Weekly Update November 29th

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was as delicious as mine was. Thank you all that worked so that people could get home to their families safely.

Pilot Visit

Today we had the honor of hosting Tim Bendickson and his family. Tim is the pilot of N6122B, the VFR aircraft that got stuck in IFR conditions. He drove over 7 hours to come express his thanks to the Seattle Center Controllers that saved his life. This was an awesome example of how we at ZSE can work so well together to help people survive some of the most perilous situations. If you get a chance to review the FALCON, I recommend it but the short story is Tim departed VFR and quickly realized the weather was too poor to fly VFR. He turned around almost immediately to land but the weather already closed in behind him and the airport was solid IFR. He then radioed us for help. The Sector 8 controller did a great job getting him going towards VFR conditions but then Tim started to experience trouble and they knew they needed to get one of the pilot certified controllers to help further. Josh Fuller stepped in and talked to Tim for over an hour and a half guiding him to safety. He was having trouble maintaining altitude due to over one inch of ice that was accumulating all over the aircraft. Brian Hach assisted Josh, bringing up the sectionals and correlating the aircraft’s position to the mountains and unquestionably saved his life relaying this information to Josh. Mike Sellman helped tremendously by taking as many of the planes off the frequency as possible. Byron Andrews was an amazing resource to Josh and Brian, providing his C area expertise. Dave Murphy had control of the sector and stepped in to talk to any other non-emergency related aircraft. So amazing guys!

Holiday Party

Our Holiday Party is this next weekend, December 7th, at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in downtown Tacoma. I have invited all the facilities that are attached to ZSE, this will be a great opportunity to add to your NATCA family. If you need any more details, please see the flyer on the NATCA bulletin board or email me. If you are free that night, please come out!

TRB Class and IST Cadre needed

Due to a scheduling conflict, we are going to be doing the spring round of IST different, We need two volunteers to travel to the IST cadre class. Dates and location TBD but we do know it will be sometime in March or April and will require 3 days away from the facility. You would be teaching IST full time (in facility) during the spring IST dates of May 3-16 and must be available for the entire time.

TRB classes are now a joint NATCA/FAA class so they are no longer on the NATCA portal to sign up for. This is a good thing because you will no longer have to take leave to go but the bad thing is that these classes fill up quickly. Please let us know if this interests you, we need to keep a list of people that are willing to travel for a class.

New CPC

Last but not least, congrats to Ryan Jimenez, the C area’s newest CPC!

See you all at the Holiday Party :)

Amy Sizemore

Weekly Update November 22nd

I’d like to start off by thanking all of those that participated in the training survey this last week. We had a very good turn out and Aaron Katz was very appreciative of our efforts. In total, they gathered close to sixty surveys so thanks for the great effort.

Bidding is coming to a close and the area reps and schedulers are now working tirelessly to get everything input into wmtscheduler. The leave portion of wmtscheduler had to be opened up to input all the bid leave, but each area will be opening it up at different times for the remainder of your NPTL requests. Please do not put any leave requests for 2020 in prior to your areas designated time because it will be deleted by the schedulers. Once again, thank you for your patience as we tackled this new way of conducting the bid. We will learn and improve from this years experience. We completed the entire bid process in just under four weeks which is phenomenal compared to years past.

There are several volunteer opportunities here at ZSE that I would like to share. First I am looking for volunteers for the Local Safety Council. If you have any interest in being a part of the LSC, please let me or another member of the Eboard know.

The second opportunity is for volunteers to conduct Internal Compliance Verifications (ICV). Briana Whalen wants to involve NATCA in this process and asked me to solicit for a volunteer from each area to conduct quarterly ICV duties. If this is something you are interested in, she gave me a powerpoint that you can find here that explains more. Again, let a member of the Eboard know if you would like to be considered.

The last couple of things for the week is please RSVP to Amy at amatc20@gmail.com for the holiday party. Also, the All Members meeting will be December 9th from 1400-1600 at Oddfellows in downtown Auburn.

In Solidarity,

Derek Adams

Weekly update November 15th

I apologize for the technical difficulties last week on the update. I thought I had it set up to send out on Friday afternoon but, as you saw, it didn't make it out until early this week.

We are nearing the end of bidding in all areas. There seems to be some difficulties with the website while bidding round 5, so your continued patience is appreciated as we wrap things up. All-in-all, I am very pleased with our MOUs, the use of bidATC and your participation. We can only improve from here.

Our next All Members Meeting will be December 9th from 1400-1600. The location is still TBD. Some agenda items will include a budget presentation from Devin Carlisto as well as the Local Constitution amendments. We will also be saying thank you to our outgoing Eboard members and welcoming our incoming members. Please take a little time to come join me in thanking these guys and gals for their dedication to making ZSE a great place to work.

Finally, our NATCA brother Mr. Aaron Katz and his FAA counterpart will be in the facility next Monday, Nov. 18th through Thursday, Nov. 21 to conduct a survey on training in the field. Below you can find an email he sent me with information to share with you explaining more.

Hello everyone,

My name is Aaron Katz and I am the National Human Performance Rep for NATCA. I am here at your facility collecting data with the Civil Aviation Medical Institute (CAMI) for a research project about ATC training in the field. Here is a quick run down of what we are doing:

What - This is a voluntary and anonymous survey with questions for all demographics. Trainees, CPC’s, OJTI’s can all participate. The survey has been vetted by NATCA and participation is encouraged.

How - The survey is pre-loaded on an iPad. The survey should take between 20 and 30 minutes and is to be done on DUTY TIME.

When - We will be at ZSE starting Monday afternoon 11/18 through Thursday 11/21.

Where - We will be set up in the East/West Conference Room.

We are conducting this on site data collection at 7 different facilities. Please help us get as large of a data sample as possible. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much,

Aaron Katz
NATCA Human Performance Representative
katmanp50@gmail.com
Cell (480) 307-4580

Please take a little time to help Aaron and his team with their research.

Please enjoy your weekend and for the Seahawks fans in the building, enjoy your heart attack free bye week…what a crazy game on Monday!

In Solidarity,

Derek Adams

Weekly Update November 8th

First and foremost, I would like to take a moment to thank our veterans and our military family members for their service and their sacrifice. Please enjoy the holiday weekend, but take a moment to honor those that served and those currently serving.

Bidding is plugging along at a pretty good pace. Each of the areas has begun round 3 as of this morning. Thank you for your patience with the website and with the Eboard as we continue along in the process. The Eboard has made note of a few of the more difficult situations the website has presented and will take action to improve the process year-over-year. Thanks again for your participation and patience.

There are several Eboard proposed amendments to the Local Constitution that we would like you to consider prior to voting at the next all members meeting. We have not finalized the details of the meeting yet, but the proposed amendments are posted in the glass case in the hallway just outside the control room. Please take a moment to read over the proposal there or you can click here to view the PDF.

The holiday party is just around the corner. Please be sure to RSVP with Amy at amatc20@gmail.com so we can start to get a headcount. This is a great opportunity for us to get together outside of work to blow off some steam and get to know each other a little better. There is a small block of rooms reserved for us at $159 for the night so let Amy know when you RSVP that you are interested in a room as well. Please click here to view the flyer with details about the event.

I will be out of town this weekend to watch the Seahawks play the 49ers in Santa Clara. Wish me luck as I venture into enemy territory. I’ll be back in the facility on Wednesday but, as always, I’m just a call, text or email away.

In solidarity,

Derek Adams

Weekly Update November 1st

Short email this week, bidding has been taking up the majority of our time.

Bidding

Congrats to all the Areas for finishing (at least) round one, I know it was a steep learning curve but already this year is on track to be completed faster than in any years prior!

Holiday Party

If you haven’t heard, the Holiday Party will be Saturday, December 7th. We are having it at the Courtyard by Marriott in Downtown Tacoma from 6pm to 10pm. Catering and drinks will be provided by Pacific Grill. It would be amazing to be able to get to know you all outside of work, please plan on attending if you are able. Also, I am looking for some more volunteers to help with the specifics, please let me know if you’re willing to help.

As always, thank you all for all the work you put in keeping the NAS safe. You guys are rock stars!

Amy Sizemore