ࡱ> ܥhc eH")H((((((()))))) ) ))C)))))))))))))))])X)J)()))))))(())))))()()) r))(((())))NAATS HEADQUARTERS EMAIL UPDATE Volume 2, #36 June 28, 2002 I met with ADA-1 Monte Belger yesterday to ask him to revisit the issue of the pay band transition and cap. He agreed to talk with the responsible FAA managers and get back to me prior to the July 15 deadline. We're also approaching select congressional representatives with these issues. Ill advise you as soon as I know anything further. Its been extremely busy with congressional meetings again this week. Ive talked with Bono, Lowery, Solis, Rothman, Sanchez, Landrieu, Barton, and Morella regarding the possible A76 study and our pay situation. Im also continuing to work with Oberstar and Hollings staff on A76 and contracting out. Ive provided them with copies of our correspondence with the FAA and they advise me that contracting out wont happen on their watch. Ive also been informed that there may be legislation from Hollings to define ATC as inherently governmental but they havent finalized a game plan yet. We agreed to continue to work together on this. One thing Ive been asked to provide congress is anecdotal evidence of our contributions to aviation safety and the loss represented if we were contracted out. Please send any such examples to me as soon as possible. Ive talked with PASS President Mike Fanfalone and we will meet next week to discuss a common approach on contracting out. Ive also talked with Carl Goldman of AFSCME and Ill talk with NATCA President John Carr on July 8 for the same purpose. Regarding my letter to him, I have a meeting next Tuesday with ABA-1 Chris Bertram to discuss how the FAA plans to proceed on A76. Ive also talked with some subject matter experts (contractors) here in DC and gotten their advice. One thing is certain, A76 is lengthy and complex; we have to be careful how we proceed and participate. Im comfortable were where we need to be at this stage of the process. There are two bills on the subject of official time. Strom Thurmond (R, SC) has introduced one (S2383) last April to limit official time to 25% of the employees workweek. Dan Miller (R, FL) has introduced HR4904 to track union time. Well keep an eye on both. Wally Pike Following is an OASIS Update from National Representative Jeff Barnes. 06/26/02 - Last Friday I attended a briefing in Steve Brown's (ATS-1) office. The purpose was to brief him on where OASIS is and what is ahead for it so that he could make a decision regarding the In Service Decision (ISD) for OASIS. An ISD was required for the program to continue forward, and the ISD requested here was to keep the program going until the 25th site at which all the problems have to be fixed in OASIS and a final ISD will be made. The briefing was presented by the program office and the requirements team lead. They discussed each of the problems identified by the Independent Test And Evaluation (IOT&E) that was recently completed at AND AFSS and supplied action plans to resolve each of those problems. None of the problems identified in the IOT&E report were rated as high priority. There were some medium and the rest were low. Also, PASS had some issues which had been identified in the IOT&E with one addition. Again the program presented an action plan to address their additional issue and PASS accepted the plans to resolve all their issues. I was asked for NAATS position and said that we were pleased with where the OASIS is and where it's going. We are on track with the OASIS MOU we signed that allowed for the phased ISD and the program and Harris are working hard to make as many improvements and fix as many problems as they can for each software drop. Based on our position, the PASS position, and the information presented in the briefing Steve decided to approve the ISD. This means that the OASIS program has been approved to go forward to site 25 where we go through the ISD that will take us to all our AFSS's and FSS's. Everyone in NAATS who has been involved in OASIS has done an outstanding job to get us to this point, and I am sure will continue to do an outstanding job to see us to a full deployment of the system. Aside from the pay issues, if ever there was a reason to be in NAATS it would be to contribute to saving a system like OASIS, which was doomed to be Model One all over again until we were brought in and reformed it into a program that is responsive to the controller's needs, not headquarters or Harris's needs, and making the program understand that's a good thing. Having said the nice stuff it's time to get mean... The one issue in OASIS that keeps rearing its ugly head and creating problems that just aren't going away is the OASIS consoles. There are actually two requirements for equipment placement in the OASIS consoles. Number one is that all the equipment in the standard preflight console has to go to the left of the monitors. This is a no-brainer since there is no console to the right of the monitor bay. I was reminded of a second requirement, and that is that if you have the Litton ICSS the frequency selector panel has to go to the right side of the standard inflight console due to the depth of the unit. It physically cannot fit in the console to the left of the monitors on the standard inflight console. Beyond this there are no equipment placement requirements mandated in the OASIS consoles. Further, by the OASIS console MOU equipment placement (amongst other things) is to be negotiated at the local level. However, I have continued to hear that as little as three weeks ago ANI was still dictating equipment placement. This should not be happening anymore and it has made me furious to continue to hear about it long after I have gotten multiple promises from the program that it would stop. I have given the program notice that if this doesn't stop and if they don't develop a plan to retrofit those facilities who were mislead into undesirable equipment placement NAATS will take this issue higher in the Agency to ask for resolution and what rolls downhill onto the program from that is unlikely to smell or feel good. On the issue of the Denro ICSS... When the frequency selectors for the Denro ICSS are placed on the right side of the console there is a selector switch that blocks view of the indicator light, making it difficult to impossible to see which frequency a pilot is calling in on. For those facilities that had the panels to the right side in the Model One consoles the OASIS consoles seemed to be an improvement because the placement angled the panel 23 degrees toward the controller. It was indeed an improvement for these facilities, but because of the misrepresentations by ANI they didn't realize that those frequency selectors could have been installed on the left which would remove the obscurement problem entirely. This did not become apparent until they did the RAL AFSS (a Denro site) installation and told them that the frequencies would have to be on the right, creating a problem that had never existed because at RAL AFSS the frequencies had been on the left in the Model One consoles. I am insistant that a retrofit be offered to all Denro sites that have been installed to this point to give them a chance to move their frequency selectors to the other side of the console if they choose to. The program has acknowledged that this has potential safety implications, so I feel that on this at least they will commit to doing the retrofits. If you're wondering why I didn't bring up the consoles at the ISD briefing it's because the console program is a separate program from the OASIS even though they're funded from the same money. The ISD was to determine the suitability of going forward with OASIS and had nothing to do with the consoles, making it an inappropriate forum to address the console problems. If need be we can schedule a meeting with Steve Brown to try to get some resolution to the console issue, and I'm sure Wally will support that if we are forced to go there. Fraternally, Jeff Barnes /= !/0>?>? F"H"b"u]cV^]U]cc  !/0>? 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