memorandum

**TO:** Data Integration Meeting Participants

**FROM:** Mike Wambsganss

**SUBJECT:** 3 August 1999 Data Integration Meeting, Dallas, Texas

**DATE:** 18 August 1999

**Attendee List**

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  **Name**          **Organization**   **Telephone**   **E-mail**
  ----------------- ------------------ --------------- --------------------------------
  Alvania, Stephen  FAA/FFP1/CDM       \(202\)         stephen.alvania@faa.gov
                                       220--3440       

  Baker, Mike       SWA                \(214\)         michael_s_baker@yahoo.com
                                       792--6395       

  Benfield, Don     UPS                \(502\)         air1dcb@air.ups.com
                                       359--8773       

  Brennan, Mike     Metron             \(703\)         brennan@metsci.com
                                       787--8700       

  Brinton, Chris    Metron             \(703\)         brinton@metsci.com
                                       787--8700       

  Carr, Greg        NASA/Ames          \(650\)         gcarr@mail.arc.nasa.gov
                                       604--2545       

  Kollmann, Kevin   Metron, Inc.       \(724\)         kkollman@metsci.com
                                       857--3466       

  Kurzweil, Len     Volpe              \(617\)         kurzweil@volpe.dot.gov
                                       494--2238       

  Nadon, Mike       TWA                \(314\)         mjnadon@twa.com
                                       551--1672       

  Oiesen, Rick      Volpe              \(617\)         oiesen@volpe.dot.gov
                                       494--2309       

  Rose, Terri       ORNL               \(423\)         roseta@ornl.gov
                                       574--5223       

  Sandusky, Loraine COA                \(713\)         lsandu@coair.com
                                       324--7276       

  Terral, Forrest   ATCSCC             \(703\)         forrest.terral@faa.gov
                                       925--3115       

  Wambsganss, Mike  Metron             \(703\)         wambsgan@metsci.com
                                       787--8700       

  Wright, Richard   Volpe              \(617\)         wright@volpe.dot.gov
                                       494--2454       

  Zelenka, Rick     NASA/Ames          \(650\)         rzelenka@mail.arc.nasa.gov
                                       604--5433       

  Oneill, Tom       AAL                \(817\)         
                                       967--7100       

  Bertapelle, Joe   AAL                \(817\)         joe.bertapelle@amrcorp.com
                                       967--7100       

  Gamblin, Berry    Dimensions         \(703\)         <bgamblin@dimen-intl.com>
                    International      998--0098       

  Martin, Ron       ARINC              \(410\)         rmartin@arinc.com
                                       266--4443       

  Hermes, Mike      Mitre/CAASD        \(703\)         mhermes@mitre.org
                                       883--7532       

  Schmitz, Tim      Sabre              \(817\)         <tim.schmitz@sabre.com>
                                       963--5669       

  Poarch, Sue       Sabre              \(817\)         <sue.poarch@sabre.com>
                                       967--8365       

  Cistone, Jim      Lockheed Martin    \(610\)         jim.cistone@lmco.com
                                       354--5455       

  Peters, Rick      SWA                \(214\)         rick.peters@wnco.com
                                       792--6282       

  Lemons, Brent     SWA                \(214\)         brent.lemons@wnco.com
                                       792--4434       

  Rimmer, Larry     Delta Technology   \(404\)         larry.rimmer@delta-air.com
                                       773--9137       

  Stamps, Tom       Delta              \(404\)         tom.stamps@delta-air.com
                                       715--7390       

  White, George     FAA/FFP1/NASSI     \(202\)         george.g.white@faa.gov
                                       220--3366       

  Berry, Lee        ORNL               \(423\)         berryla@ornl.gov
                                       574--0998       

  Beatty, Roger     AAL                \(817\)         r_beatty@compuserve.com
                                       931--0151       

  Leber, William    NWA                \(612\)         william.leber@nwa.com
                                       727--0293       

  Anderson, Teresa  ARINC              \(410\)         taa@arinc.com
                                       266--4202       

  Stehnach, Chris   Sabre/USAir        \(412\)         christopher.stehnach@sabre.com
                                       747--5910       

  Hanes, Larry      JIL/FFP1/SMA       \(202\)         lhanes@jil.com
                                       220--3401       

  Lehky, Miro       ATA                \(202\)         mlehky@air-transport.org
                                       626--4010       
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rick Zelenka (NASA-Ames) and Tom Stamps (Delta Airlines) started the
meeting with a quick re-cap of the charter of the DI subgroup. The
overall purpose of the DI sub-group is to investigate, align and
consolidate information from various---sometimes redundant---data
sources, and move toward a uniform data stream for placement on the
CDMnet.

This being the first official kick-off meeting of the DI group, the
meeting consisted of several informative briefings on data sources,
systems and data elements. The detailed briefs are posted on the CDM web
site. These minutes capture the highlights of each briefing and any
associated action items.

1\. Bill Leber, Northwest Airlines, provided a briefing on the use of
the SMA/ARTS display tool at DTW. The tool is used at the AOC, not in
the ramp tower. It provides an accurate ETA, and the graphics can be
used to make inferences regarding airborne holding and runway
assignments, capabilities critical to an effective airport configuration
tool. Unfortunately, staffing is required to continuously monitor the
tool as no alert messages are provided.

2\. Rick Zelenka, NASA/Ames, provided a briefing on the CTAS
collaborative arrival planning (CAP) tool. The first two components of
CTAS being fielded as part of FFP1 are TMA, which operates on center
wide airspace, and Pfast, which operates in TRACON airspace. CAP
contains collaborative components, such as information exchange with the
users, and will assist in the optimization of ground operations during
hub turn-around. CAP provides a significant improvement in arrival time
predictions leading to fewer diversions and overall assistance to
airline strategic operations.

3\. Bill Leber, Northwest Airlines, provided a briefing on the Oakland
track advisory. Initiated in the late '80's to early 90's, the Oakland
Track Advisory can be viewed as one of the first successful applications
of collaborative decision making. Unlike CDM the program, there are
significant penalties for non-participation in the Oakland track
advisory process.

4\. Dick Wright, Volpe Transportation Center, provided an informative
brief on the history of ASDI and some planned next steps for ETMs. ASD
was developed in the mid '80's, made available to industry in 1990 and
recently, ASDI became operational using CDMnet technology. Future plans
include the incorporation of new data sources, more TRACON radar data
points, CTAS data and international traffic updates.

5\. Mike Nadon, TWA, provided a briefing on the so-called New Age flight
plan. The intent of the new age flight plan is to communicate
information critical to the operation of a flight, such as landing
weights, LAHSO restrictions, step climbs en-route or which runways can
be used for takeoff and landing. There are many issues to be resolved,
and the airlines, for example, would be hesitant to send in additional
information without having a clear understanding of how the FAA will use
such information. There are also clear implications to the Host
computers, which presently could not process additional information.

6\. Bill Vaughn, Continental Airlines, provided a briefing on using FMS
to shoot and RTA (required time of arrival). Experiments have been
conducted for late night flights irrespective of the en-route structure,
and with considerable success. There is a definite difference in the FMC
capabilities that are presently available; some boxes will modify speed
in cruise, while others will modify only at climb and descent. An
interesting side note, some pilots can actually hit an RTA fairly
closely without an FMC, but pilots are not really challenged to do that.
A real challenge in the future is to ensure that we avoid having a
system that favors those with an RTA-capable FMC, but rather a system
that accommodates all users.

7\. Roger Beatty, American Airlines, provided a fascinating briefing on
airline event times and calculations. Each flight event can be
scheduled, planned or actual. In some cases the user has a richer set of
event information than the provider. On the other hand, ATC sometimes
has event information that the airlines know nothing about. Control of
events can be owned, transferred or shared. When conditions change that
result in modifications to a planned event, the critical conditions to
be known include: 1) What category of new information changed the plan
and what is its confidence level? 2) Who is the owner of the new planned
element? 3) Are there conflicts in control of the event and can they be
resolved or identified? Roger called for a more consistent richer
standard regarding the event times and their use.

8\. Kevin Kollmann, Metron, provided a briefing on some current AATT
sponsored research on relationships between CDM and CTAS CAP. CAP
requires the infusion of airline priorities and there may be simple
mechanisms for establishing these priorities. For example, most airlines
operate their schedules using some type of delay threshold. If a flight
is less than 15 minutes late it is on-time, if it's over 15 minutes late
the bags do not connect, and over 30 minutes late the passengers do not
connect, etc. It may be possible to input priorities into CAP through
development of a tool that could make explicit use of delay thresholds
and provide airlines the flexibility to make tradeoffs between flights
that exceed various thresholds.

9\. Mike Wambsganss, Metron, provided a briefing on some analysis
performed to examine the usefulness of the SMA/ARTS tool with a
reduction in the update rate or the accuracy of the information, or
both. General findings suggest that there is no major impact on the
tool's ETA prediction. This might suggest some possible integration
between the algorithms developed for the SMA/ARTS tool and ASDI data.
However, there is a significant loss of other functions that are useful
to the airlines, such as the ability to detect when a flight is in
airborne holding, or to which runway a flight is assigned.

10\. **Other Discussion Items**:

> Miro Lehky, ATA, discussed weather services, and a bill that has moved
> beyond the House to the Senate that would prohibit the national
> weather service---or any other government entity---from providing
> weather products if a commercial entity does the same. There could be
> serious implications to many recipients of weather products developed
> by the National Weather Service and other government entities.
>
> Mike Hermes, MITRE CAASD, spoke about some NAS data standards that are
> being addressed by the data standards collaborative working group. An
> attempt is presently underway to develop standards for positional
> information. More information can be found at
> [http://callisto.cisims.tc.faa.gov](http://callisto.cisims.tc.faa.gov/).

**Action Items:**

1\. Focus Group: A focus group is to be formed that will attempt to
align the time of arrival from various systems for the most efficient
operational use. The focus group will present a plan and status at the
next CDM meeting: Initial members are Steve Alvania (FAA), Berry Gamblin
(DI), Rick Oiesen (Volpe), Terry Thompson (Metron), Roger Beatty
(American Airlines) and Jim Barry (Megadata).

2\. An action was assigned to Mike Baker and Jim Wetherly to examine the
need for the re-establishment of the NAS status subgroup that will track
the status of NAS status data elements. This action came out of a
discussion on the charter of the DI with some members expressing concern
that the DI group was not focusing on the distribution of NAS Status
information. It became clear that there is no present CDM subgroup whose
principle purpose is to ensure timely and efficient distribution of NAS
status data, along with the attendant training and procedural
development.