Hi C Area! It’s been a while, there is a lot to go over so please bear with me….
Starting off with the fun news:
A Big ol’ CONGRATS to Scotty for certifying on all the D sides! Well done to him and everyone who helped him along in his success!
A Big ol’ CONGRATS to Robert for certifying on all the D sides! Well done to him and everyone involved in his success!
A Big ol’ CONGRATS to Logan for certifying on R47/48! To him and everyone who helped him achieve this goal - well done!
If you haven’t heard, Joe Lanzafame will be leaving us in March to move to Boston TRACON where he will learn to love chapters 4 & 5 of the .65. Congrats Joe!
On to the business side of things….
Map Numbers - I have been brought aware of the discrepancy between combining on 07 vs 11, it sounds like we’ve reviewed these numbers around November in the past so I will for sure bring it up when it’s time to review them again.
MWH - Our friends at MWH are desperately short staffed and are trying to push training through as best they can. Unfortunately, a sick hit can shut them down as we’ve seen on a couple of weekends. I brought this to management and airspace, both looked at me surprised when I told them this had been our experience 2 weekends in a row. I asked for some easily accessible reference when working their airspace, and the users have been advised that we don’t have the same capabilities that MWH does when they’re open. Boeing should be a little more understanding and flexible in the future, but if you hear of anyone giving you a hard time when we have their airspace, please let me know. MWH going Limited will be an ongoing issue until their staffing increases, unfortunately.
Feedback - Thank you to the folks who took the time to get back to me on the YKM shelf and GEG ideas. Your input on the GEG arrival and departure areas lined up with what Eric and I were thinking and are working on with airspace. The YKM shelf responses were 3 no’s and 2 yes’s. We don’t see a north flow that often, and with the lack of positive response, we will just continue on with what we’ve been doing for now with the A Area.
ZLC Point Outs - I know we had an issue with ZLC a couple weeks ago, and I’ve reached out to ZLC to ask about it. It sounds like it was an isolated incident which is good, but still not appropriate. The rep I spoke with talked to the controller and she was apologetic for the whole situation. I am in continued talks about the capping of climbing aircraft, and for now they are proposing putting BOI departures over OKINY to prevent additional coordination with the B Area. I will keep you posted as I hear more on this.
SKW departures off LWS - The crossing POTOR at 50 should be resolved. It went up to some higher ups at SKW and their FMS data should be updated soon (if not already) to prevent them from stopping their climb. Having said this, PLEASE let me know if you see this at all.
My favorite season - It is upon us! (It’s bidding season for those who don’t know) Stan is on the facility MOU team and while they are still negotiating everything on a facility level, I have taken feedback from those who have shared with me and Carly to work with her on a schedule to present to Stan. New fun news, Stan may no longer be the OM for the C Area, so this might all be happening with Adrian… I’m really not sure yet. Anyway - I received feedback on having some extra support until closer to 1am in the summer, more time between shifts in the turn around, and that the folks on the mid lines are happy with their schedules. Our goal is to keep the schedule pretty much the same as last year with a couple of exceptions:
Summer start times look a little different, in that the first shift for the mid lines would be a 1500-0100NF. Summer mid lines would be 1500 1400 RDO 2100 2100 RDO RDO. All the 10 hour shifts are still a NF, but if you come in early or request an earlier start time and management/CIC approves it, then great. They are not an automatic flex schedule.
Outside of summer, the mid lines would go back to 1400 1400 RDO 2100 2100 RDO RDO, again, all NF.
Summer schedules on the swing lines (4 swings 1 day) would be 1600 1500 1400 1400 0800. Outside of summer 1600 1500 1400 1300 0800.
The 2 swing 3 day lines would be 1500 1300 0800 0700 0600
Day shift lines 0800 0800 0700 0700 0600
Every set of days off will look the same: 1 all day line, 2 2-swing 3-day lines, 1 4-swing 1 day line, 1 10-hr mid line
We are planning on bidding 35, this includes bidding Jun, Jeydi and Miguel as CPCs. We have a plan in place for Chris Johnson who is hanging up his headset at the end of April, and are coming up with options for Joe leaving in March. Based on the increase in traffic this summer and in general, I will be proposing a raise in summer guides as well. If you have any questions on this, please let me or Carly know. I will present a copy to the area as soon as we have something agreed upon in place.
NATCA Calendar - If you would like a NATCA calendar, please go to your mynatca login and under your profile there is a selection tab for a calendar. If you would like one, put it to yes and one will be delivered in the mail to you. I did this last year, worked great and all the photos of the facilities are fun to see!
ZLC SOP - Last I heard, we are waiting on TMU at ZLC and ZSE to agree on a few things before the final draft is signed. We are looking at cleaning up a lot of the language and simplifying things, hopefully this gets finalized soon!
Article 5 - We are in need of a volunteer for Jesus (D Sides) in the Dysim 12/1 -1/23. Our next opportunity to volunteer will be for Scotty & Robert for R Sides, approx 2/5-3/20. Please let me, JJ or your supervisor know if you’re interested in either of these.
New SOP - The start date for the new SOP procedures is tomorrow, 9/4.
I know this summer has been busy and there has been a lot of overtime and training happening. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication, it is not going unnoticed. Please know I’m here and available to help out however I can.
In Solidarity,
Crumbley
360-635-8244