RTCA January 2022 Digest

2022 Priorities with President and CEO Terry McVenes

In this short video, President and CEO Terry McVenes shares RTCA’s 2022 initiatives on supporting new and emerging trends in aerospace and working collaboratively with the industry to promote global harmonization of performance standards.

Full Video

Options for FRAC Resolution

RTCA has a rigorous process for committees to follow in order to enter and exit Final Review and Comment (FRAC). Details are available in our Special Committee Guidance document, which the Program Directors at RTCA review and refresh annually.

Some committees have asked: What happens if things don’t go as planned? RTCA is committed to following a transparent review process that allows all RTCA members as well as members of the public to provide comments and receive answers to those questions. Not all comments will be implemented in the document to be published, but all comments will be addressed by the committee. Options include (but are not limited to):

The commentor withdraws the comment. 2.
The commentor and the committee come to a compromise which resolves the comment.
The comment is rejected or deferred to a future release with documentation with the reason for this action.
The comment leads to a change in scope to be discussed with the Program Management Committee.

RTCA expects that all committee members work to find a compromise so all opinions can be heard and addressed. Our Committee Chairs are the best in the industry at bringing our review process to conclusion and publishing timely, comprehensive, consensus standards.

Upcoming Plenaries for RTCA Special Committees

Unless specifically stated below, all meetings are virtual. Please contact the Special Committee Program Director for details on attending in person or via Webex.

Jan 11-13- SC-230, Airborne Weather Detection Systems, will meet in plenary to continue work on including requirements for detection of high-altitude ice water conditions in DO-220A.

Jan 11 – SC-223 (w/EUROCAE WG-82), Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) and AeroMACS, will meet in joint plenary with EUROCAE WG-82 and approve sending ED-223A/DO-346A to the EUROCAE Council and RTCA PMC for publication in March 2022.

Jan 14 – SC-186, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), will meet in virtual plenary session to review and open DO-282C, “Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B)” for Final Review and Comment (FRAC).

Jan 18 – SC-235, Non-Rechargeable Lithium Batteries, will meet in plenary to continue proposed changes to DO-227A.

Jan 18 – SC-217, Aeronautical Databases, will meet in joint plenary with EUROCAE WG-44 to consider a motion to initiate Open Consultation/Final Review and Comment on the new document, Considerations for Data Alteration. The group still has internal comments to review and disposition prior to starting the OC/FRAC process for public comment. The group plans to present the document to the PMC for publication in June 2022.

Jan 18-21 – SC-223 (w/ EUROCAE WG-108), Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) and AeroMACS, will meet in joint plenary with EUORCAE WG-108 to continue work on the new IPS MASPS. The group is also reviewing suggested updates to the profiles document, DO-379/ED-262, that have been identified since the initial publication in 2019.

Jan 27 – SC-228, MOPS for Unmanned Systems, will meet in-person and via webex in a hybrid plenary session to review the activities of the committee work groups and hear presentations on the current state of activities in EUROCAE WG-105 and the SC-147 ACAS Xr (Rotorcraft) efforts. The in-person meeting will be subject to current government guidelines for group meetings and may be converted into a pure virtual meeting if necessary.

Jan 31-Feb 4 – SC-239 (w/EUROCAE WG-119), Low Range Radar Altimeters, will meet in plenary to continue work on revision of DO-155A and ED-30A to make them technically equivalent and potential ToR(s) revisions.

Agendas for all Plenary meetings of RTCA Special Committees can be accessed by visiting: https://www.rtca.org/committees-overview/upcoming-committee-meetings/