, etc.) and trying to find an overall trend or flaw in the system in order to correct them.  The FAA is the biggest contributor of data for this program in an effort to facilitate safer aviation.

“If you keep your [experiences with safety] to yourself, how professional is that?”

— Mike Schilz

“If you do not report, you perspective is not heard. Decisions are made based on this Data.”

— Steve Hansen

ATSAP is a key element to solving overall system trends. Our perspective is needed for safety improvement and ATSAP is the way that we give it. 

“If we empower people at the local facilities, who know their airspace, we get the best results.”

— Joseph Teixeira

Confidential Info Share Program (CISP) is the program that takes all of the voluntary reports and creates a yearly Top 5 list as well as reviews the previous Top 5 to make sure that they have been solved or, at least, not forgotten. 

They are trying to utilize ATSAP in refresher CBI's.  They want to make sure to incorporate new lessons and procedures created by ATSAP reports and keep the CBI's relevant

“We evaluated the [ATSAP] data and develop training, based on your reports.”

— Joseph Teixeira

ATSAP is on the cusp of reaching contract facilities. It is important to get as much perspective as possible.

There is an ATSAP mobile site.  Use off position of course. 

“Somethings are more important than the bottom line. Safety is one of them.”

— Mike Schilz

Gordon Graham

7 Rules of Rickover (Identifying Problems Lying in Wait)

Gordon Graham is a 33 year veteran of California Law Enforcement. His education as a Risk Manager and experience as a practicing Attorney, coupled with his extensive background in law enforcement, have allowed him to rapidly become recognized as a leading professional speaker in both private and public sector organizations with multiple areas of expertise.

The magic in Mr. Grahams programs is in the delivery. He is a fantastic speaker who uses humor and his life experience in the California Highway Patrol to convey Risk Management ideas to fit with in any organization. His programs are available on his website and I highly recommend looking into them. The main points of Mr. Grahams presentation are highlighted below:

Admiral Rickover developed a safe nuclear US Navy in the 40s by first purposely causing reactor failures to assess the risk involved. He developed 7 rules to ensure a process for the safe operation and development of the US Navy’s Nuclear Fleet.

1. Continuous improvement.  Anything that can be quantified can be improved. Be better than minimum standards.
2. People running complex systems have to be highly capable.  Don't hire stupid people.  Initial vetting process is paramount to setting the foundation. Be thorough and truthful in the training documentation.
3. Quality supervision.  Mediocre sups affect accountability as well as the operations.  Substitute "sups" with "leadership roles in our union" makes this easier to digest.  We need to continue to keep in touch and heed the lessons of our out going controllers.  They never stop being NATCA. 
4. Healthy respect of the risk that we face.  Be particularly cautious with high risk, low frequency tasks.  Bad weather deviation days, for example, are very high probability times for errors.  Conversely, big departure/arrival push are high risk, high frequency and not as concerning because we are exposed to it more often and know what to expect.
5. Training has to be constant and rigorous.  Everyday is a training day for core critical tasks.
6. Audit system.  They should be done by 3rd party objective.  Not unlike our TRB process.  We routinely have our NATCA people show up at a facility not their own to conduct a TRB.  This way no preconceived notions on the developmental, rather a clear focus on the training process.
7. Continuous learning.  We can never know everything.  Embrace new ideas and technology and ave willingness expand our knowledge.
   

Hon. Christopher Hart, Acting Chair, NTSB

The NTSB investigates and recommends solutions to aviation accidents/incidents.  Over 80% of the recommendations are implemented.

Top 3 interest items of the NTSB currently

Go Arounds on intersecting runways.

Wrong airport landings.

Display of lightning data. Currently no such display exist with our equipment.

“[NTSB] has made recommendations for real time Lightning data for Controllers and Pilots”

— Christopher Hart

The NTSB would like to view themselves as a partner with the FAA rather than rivals.

“If your involved in the problem, you deserve to be involved in the solution.

If the users of the system aren’t involved with the design of the system, there is a problem.”

— Christopher Hart

Another area of concern is the increase of automation. The equipment has such a wide range of features that it makes troubleshooting  more difficult. Also, more automation might erode basic skills because of a dependence of automation and if it fails, is there a risk of the pilot/controller being able to remember how to fix the situation.  Or worse yet, have they even performed that task in real time?  They are looking into having better user/operator interface also known as collaborating. 

“They didn’t understand the cause and effect of you lost Airspeed information, this affects these seven systems also.”

— Christopher Hart

Human Factors in Pilot/Controller Communication

Panel

Jason Demalgaski, Human Factors and Fatigue Risk Manager, ATO
David Bricker, Human Factors Representative, NATCA National Safety Committee                    John Drexler, Air Traffic Services Group, ALPA
Mike Schilz, Safety Information Analysis Programs, ALPA
Ric Loewen, National RSAT Representative, NATCA
Dennis Kelly, National PBN Representative, NATCA

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Human Factors in Pilot/Controller Comms

Climb and descend via is one of the most misinterpreted actions in aviation currently.  The pilots are  having the majority of their issues with the bottom altitudes on optimized profile descents (OPDs).  If they are taken off the routing to rejoin later they have ambiguity as to whether or not to continue with  the descent or keep level flight. The expectation is to issue an altitude when vectoring off the arrival.  To help with this issue, phraseology is being reworked to clear up confusion. 

Centers can issue a runway assignment at the top of the OPD in conjunction with an LOA with the terminal approach. If the pilot is forced to guess which runway to expect and is wrong, the workload is considerable inside the cockpit to reprogram the arrival.

“Some of these [RNAV STAR/SIDs] are not one size fits all, what works for 737 may not work for an ERJ ”

— John Drexler

Aircraft on an FMS/OPD aren't always keen on shortcuts because of the workload to come off the FMS or OPD. For example, if a routing is ABC..DEF..GHI and you short cut them to GHI, the pilot will go and delete all of the previous routing and go to GHI.  If we then need them to go to DEF, the pilot has to manually rebuild the routing in the computer not to mention review any speed and altitude restrictions.  A lot of heads down time for the pilot.

“You may start to see pilots refusing a shortcut of 1000 miles, maybe its not the most efficient route. When giving shortcuts, you may not always be doing us the favor you think you are.”

— Mike Schilz

New jets are very clean and efficient as far as movement through the air.  It's difficult for aircraft to slow down because of this.  Particularly in a descent.  If you need speed reductions, don't expect immediate results. 

“I hope they never get rid of the human interface, because I have seen the infinite loop and its ugly.”

— John Drexler

Foundations of Professionalism Panel

Panel

Jeff Richards, Fatigue Safety Steering Committee,NATCA 

Garth Koleszar, Professional Standards Representative, NATCA

Steve Hansen, Chairman, National Safety Committee, NATCA 

Joseph Teixeira, Vice President of Safety & Technical Training, ATO 

Bob Jones, District Manager, New England Terminal Ops, ATO

Tom Boland III, Asst District Manager, Southern Skies District, ATO 

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We can contribute to a professional culture be utilizing the joint programs (ATSAP, Fully Charged, Turn Off/Tune In, Pro Standards) laid out before us.  The growth of our safety culture and advancement is dependent on a professional workforce.

In an effort to help with the Turn Off/Tune In initiative charging stations are starting to be installed infacilities where the work force can place and charge devices prior to entering the control room and have helped with compliance of no devices on the floor.

“I challenge the Agency to get these charging stations into the facilities, it really helps.”

— Jeff Richards

ATSAP was designed as a means to get feedback on issues in our job without treating personel badly for self identifying.  It is not a "Get out of jail free card".  Anyone that does abuse the process will eventually get caught.  ATSAP has greatly assisted in molding a safer aviation system due to the majority of people using it as intended.

“ATSAP asks you to identify where the problem is and how to fix it.”

— Steve Hansen

ATSAP helped identify a need to develope something to address the fatigue.  The Fully Charged program is the result of that need and is helping us mitigate fatigue through education and awareness.

A difficulty in getting these programs to be successful is the effectiveess of education.  If people are still asking "What is Fully Charged?" than they realize that they need to remedy that through new ideas.  Touring facilities with workshops, apps, etc. are all on the horizon in an effort to educate.

Professional Standards should not be viewed as NATCA doing managements job.  It's our profession and we should own and mold it.  Pro Standards gives us that opportunity.

There are tangible means to measure the success of these programs by how many cases were addressed and solved but also by surveys that they send out to the workforce to see if they are affecting a culture change within our profession.

Historically, about 70% of the Pro Standards cases are initiated by management.  The culture of "not snitching" within the BUE workforce is something that the Pro Standards group would like to change to better utilize the program.

“Because we haven’t broken through the cultural barrier, there is a hesitancy to using Profesional Standards, that’s unfortunate.”

— Jeff Richards

The Brain of the ATC: How genome, epigenome, brain circuits, shape behavior and personality.

Talk by Dr. James Fallon

Limbic Lobe responsible for emotion and morality. In studies, Lack of use in this area of the brain was common in Psychopaths. Another way to put this is that people who don't use the Limbic Lobe, just don't care. This trait is common in ATCs, also common with Narcissists. 

Typical ATC Personality type: ESTJs or “The Guardian” 

Typical ATCs brain:

Two systems M and P:

M- Perspective and motion & P- Detail & Peripheral

ATCs switch between these quickly, which is rare and crucial to ATC duties. Especially in training situations.

Focused attention: Allows ATCs to quickly judge and question a problem. But at the expense of organs and stress levels; requires great energy.

ATC exhibit Cognitive Empathy as opposed to Emotional. We perceive, or understand how some one feels.

Often, ATCs exhibit these traits only when working but trade off to another personality type later.

Paul Rinaldi Welcome Address

Rinaldi: Slate.com names the US Airspace System the First Wonder of the Modern World

Exhibit Hall has more Venders than ever including top Technology Companies,  Centers and Aviation Safety Organizations.

In 1999 44 attendees and in 2015 over 1500 attending CFS, including 1005 NATCA Members.

Canada, UK, Europe, Africa and other global partners in attendance. One world airspace.

Rinaldi: ZAU fire biggest ATC disaster since 9/11. Nothing stopped Controllers and technicians from getting facility up and running in 14 days. Controllers stayed in building directing traffic while it was on fire.

Aviation still safest mode of transportation despite aviation tragedies. These accidents affect us deeply around the world. We must stay vigilant.

Referring Asiana: 777s don't just disappear, we must modernize. Must stay focused on NEXT GEN.

ATSAP: forwarding information to enhance safety of NAS through Local Safety teams

Rinaldi: ATSAP is a Game Changer.

Collaboration is key to modernization. 

Rinaldi: Aviations and safety is a Non-Partisan Issue.

When ERAM started in ZLC and ZSE it was a 'Bust'. But with Controller involvement it has turned around to be deployed through out the country.

UAVs: from little consumer drones to AMAZON and Dominos Pizza. Need to control their use. We have all seen what a bird can do to a commercial aircraft could you imagine what a drone could do?

Problems in NAS: Lack of Stable Funding System. We have seen 23 short term extensions, Furloughs and Government Shutdowns through Sequestration. FAA looking to shutdown 23 ATCT to save money not improve safety. Sequestration to be back in play OCT 15'. Cannot deliver greatest Air Space System on short funding extensions.

Video: Link when available

Welcome to CFS 2015

CFS is about to kick off with a Welcome Address from NATCA President Paul Rinaldi.

This years tag line is Safety is in our DNA.

Join the CFS discussion on twitter with #NATCACFS

CFS 2015 Photo Gallery