Updates to FAA joint order 7210.3X, the agency’s operational guide to ATC facility management, take effect August 22.

Version three of the guide includes a new paragraph that requires facilities to develop procedures to ensure positive control during opposite-direction operations that will reduce the likelihood of aircraft being placed in close proximity in a head-on conflict with high closure rates. Another change addresses the complexity of the risk of operations on closed runways. In another update, the well used radio prefix “Lifeguard” is being replaced by the term “Medevac.”

“A broad set of solutions needs to be used to provide both redundancy and resilience,” says the FAA in the new document. “This change provides a general framework for those solutions, but the specifics are best developed at the local level, using a cross-section of operators to develop relevant, innovative and effective tools for a positive impact on safe operations.”

The guide’s audience includes not only employees of the agency’s air traffic organization (ATO), but essentially anyone affected by any of the manual’s directives.