The FAA’s Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) System is responsible for providing bearing precision to an aircraft. It is a single integrated system that performs bearing and distance determination instantly. So, when TACAN service was lost from a remote island in Alaska, the need became urgent.
This type of navigation service is in high demand by both the Department of Defense and FAA customers. Ron Phelps, an Airway Transportation System Specialist (ATSS) Technician from Sitka Alaska exhausted all of his troubleshooting capabilities trying to resolve this major outage.
Due to his prior training and professional relationships that he developed with FAA Academy personnel - and knowing their willingness to assist, Ron reached out to the Academy experts for assistance. Shane Sellers and William Smith, two Electronics Technicians assigned to the Navigation shop at the Academy jumped into action to assist Ron in troubleshooting his TACAN problem. Shane and Will immediately started to run through testing procedures and checkouts with Ron over the phone so they could get a better understanding of the problem. Shane and Will came to the conclusion that this was not a typical technical problem.
They began leveraging an Academy system to assist them with the complexity of the issue. The team used the working Academy system to create troubleshooting procedures for Ron to follow while investigating the failed system in Alaska. Shane and Will’s system expertise, creativity, and can-do attitude enabled them to troubleshoot a complex problem from approximately 2,300 miles away. The National Airspace System’s Technical Services Division (AMA-900) technicians validated that Ron’s wiring harness and other system components were working properly.
The team was able to identify two bad components within the system, also noting that Ron had received a defective replacement part as well. Given that the system actually had 3 bad components in total, and the extreme remoteness of the location of the system, it was conceivable that the TACAN service that the FAA provides to its customers could have potentially been down for weeks while waiting for repairs.
Thanks to Shane and Will’s swift and diligent assistance, Ron was able to order the three components and return the system to normal operating conditions within hours instead of weeks. The remoteness of the location requires FAA field technicians to rent a boat every time they travel back and forth to this distant island. Because of Shane and Will’s proficiency at handling this technical circumstance, together they saved the agency tens of thousands of dollars while avoiding hundreds-of-hours-worth of service outage.
Once the TACAN system was completely restored, Ron called to personally thank the AMA-900 technicians for their collaboration and outstanding customer service. Ron has since called the technicians again regarding two additional unrelated issues. Once again, Shane and Will were able to assist Ron with a few techniques and procedures to try, while troubleshooting his system. After taking advantage of their system expertise, Ron called back and thanked the team again to let them know their assistance helped in resolving his issues and allowed him to return the system to normal operation.
