Hi everyone,
It's been a little longer than normal for getting an update sent out to you but I wanted to get a few issues taken care of so that everyone has an idea of what's been going on recently.
First off, I'm working with management right now on getting a line ready to bid when Samson is projected to get checked out. There is a lot that goes into figuring out what is best for the area when coming up with the best scheduled line. I believe that April is going to be coming back around the start of June time frame so that will definitely help through the summer months. As soon as we agree on something, we will get it posted as soon as we can.
With the staffing numbers as thin as they are, I want to thank those of you who work on my crew and on both sides of my crew while I have had to deal with quite a few issues with management. Not having me on the floor at times to spell some breaks can be frustrating and I appreciate all of your hard work during those times.
With annual leave becoming an issue, please know that I'm working as hard as I can to try and get everyone as much non-prime time leave as I can. We are stretched real thin but I will continue to look at each pay period when leave has not been approved and try to work with management as best I can.
Lawson and I decided to put together a letter between the two of us as to what took place when myself along with Erich, Andy, John, and Annika went down to meet with the HIO Aero Academy down at Troutdale and then over to P80 to work on the UAO Tower issues. I will paste the letter below and you may also see a copy or two floating around in the area. I know there have been a ton of questions as to what went on, so hopefully the letter will help with that.
We also met with Steve Fore to work on a training plan for the area in regards to Stage 3 and Stage 4 classes. We have overtime available that I worked out but let me tell you, it is like pulling teeth in this facility. Again, I will do my best to work with management to help the floor out but please realize that when it seems that we are short and overtime is not used, help each other out by cutting back a few minutes on your breaks. We are all in this together.
Here is what John and I put together:
B-Area news FYI
Training meeting with Steve Fore on 3/30/15
Rick Lund and John Lawson have been agonizing over B-Area staffing this fall and next year for several weeks, leading us to meet with Steve Fore regarding future B-Area staffing concerns heading into 2016. With the known losses of Raelyn Witmer, April Eash and the unexpected loss of Joe DeRosa, combined with 1-2 strong possibilities for retirement after the 1st of 2016. We are looking at bidding hopefully 31 lines but maybe just 30 lines next year, including Samson Chastain and Danielle Eliel.
For the B-Area, the Training department had planned two upcoming Stage 3 classes in spring, one starting Apr. 27th and one starting Jun. 15th, with stage 4 classes slated for July 13th and Sept. 8th.
John and Rick requested consideration for an early Stage 4 class to get a couple R-side students to the floor to train this summer (the best time to train on 5 & 6), hoping, with some success (2-4 position certs) they would occasionally be able to supplement staffing this fall and at the turn of the year. This required extensive flexibility by the training department and the B-area, but Steve agreed and we have a stage 4 radar class slated to start Apr. 13th for Evan Gwinn and Jonathon Bradshaw rather than July 13th. RJ and possibly Loran move up to the July 13th class and may be of some Radar use at the turn of the year as well. The Apr. 27th Stage 3 class was already in motion and will remain. The B-area may have to give up a student slated for the June 15th stage 3 class but will get another transferring journeyman starting shortly after that instead, giving more breathing room regarding D-side training which eats resources.
To make all this happen the following commitments were made:
Training - will adjust their current TTL and classroom schedules for instructors, students and GPO’s to make room for the new Stage 4 class.
The B-area – will provide RJ to be GPO for the stage 4 class from 5/3 - 6/5 as well as making sure he gets his currency.
The B-Area – will provide a 2nd article 5 instructor, from 5/10 – 6/5 (4 weeks). While this hurts, Rick and John believe it will hurt less than the alternative next fall and winter. Rick and John limited volunteers for this activity to Sat/Sun or Sun/Mon crews (opposite Art. 5 Deanna Rogers). Bob Normandeau was selected. A mix of training and operational OT will be used when justified.
Evan, Jonathan, RJ and Loren will all get less seasoning on the D-sides than planned or possibly desired, but all were excited to hear the news they would be moving along sooner, and their supervisors each think they can handle it.
Rick or John have had conversations with each of them, explaining the future staffing fears that are driving this, that they will achieve there next pay raise sooner (2 R-sides), but will be used for staffing more than normal in the late fall and winter reaching FPL status at about the same time that they would have without being moved up.
We have not talked about the Sept. 8th stage 4 class or whether Kevin Brothers may be planned for that. Steve Fore is shaking up his schedule pretty good for us and we will let the dust settle.
HIO Aero Academy Meeting on 4/1/15
We arrived at 0745 to set up. The meeting started at 8:00am.
ZSE representatives: John Lawson, Annika Preciado, Rick Lund, Erich Chouinard, Andy Olson
Approximately 35 fixed wing and helicopter CFI’s were in attendance.
Erich started off the meeting giving the group an overall explanation of what we do as air traffic controllers and why we were there to talk about the communication issues with the flight school students.
We played a couple of videos (Falcon’s with voice, about 10 minutes long) showing the CFI’s what we were dealing with and how we go about our business of trying to flight follow these students.
We expressed our concern of the following issues:
1. As controllers, we are having a hard time understanding the students English being spoken.
2. The students do not always understand what we are asking.
3. Multiple calls just to get the information put into the computer are a big problem.
4. More interaction from the instructor needs to happen when the student is struggling.
We explained to the CFI’s what we want to hear during their check on to the frequency.
1. Initial check on – Just state your call sign and that you are requesting flight following.
2. After we talk to you we will be looking for a response to the following: Type of aircraft, destination, and altitude.
3. If you came from another facility and already receiving flight following, just state call-sign, altitude, and that you are VFR.
If we don’t get to you right away, we are probably busy with other traffic, multiple frequencies on combined sectors. Please try calling us only when you hear a lull on the frequency unless you have an issue such as an emergency.
We found out from the director of the flight school that the FAA Medical Examiner is the deciding factor for passing their English test to determine if they are ready to go into the cockpit.
The CFI’s are also frustrated with the ability to understand their student pilots. We discussed that the students may need to slow down their speech rate when talking on frequency.
The CFI’s told us that the students get very nervous if we start getting frustrated with them. It kills their confidence and was hoping that we would be a little more patient with them.
We explained some of our controllers are prejudging language ability as soon as they hear an accent and we are working on that.
Our group talked to them about getting a PowerPoint sent to the school with a lot of information on standard as well as advanced terms that they will hear from the controllers to hopefully, help them understand our requests. We would hope that they would incorporate this into their classroom requirements.
We were told that FAA designated Pilot Examiner is the person who gives the student their final check ride.
The CFI’s were interested as to what we would like for round robin flights. We requested that they file separate flight plans for each airport where they will conduct a practice approach when they are IFR. We requested they make sure to fly the published missed approach or assigned alternate missed approach and to not make up their own thing.
P80 (Portland TRACON) has a rule that if the controller cannot understand the student after the first call, the instructor will talk during the second transmission. We are looking at doing the same thing at ZSE for consistency.
We ended the meeting by inviting the CFI’s to call the center to schedule a tour if they get a chance.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15am.
Action Items from Hillsboro Aero Academy meeting:
Hillsboro Aviation;
CFI’s when in the cockpit will make effort to take over communications after ATC advises language is an issue after a call. Students will resume communications when instance is clarified. This will make us consistent with efforts by P80.
Teach students to make sure frequency is clear and check on with call sign and requesting flight following then wait for response.
Teach students to speak with a slower speech rate.
File point to point rather than round robin if approaches will be executed.
Seattle ARTCC:
Will try to remain patient and give students at least 2 attempts to deliver requests/information. Often times under good operations, controllers are heard saying “aircraft calling say again”, so we will try to give that courtesy to Hillsboro Aviation students as well.
Develop and deliver a power point with both standard and advanced terms they will hear from controllers, to be incorporated into classroom training at Hillsboro Aviation.
We are meeting with P80 later in the day and we will advise them of our plan to be consistent with P80 requests so expectations are the same at both facilities.
Seattle ARTCC will do its best to provide good service, use standard phraseology and reduce frequency congestion/confusion by splitting sectors when able during high Hillsboro Aviation activity.
Portland Approach / UAO Tower Meeting on 4/1/15
Meeting started at 10:30am.
ZSE representatives: John Lawson, Annika Preciado, Rick Lund, Erich Chouinard, Andy Olson
We began by first attending the P80 TRACON to take a look at their fusion radar to give us a good idea as to how good they can see the SLE area and vectoring ability for the RNAV 35 into UAO.
After the TRACON visit, we went back to discuss the airspace issues and LOA changes that we were looking at implementing. P80 did not have a representative that could make any final decisions but had a NATCA rep. who would pass the information on to the FACREP.
MMV Airspace – On or around mid-May, P80 will be permanently taking over the MMV airspace full time at 5000 feet and below.
The ZSE Article 48 workgroup was tasked to look at the P80 request for an airspace redesign south of VANTZ encompassing DUBMY and connecting up to the MMV airspace.
This airspace request will be considered FLIP-FLOP airspace but will not be activated for P80 initially until traffic and coordination becomes a obvious factor. This may not be apparent until traffic picks up next summer (2016) as the UAO Tower will not be operational until Aug. 20th, 2015 at the earliest this year. If there is not a significant change in the traffic or traffic pattern, no change is necessary, but if there is a significant change, we took the IOU to be ready to start the flip flop airspace. To accomplish the readiness, both facilities will start to build the airspace for possible future use once ZSE makes a determination on the new way-points created.
The ZSE work group came up with a couple of designs consisting of 3 NM, and 3.5 NM boundaries around DUBMY and then moving the one boundary to the SE corner of MMV airspace and straightening out the other boundary to the east connecting to a point that joins P80 airspace SW of ELKES at FL040 and below.
After a lot of negotiating, we decided that we would make a boundary 3 NM south of DUBMY and create two new way-points west of DUBMY to allow for vectoring slower aircraft on a left base for the RNAV 35 into UAO. P80 agreed to the new way-points but ZSE requested to look at traffic for two weeks until April 15th to decide if the way-points could work. Erich and Rick will be overseeing traffic on sector 41 during this time frame to finalize our decision.
ZSE requested that we look at changing the P80 LOA to show UAO landing traffic descending to FL080 instead of FL060 through the gate and give P80 control for descent to FL040 and turns no further west than present position direct DUBMY for the straight-in to the RNAV 35.
ZSE is in the process of getting a second SID at SLE airport to be able to depart aircraft to the west.
Again, at this point the UAO tower will not open until about August 20th, 2015 and there is no flight data available at this time.
P80 will be internally extending their UBG sector FL040 and below to the east of the TMBRS arrival. P80 will be coordinating with the ZSE Airspace department to get our maps updated and controllers briefed on the new boundary. In the meantime, Erich Chouinard is working on a work around with P80 if ZSE has not completed the UBG boundary design by the time P80 implements their new airspace.
Meeting adjourned at 1:15pm
Action Items from P80 meeting:
ZSE
Review new proposed way-points for possible flip-flop airspace and make a decision and advise P80 on or before 4/15/2015.
Map new UBG boundary or design a work around, once data is received from P80 and brief ZSE personnel prior to implementation.
Ensure flip-flop airspace is mapped and in a future build to be ready by Aug. 20th, 2015.
Ensure briefing of ZSE B-Area personnel on the plan for the flip-flop airspace prior to Aug. 20th, 2015.
Conduct follow-up negotiation with P80, to plan wording for LOA in the event the flip-flop airspace goes into effect and arrive at understandable trigger for initial activation of the flip flop airspace.
P80
Provide ZSE A & P office with mapping coordinates for the new UBG boundary ASAP so ZSE can brief B-Area personnel.
Once ZSE provides tested way-points for flip-flop airspace, ensure flip-flop airspace is mapped and in a future build to be ready by Aug. 20th, 2015.
Conduct follow-up negotiation with P80 to look at changing the P80 LOA to show UAO landing traffic descending to FL080 instead of FL060 through the gate and give P80 control for descent to FL040 and turns no further west than present position direct DUBMY for the straight-in to the RNAV 35. Be prepared with LOA wording in the event the flip-flop airspace goes into effect. We will also need to arrive at an understandable trigger for initial activation of the flip flop airspace.
If you have any further questions regarding the training department, HIO Academy, or the UAO Tower and airspace issues please come and see myself, Erich, or Andy.
Lastly, in regards to new students - James Kerr from Hilo Tower was supposed to be in the B-Area, but he has just recently moved to the A-Area. We are getting two new students (Todd Franks who has been working in flight data and Zach Rush from OKC)
That is it for now, if you have anything else that you are wondering about, please send me an email.
Thanks,
Rick Lund
B-Area Rep
