ERAM Update
Posted by Paul Cox on January 27th, 2010
ERAM is still all screwed up.
I suppose that’s not really news to people in the FAA, but some of you might not have heard about it.
I’d like to point out once again that several months ago, the FAA’s propaganda machine bragged about ERAM and how great it was and how it was about to go into regular use in the field facilities. They said, in March 2009, that by April 2009 ERAM would be in regular use controlling traffic in Salt Lake City Center and Seattle Center, and then rolled out to the rest of the nation’s enroute centers.
The recently-retired Jerry Lavey talked about this in his column back at the time, saying…
The article also notes that “the $2 billion ERAM effort is on schedule and within budget — something of a rarity for a major FAA modernization project.” (Emphasis mine) I must take issue with that last part. It is indeed a rarity when compared to major acquisition programs in the past, but recently all of our major acquisition programs have been on schedule and on budget, including ERAM, as the article notes.
The reality of the FAA is that Jerry was lying. The FAA has been lying for years about major acquisition programs. The FAA has been making it LOOK like programs were “on schedule and on budget” by simply moving the goalposts and “re-baselining” programs, extending the (new) deadlines out into the future and redoing the budget figures, whenever a program slipped.
I spent some time talking the other day with a guy who’s quite involved with the ERAM project here at ZSE. He has told me in the past of the problems with the program; his opinion is that right now, the best thing to do would be to more or less junk it completely and start over. There might be a few things useful enough in the remnants of what we have that we could work with it a bit, but mostly it needs so much re-writing that it’s probably easier and better to start from scratch.
When an acquisition project like this gets into trouble, especially a super-huge-deal-backbone-of-the-system type of project like ERAM is, things become a huge political deal. I’ve heard that the Program Office for ERAM is in desperation mode; they know that they look like crap because the thing doesn’t work right.
I’m hearing that Salt Lake Center (ZLC) is supposed to take another crack at going 24/7 with ERAM soon. People involved in the program have a betting pool on how long it will run before errors and problems force them to fall back to the present system, with most of the guesses being that it’ll last over a day or two (they’re starting it on a weekend to lessen the strain on the system) and then by midday Monday, even though the test calls for it to be up and running, they’ll have to fall back.
I’m hearing that there’s probably memory leaks in the program- remember how every so often you had to shut down your computer and restart it when you had Windows 95 or 98 on it, because it got slow and buggy from memory issues? Same deal, only with the air traffic control computer. Niiiiice.
Finally, I’ve heard that the Program Office is now dictating to Seattle Center and Minneapolis Center that they cannot run any tests or do anything that might put any strain on Salt Lake’s test (Seattle and Minneapolis Centers’ airspaces are adjacent to Salt Lake Center’s). Even though, in theory, ERAM is supposed to run just fine with other centers also running ERAM (after all, in the end, everyone’s going to be on it) the reality is that they’re afraid it’ll break and they want everything possible to make it look like the test is going okay.
So let’s review. The program that was supposedly about to go live last spring is still in test mode. People intimately involved say it still isn’t trustworthy. The political animals are out and they’re scamming tests to make it look like it works when the reality is that it doesn’t.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Please let me know when they are going to throw the switch and go live in St. Louis, so I can make sure I’m not flying that day. I’ll take the train or drive instead.
thanks!
January 27th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Please let me know when they are going to throw the switch and go live in Salt Lake, so I can make sure I’m not flying that day. I’ll take the train or drive instead.
January 28th, 2010 at 4:59 am
“On time and on budget” hahahha. That’s an FAA classic.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:07 am
ERAM the ISSS of the 21th century.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Sounds like the FS21 system Lockheed uses for Flight Service. When they had to demonstrate that the system worked for the FAA they carefully scripted the test and allowed no deviation. When the FAA wanted to try something that wasn’t in the test they refused. Naturally, the system passed, and naturally it immediately failed when they turned it on in the real world. Going on three years and it still doesn’t work.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
ERAM goes live this weekend at ZLC, there are suppose to be several four hour test Saturday AM and then go live and stay up Sunday. The current plan is to run on ERAM for a week, and then fall back. Why a week I have no idea. This isn’t rumor but lets say from first hand knowledge after a briefing. Not being a controller but a DSS type if ERAM physically stays up, that is doesn’t lock up but is presenting the controllers with nightmares can they demand to fall back? Who’s decision is it? From what I understand it is now the facilities management performance goal ($$) so there is a incentive local to ZLC that they stay up. If the controllers are able to get the system to limp along with problems that increases their workload what are the EnRoute controllers options, call in sick? There is huge pressure from upper management that ERAM will stay up at ZLC starting Sunday who is brave enough or unlucky enough to make the fall decision if needed?
Liked it or not, ready or not, ERAM goes live Sunday!
January 29th, 2010 at 8:44 am
If it causes safety concerns, the old host will be turned back on. Safety is our number one concern. Plus controllers can fill out an ATSAP if necessary, that is a joint process for review.
January 29th, 2010 at 9:27 am
ERAM’s at ZHU was scheduled fot Mar. 3, 2010. There is no way ZHU will be pushed back, becauses it’s squeezed between ADSB (Dec, 2009) and HAATS (June, 2010). A few months ago, ERAM’s was pushed back to May 2010. Yesterday, we were informed it’s now pushed back to Oct. 2010.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I’m thinking of re-baselining my shift times. This way, whenever I show up, I’ll be on time.
January 29th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
ERAM will be like AAS (Advanced Automation System),the replacement Center computer system before HOST. When it was cancelled in 1994, the $2.6 Billion dollar system had already spent $1.5 Billion, and all we got out of it was DSR. FAA, The more things change, The more they stay the same!
January 29th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
DSR certainly has its merits…just not 1.5 billion merits, however.
Too bad about ERAM having to keep backing up like this. It just goes to show how American ingenuity ain’t what it used to be. I find that rather sad.
January 30th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Just checked my W 2 for 2009.
I got E rammed and re-baselined too thanks to the IWRs. 2010 will be a better year though.
Most of theses projects are contracted out to companies loaded with former FAA managers and career appointees. It’s not about safety or efficiency ultimately, it’s about their bottom line.
And Snakey sits at AIA, whoring for more and more dollars for these same companies.
January 30th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
[...] the FAA keeps saying the ERAM project is on time and on budget, when it clearly isn’t, it’s pretty clear they’re willing to make bald-faced lies [...]
January 31st, 2010 at 1:52 pm
So,with the system being such a total failure,why is NATCA getting involved with it? Shouldn’t we just sit back and watch it fail? NATCA is pulling out all the SMEs we in automation have worked with for the last year and replacing them with untrained,”loyal” members. If the project is such a disaster, STAY AWAY !
January 31st, 2010 at 2:13 pm
So, is there an update from ZLC about what happened during the test?
January 31st, 2010 at 4:30 pm
A buddy on mine posted on Facebook that it has been running since 4am on Saturday. That’s roughly 37 hours ago. I have scanned the news to see if there have been numerous aircraft collisions,but none I have seen so far. But the software running doesn’t make for good soundbites,does it?
January 31st, 2010 at 6:24 pm
so far…so good.
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:55 am
Please watch PBS Frontline February 9th 2010 Check your local listings
http://faawhistleblower.wordpress.com/
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Now that sounds like an FAA manager (or a Lockheed Martin guy)…
Controllers just saw a video called “Heads Up Safety” with this very attitude. The FAA seems to only be concerned about safety if someone dies and/or it hits the headlines.
Using the same logic, apparently if you drive your car drunk out of your mind and make it home without crashing or killing anyone, that means safety was never compromised, right?
Yep, that’s the FAA “safety culture”…
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Where are the press releases? How is the public going to know the sky is falling if we don’t put it in the press every day?
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:09 pm
ZLC has been running on ERAM full time since Saturday January 30th starting at 4 am local. There have been no game changing issues. I believe the original plan was to run for 8-days and cut back to Host for the Olympics. That has now changed to unless some unknown issue arises ERAM will remain up at ZLC. ZLC has weathered the Monday, Tuesday rush.
ZSE will quickly follow, they are documenting problems they see with ERAM especially with FP’s but the controllers are doing a yeoman’s job (as always) and working around them. One would expect some announcements once FAA management emerges from their bunkers where they were hiding in the event something went wrong. Reminding everyone of what a great job “they” did.
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:37 pm
You’ve certainly bought into the mentality of the FAA “safety culture”, Bill.
Everything’s fine as long as no one is getting killed. Never mind the level of risk of the operation.
The FAA is a “safety culture” that it willing to beta test its software systems on the flying public.
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:02 am
Bill says:
“NATCA is pulling out all the SMEs we in automation have worked with for the last year and replacing them with untrained,”loyal” members”
Is that so ? Name some names then. Which SMEs got replaced, and who replaced them? And at which facilities, to include your facility ID or work place please ? You’ve made three posts starting with #14 Bill, which is a dubious claim in my view. Lets have some proof. Either put up or shut up.
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Bill,
Do you work at ZMP? If so, let’s engage. I happen to know just a tad about the facility and the ERAM project history from the Union’s perspective.
Craig Boehne
FacRep
ZMP
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I work at ZFW in the automation department. We have 2 people who have been active in the Dysim scenarios and building the training problems. Those people are in the process of being replaced(as told to me by the NATCA rep). I will not put their names in here,as I don’t have their permission to do so.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that we(NATCA) threw around the press releases (while the controllers didn’t have a contract) like they are going out of style. Now, everything is ok?
As far as beta testing goes, you can’t expect to replace something like HOST with 25 plus years of development behind it. The initial product is going to be rocky and buggy. I get it. I’m tired of hearing the safety card thrown on every situation while you guys are unhappy,then never again while you are.
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Bill,
I can assure you that if ZMP management pushes forward in the speed and haste that they have been accustomed to and something “bad” happens, I will use every vehicle in my possession to publicly expose negligence and recklessness. All is in place and prayer is appears to be ERAM’s strongest ally at this point.
I guarantee it.
Craig
February 4th, 2010 at 6:41 am
“I guess the point I’m trying to make is that we(NATCA) threw around the press releases (while the controllers didn’t have a contract) like they are going out of style. Now, everything is ok?”
I saw my Facrep on local TV last week pointing out the lack of CPCs at my facility. And NATCA has made a number of press releases in the last 12 months concerning staffing and tech projects. So I’m not sure you have a leg to stand on if you’re saying NATCA has a contract, that everything is OK now, and has stopped blowing the safety whistle.
It’s going to take time to fix the mess Snakey-Stoogel left at FAA. Comes as no surprise to me, a government wrecking, get rich with AIA/contractors after government service, union busting Republican administration has been replaced.
Of course you do have that lovely table and oil painting hanging in the lobby at ZFW. And thanks for rehashing Snakey’s safety card/unhappy/contract rhetoric. I really needed to hear that again after threee years of geting screwed on base pay, CIP and CIC. But you wouldn’t know about that would you. Automation was a different bargaining unit.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:45 am
So you’re conceding that we are indeed beta testing software on the flying public with “rocky and buggy” software.
“Software beta tester” isn’t not in my job description; separation of airplanes is. So yeah, I’m unhappy that I’m going to have to try to do my job with faulty/unreliable equipment.
But then I guess it’s not that big a deal to you, because you don’t have a front row seat to the mess, like controllers do.
When ERAM doesn’t work right on live traffic who do you think has to deal with that? What are the consequences of a serious ERAM fault to you?
You think it’s a “safety card” and I think it’s just safety. The flying public is being put at risk with ERAM, and you even admit it, but apparently think it’s no big deal nonetheless.
That’s because you, like a lot of people in the FAA, get the luxury of being insulated from the reality of what controllers have to do every day. The only people truly tasked with and concerned with safety are the controllers on the front lines; they’re the ones getting interviewed and making statements when things go wrong.
Just out of curiosity, Bill, when’s the last time you had to fill out an FAA accident report? When’s the last time you filled out a safety report?
Oh, that’s right – that would never happen because in your job there really are no safety problem, accidents and/or fatalities; that’s someone else’s reality.
We are pulling out the safety card – because it’s about safety. It’s not something controllers take lightly, like you and the rest of the FAA who would rather easily dismiss our concerns with statements like that.
This is a horrible testing regimen regardless, and ERAM should have undergone more testing and made a lot more stable, reliable and bug-free before being dumped on controllers to be used on real air traffic.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Opposing view: FAA puts safety first
http://faawhistleblower.wordpress.com/
February 4th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
The only thing correct embedded within Randy Babbitt’s piece of fiction entitled “FAA Puts Safety First”, is his admission-against-interest that FAA fines are never barometric readings of aero-hazard. The fact of the matter is, the American flying public will continue to be at substantial risk of bodily injury and death for as long as Randy Babbitt, Hank Krakowski, Steven Ray Kelley, and the other ignominious FAA hangover-hacks still fester at 800 Independence.
FAA “assesses” fines for political-cover purposes, usually right before FAA itself gets slammed on a safety issue by someone or something else (like a newspaper such as USA Today, or the I.G.). We all know that already, and Randy Babbitt is a stooge to pretend otherwise. Proof-positive of this dynamic is the fact that FAA’s purposefully-lax after-occurring “collection efforts” on these “fines”, at best lead but to a trickle of pennies on the dollar a few years later.
But as for Randy Babbitt having the unmitigated gall to say “FAA Puts Safety First”? Well, the fact of the matter is that Randy Babbitt is a political hack and an unmitigated liar who himself has trouble stringing two sentences together. You can bet Huerta, Grizzle or Whitlow – that is, one of the Ivy League guys – ghost-wrote that mendacious monstrosity piece of textual blue-ice for the Randy-Man. Of course, they’ll never own up to it. Because even though their respective academic and educational accomplishments far outstrip the college drop-out FAA Administrator, they are still, and each of them, as cowardly and as morally-bereft as J. Randolph Babbitt himself. Like on like. Welcome to the Tombstone Agency 2010.
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Quiet Rockland
February 4th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
We never should have brought these clowns into the CONTROLLER union. Our interests are not the same. It was a mistake then, it is a mistake now. And yes, I screamed it back then too.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
So far…So good…So far.
February 4th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Hey Bill, When the National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN) went down several weeks ago how many non-controller ERAM tech guys do you think ran into the data positions and started entering flight plans? I doubt very many. The difference between the controller job and those sitting at a desk behind a desktop computer is controllers can’t push back, go get a drink in the cafeteria and ponder what their next function would be. The planes keep coming and when a system dumps be it the NADIN, ERAM, HOST or the old IBM 9020 the controllers are always the ones typing in flight plans and separating planes.
Now I hope ERAM comes on line soon it has many great features and will be needed for future automation but the FAA needs to be sure the system is ready before they unleash it on the flying public and not so the sheetcake crowd can slap themselves on the back and claim “on time and under budget”.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
johnw…it was a bad idea to bring those pesky support specialists into the union too! we don’t need no stinking help to make our case! kick them all out!
February 6th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Junior…Anything wrong with ERAM yet?
How’s that airspace issue going for you?
Seems like it’s a done deal. Got anything else up your sleeve that will reverse the decision?
February 7th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Check it out – Beavis and Butthead are checking in from OKC again.
February 7th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Country joe, Babble froze the airspace change last year when NATCA forced him to. The southern dispersal headings were used twice in 6 months. And one lead redesign figure is about to go Gary Glitter. Country joe should have some fish cause it’s brain food and lord knows you need some.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Country Joe:
Please remember that Sturgell (and many of his directs) also thought the Redesign was a “Done Deal”.
We have more tricks than you can think of.
Thank you to all the ATCs out there that helped show the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign for the failure and waste of money that it really is.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
The redesign of the airspace is a common sense approach to the procedures currently in use. Both safety and expediency will be improved. There are always NIMBYs that oppose any change to the current procedure, but they will usually be identified for what they are: a vocal minority.
As for your Beavis and Butthead joke about OKC junior, come on down and I’ll introduce you to my Beavis, you Butthead!
February 9th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Somehow you don’t seem to be inspiring any fear in him or any of us country joe, but don’t take it hard. When I was last at your okie house it was your wife that smelled like fish, not you as much.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Glad to see we’re keeping things nice and mature here…
February 11th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Might be time to move on.
February 11th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
How ’bout them Saints!
February 15th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Hagman..you must of been smelling your own hand because I’m not married!
February 15th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
CountryJoe
Why? Don’t they allow same sex marriages in your state?
February 16th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Not yet Buckaroo!
February 17th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Has the Follies jumped the shark ?
February 19th, 2010 at 12:35 am
I came in to run an ERAM test on the midshift, and while it went pretty well, it was disturbing that the test flight plans kept changing the font size on the full route requests we did. My concern is that this was completely unexpected and so if this is going to be the backbone of the ATC automation system, what else is out there waiting to bite us? Just an observation…..
February 19th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Where’s the beef?
February 20th, 2010 at 2:02 am
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
February 24th, 2010 at 2:03 am
ZLC any updates about your unsafe system?
Did bonus checks clear in time?
SAFETY CULTURE TOO FUNNY
March 1st, 2010 at 12:11 pm
As of Feb 24th, ATCFreqs has an update on ZLC ERAM.
March 5th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Just another fine piece of LockMart equipment. How’s LM FSS working out?