2022 Schedule Update

C Area,

Before we start bidding wanted to update the previous posted schedule for anyone to reference. Everything should be up to date in bid ATC as well, but if there are any changes before we start bidding I’ll let you know.

We’re basically going with the 34 line schedule that has 1330NFs (with a 10 min flex) all week that was posted in the previous update with 2 minor changes. The 1600s on Saturday are changed to 16NF rather than just noted as 16NFs, and only the two 16NFs and one 1530 are highlighted to rotate each week with a note covering the rotatoin. Outside of that, everything else is the same.

Click here for the 2022 schedule

Once we’re done with round 1 for CPCs we’ll start bidding trainees and I’ll have a trainee schedule sent out beforehand.

If there are any questions please let me know.

Thanks

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

SGET and C Area Meeting

C Area,

SGET

There is a SGET detail posted by the ART computer to build scenarios for data comm. The solicitaions lists it’s for anyone that is SGET certified but there may be a possibility to get a waver for this if anyone is interested. Please let myself or your supervisor know if you have any questions or are interested.

C Area Only Local Meeting

Tomorrow (October 6th) at 1:00pm local Amy, Drew, and myself will be hosting a C Area only meeting to cover the details and process for appointing the next C Area rep.

This will be a great opportunity to ask questions and discuss any concerns.

The meeting will be both virtual and in person at work in the QC conference room, again on October 6th at 1:00pm local.

Click here for the virtual meeting link.

Thanks 

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Article 5s, schedules, C Area meeting

C Area,

Article 5s

There are two solicitations by the ART computer, one is for IST and the other is for data comm.  The exact dates are on the sheets.  If you have any questions and/or are interested please let me or your supervisor know.

2022 Schedule 

We are not complete with schedule negotiations so this is subject to change.

I wanted to post the last 2 proposed schedules we are negotiating.

The only difference between the two is 1400s or 1330NFs on the weekends.

All 1330NFs will have a 10 minute flex like we had in years past.

Besides 1330NFs replacing 1400s for briefings the other somewhat bigger guideline changes is having 3 1500s and 2 1600s instead of the current 2 1500s and 3 1600s.  

Saturday swing will have 1 1530 and 2 1600NF shifts that will rotate.

Overall guidelines largely remain the same with some date adjustments to the summer and winter guides.

Again these are subject to change and expect more to follow.

Click here for proposed schedule A

Click here for proposed schedule B

C Area Only Local Meeting 

On October 6th at 1:00pm local Amy, Drew, and myself will be hosting a C Area only meeting to cover the details and process for appointing the next C Are rep.

This will be a great opportunity to ask questions and discuss any concerns.

The meeting will be both virtual and in person at work, again on October 6th at 1:00pm local.

We’re trying to book the east West conference room or the QC conference room.  Once we have a room booked I’ll send out an update.

Click here for the virtual meeting link.

Thanks 

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

General Updates

C Area,

Unfortunately I don’t have any official news on next year’s schedule or when we’ll be bidding. I’m hoping to have more of an update in the coming weeks. However, one of the bigger proposed guide changes we made was to swap the number of 1500s and 1600s. Our proposal is to have 3 1500s and 2 1600s instead of the current 2 1500s and 3 1600s.

The A Area has asked me to send out an update to everyone requesting RNT arrivals on the CHINS forced down to FL240 instead of pilot’s discretion to FL240. This is due to the restriction to cross RADDY at 110 which is not published on the plate. There is a NOTAM out to address this but sometimes pilots miss it and aircraft end up high at RADDY. The plan is to update the CHINS arrival to show this new crossing restriction at RADDY for RNT arrivals but I don’t know when that will be published. For now, it’s just a request to start them down if we can.

Lastly, if anyone has any questions or are interested in being C Area rep next year please let me know.

Thanks

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

PP21 and PP22 adjustments

C Area,

With airlines canceling flights and traffic projected to drop off after labor day we have agreed to publish PP21 (starts 9-26) M-F Day -1 (at 10).  Also, all of PP22 will be published at winter/off-peak guides. If there are traffic increases or other changes we have agreed to revisit this.

Schedule negotiations for 2022 are taking place.  Expect updates on 2022 guides, lines, etc once finalized.  Unfortunately, at the moment we don’t have an exact date on when we’ll start bidding.  Thanks in advance for your patience on this.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

New ZLC LOA Changes Coming

C Area,

As many of you are already aware we’ve been trying to address ZLC ZSE Seattle routing for a while now. The gist of the changes are as follows but expect to be officially briefed by management this week if you haven’t been already with more details and effective dates. 

Seattle turbojet aircraft south of Q152 (think near J16) will be routed no further than PDT on the CHINS arrival.  No more direct SUNED without an apreq from ZLC.  This should include aircraft from 16 on the CHINS as well.  There will be some exceptions if ZLC is giving us in-trail spacing that will be covered in the LOA further. 

Seattle turbojet aircraft north of Q152 (again think near J16) will be routed no further than MLP on the GLASR arrival.  There is an exception that ZLC 20/19 can route Seattle turbojet aircraft direct GEG if they are north of MLP.  This change should help alleviate the departure arrival conflictions we see today when aircraft are direct TEMPL from 48.

We also added control for speeds.

Lastly, I’d like to thank the airspace office (Paul) and our C-Area airspace supe (Eric) for all their support with these changes.

If there are any questions please feel free to reach out.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Transitioning to full MOU guidelines

C Area,

In somewhat consideration with the national email for facilities that are still 5x5 to go back to BWS by June 6th, we have agreed to go back to full MOU guidelines by the middle of PP13.

To start the PP, we agreed to -1 of MOU guides in the first week on M-F day and swing to help ease the transition into full MOU guides by the second week of PP13.

To be clear, weekends and the second week of PP13 are full MOU guides.

I’ve attached a copy of our 2020 MOU with guidelines below.  And, just as a reminder due to national COVID requirements these guidelines were carried over from 2020 to 2021 with no changes.

Summer guides are as follows 

M-F Day 11, Swing 9

Sat Day 10, Swing 8

Sun Day 10, Swing 9

Winter guides are as follows 

M-F Day 10, Swing 9

Sat Day 9, Swing 8

Sun Day 9, Swing 9

Click here for the 2020 MOU with guidelines

Click here for the 2021 MOU

If there are any questions please feel free to reach out.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Quick Update

C Area,

There are two article 5 solicitations next the the sign in computer. One is for tech refresh which involves training controllers on new equipment. The other is for an R-Side class in the training departing starting sometime in August. Expect more information to be posted in CEDAR regarding both of these but if you are interested or have any questions please let me or your supervisor know.

Route Channelization Order change idea. It came up in conversation to release control to the B Area for speeds and in return we would get control for speeds. Nothing is offically in the works right now, but if there are any concerns to this idea please let me know.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in filing an AWS request please let me know.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Guideline Update

C Area,

Starting PP11 (May 9th) we have agreed to raise the Mon-Fri guide on both the day and swing by 1.  This is for anticipated traffic increases as we get further out of the pandemic and closer to the summer.

The updated guides are as follows 

Mon-Fri Day 9 Swing 8

Sat Day 8 Swing 6

Sun Day 8 Swing 7

For reference, this is basically -2 on the day and -1 on the swing of MOU guides.

Expect the guides to be continually evaluated with regards to future traffic increases. 

If there are any questions, please feel free reach out to me.

Thanks 

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

General Updates

C Area,

Training

In the next few weeks the training supplement will be amended so that we can officially train on C-High.  All 4 sectors will need to be in the training plan in order to do this. One way I see this working, someone is already training on 7/11 and is close to a check ride.  The entire training team (which includes the trainee, OJTIs, and supe) can agree to add the other high sectors so the trainee can get some exposure to C-High before being certified on 7/11.  Again, that’s just one way but the key is the decision is up to the entire training team.

MIA map testing during a check ride is currently on hold until NATCA and management can discuss ways to address MIA awareness.

EA

Under BWS there still is the possibility to be go home early on spot EA. Starting tomorrow (Sunday) we will have a paper EA tracker broken up into 15 minute increments by the headset boxes. We will be policing this ourselves and there is no management involvement in tracking EA. The idea is, when EA is available anyone can check the tracker to see who has the least amount that is up to go home early. Once that person is approved to go home early they (or someone else) will mark each 15 minute box they were able to leave early.

If there are any questions please let me know.

James Darlington 

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Transitioning Back To BWS

C Area,

We’ll be transitioning back to BWS (Basic Watch Schedule) between March 24th to March 27th and basically back on BWS by March 28th.

In order to make this the most amicable and equitable transition feasible, we’ll basically go from a 5 on and 5 off schedule prior to the 24th.  Then a 2 on and 2 off schedule March 24th to March 27th.  And, finally BWS on March 28th.

This means the end of PP7 (that’s already published) will be adjusted and is currently being worked on. After PP8 is published we’ll need to go back and check PP7 in web schedule for our updated schedule.

The reasoning behind going from 5x5 to 2x2 to BWS allows us to keep RDOs from being split as much as feasible, and reduces the number of people with a 6 day work week, which can naturally happen during a transition from one set of RDOs to another.  Transitioning this way also mitigates someone going from working 5 days on a COVID schedule, 1 RDO, and 5 days on BWS.

We’re still discussing how EA will look on BWS.  The hope is we can get a certain number of people approved on EA the night before their next shift and/or people to be sent home early.

Lastly, we are still trying to address training on C High, certification MIA testing, and the ZLC LOA.  Expect more to follow on those.

If there are any questions or concerns with the schedule transition please feel free to reach out to Carly or myself.

Thanks for everyone’s understanding and patience with this process.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Looming BWS

C Area,

Wanted to let everyone know we’re discussing going back to BWS (Basic Watch Schedule or 5x2) anywhere from sometime in March to sometime in April.
Part of the discussion(s) include bid leave, and anticipated traffic increases.
Personally, I’d prefer to take more of a wait and see approach with how things develop traffic wise but we also can’t be in a position to where we’re unable to staff to traffic as it increases. As we all know, BWS is ultimately inevitable and may happen sooner than later.
To be clear, no official date at this point has been set just wanted to update everyone that the conversation is taking place.
Expect a more detailed update when a date to return to BWS has been determined.

Also, we haven’t finalized any C Area EA when we go back to BWS, but it’s my understanding it’s still a possibility.

Thanks

James Darlington
NATCA C Area Rep
904-347-3065

Swing Shift OT & 2021 Shift Preferences

C Area,

Swing Shift Overtime 

In an effort to reduce overtime exposure, starting January 31st we have agreed to get rid of the 10-minutes of overtime at the beginning of the swing shift. Instead of the overtime we’ll have 1350 shifts and 1400 shifts that’ll rotate between everyone on the swing. The benefit for us is an increased opportunity to receive spot EA at the end of the swing shift when our total staffing number is no longer needed.

We’re still discussing the status of the day shift overtime.  For now there are no changes but expect more on the matter in the future.

2021 Shift Preferences

We’ve agreed to use the updated shift preferences starting in PP07 or earlier if I’ve contacted you directly.

If there are any questions on either please feel free to reach out to me.

Thanks 

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Spot Leave and More Updates

C Area,

Spot Leave

Now that all our 2021 bid leave is imported into web schedule, we’re able to open up spot leave requests starting on 1-14-21 at 11:00PM local.  This should be when the least number of people are in the control room to allow the most number of people access to web schedule and provide some time to plan for it.

To be clear, all spot leave requests for unpublished schedules made before 1-14-21 at 11:00PM local will be deleted and you will need to make the request again on or after 1-14-21 at 11:00PM local.

5x5 Bid Leave Processing Changes

Since being on COVID schedules we have been individually matching each controller's bid leave from their bid 5/2 schedule to their current 5/5 schedule.  While this was an okay short term solution meant to help us as much as possible, it has been cumbersome in communication, application and leads to errors in individual leave. For our 2021 bid, while still on COVID schedules, we will be adjusting this process. Schedules are required to be published 4 weeks prior to each pay period, therefore scheduling is done 4-6 weeks prior. Please review your bid schedule, bid leave, and how it will align with your COVID schedule. If you wish to cancel any of your leave while on COVID schedules please either delete it in web schedule or email carly.way@faa.gov 6 weeks prior to publishing.  If you wish to have leave on your bid RDOs in conjunction with bid leave (whether it falls on 5 on or 5 off) please put your leave requests into web schedule with a remark/note "leave for RDO in conjunction with bid leave" AND email carly.way@faa.gov 6 weeks prior to publishing.  We will need the email to ensure this is related to your bid leave request. Here are dates that are 6 weeks prior to publishing:

PP06 Jan 17

PP07 Jan 31

PP08 Feb 14

PP09 Feb 28

PP10 Mar 14

PP11 Mar 28

5x5 Beginning of Shift OT Notification

In order to help reduce the workload in building the schedule.  We have agreed to not receive the beginning of shift OT assignments in CEDAR while 5x5.  To be clear this is just for the 10 min OT assessments made prior to publication and any OT assignment on your RDOs or any changes after publications will still require a notification.

5x5 2021 Shift Preferences Solicitation

We haven’t received everyone’s updated preference for 2021.  Just a friendly reminder please click the link below and fill it out, even if you don’t want to change.  To recap, Crew A and Crew B will not be changing rosters, but there is the ability for movement within each crew based on seniority as much as possible.  We can’t guarantee it 100% based on seniority due to requiring a number of CICs and OJTIs on day and swing shifts but we’ll make every effort to get it as close as we can.  To be clear, this is just a preference update and we haven’t gotten full approval from management to enact it nor can we guarantee we’ll be able too.  Once we have everyone’s updated preferences, we’ll present it to management and implement it on a future unpublished pay period if approved.

Please click here for the preference survey

Future Projects

As some of you already heard, we’ve been denied the ability to train on C High (07, 11, 47, and 48 combined) when the trainee isn’t certified on 2 of the highs already.  We’re working on adjusting this so that it’ll be up to the training team if they want to train on C High or split it out.  Expect an update on that in the future.

ZLC LOA change proposal.  We’re currently working on an update to ZLC LOA to address some Seattle Arrival routing issues, adding control for speeds, and cleaning up the language reference IR301/IR307.  We haven’t heard back from ZLC on some specifics of our proposal but our hope is that it will be finalized and implemented before summer traffic hits.  Once the LOA is updated/changed expect to be officially briefed on it (my guess is it'll be a CEDAR briefing).

If there are any questions please feel free to reach out to myself, Frank, or Carly.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

2021 Shift Preferences

C Area,

2021 5x5 Shift Preferences

We are scheduling for 2021 and would like to solicit for preferences again. Crew A and Crew B will not be changing rosters, but there is the ability for movement within each crew based on seniority as much as possible.  We can’t guarantee it 100% based on seniority due to requiring a number of CICs and OJTIs on day and swing shifts but we’ll make every effort to get it as close as we can.  To be clear, this is just a preference update and we haven’t gotten full approval from management to enact it nor can we guarantee we’ll still be 5x5 in 2021.

We’ll try to transition to the new preferences at the beginning of the new leave year or as soon as feasible pending approval.

Please click here for the survey 

2021 Bid Leave While 5x5

We are working on coming up with a more effective way to handle bid leave while 5x5 in 2021.  Expect more to follow on this is a following up date.   

As always please feel free to reach out with any questions.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Round two bidding and Training

After some back and forth we were able to finalize round two leave slot redistribution.  The gist is we reduced leave slots in the summer and some Saturday’s and Sunday’s in the beginning of the year to reduce OT exposure.  The slots were added to spring break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and other fall/winter holidays. In the file below the yellow boxes are reduced slots, the orange boxes are the increased slots, and the red XX is where someone has bid.

For the specific dates please click here.

We finalized 2021 trainee schedule.  One thing that is different than normal, the Tuesday Wednesday and Wednesday R-Side lines are standard lines while in training but will convert to 3rd swing lines after certification.

For the schedule details click here.

Just to be clear, the official round 2 slots and the trainee lines will be on bidATC just as before and we should be able to start bidding later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

As many of you heard, some trainees are starting to come back as early as this week.  It is still a reduced number of trainees and not all at once.  As a reminder, the reduced target for OTJ hours are still in place.  At this time, I don’t have specific dates on when each individual trainees will come back but if you’re curious feel free to reach out to me I can try to get the exact info.

I know the bid has been longer than in years past, but I wanted to say thanks for everyone’s patience in all this.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Bidding

C Area,

As many of you are aware, after some back and forth we were able to finish negotiating our basic watch schedule (BWS) for 2021 and started bidding earlier today.

Everything is done through bidATC.com same as last year.

I wanted to post an extra copy of our schedule on here for anyone to quickly view and for future records.

Baring any changes we’ll finalize trainee lines after round 1 for CPCs.

Click here for a copy of the 2021 BWS

If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Survey and EA Update

Survey Results

We want to thank everyone for their time in voting and providing feedback.  Of the 28 responses we have, 60.7% do not want to re-solicit preferences, and 78.6% do not want to rotate the swing and day shift. Right now, the plan is to have every intention of re-soliciting preferences for 2021 if we’re still on a 5 and 5 schedule by then.  To be clear, there is no guarantee on this, but it is our intention.

Mid Rotation Solicitation

In an effort to better balance out the EA currently between the swing and day, we will be calling the next person with the least amount of EA when building the schedule each pay period.  This way whoever is up will have an idea on when they would have the option to take the mid and we’d be able to answer any questions that come up at that time.  Once the day and swing are better balanced out, we’ll end going back to straight shifts.

Getting Day and Swing EA Back

We have agreed to schedule 1 EA slot on the day and swing starting in Pay Period 21 (Oct 5th specifically).  This would effectively take us back down to our original guide of 6 on the day and 5 on the swing.  If traffic doesn’t start to drop off by the end of September or early October, we may lose this EA until the traffic eventually drops off.  Same rules apply with bid leave taking priority, etc.  And, to be clear we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to keep the EA balanced either due to bid leave, traffic, staffing, etc.  If there are specific questions on this please let myself or Frank know.

Thank you

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

Alternate Rep and Schedule Change

Alternate C Area Rep Addition

Due to the unique situation we’re all in, we have chosen to add Frank (FP) as Alternate C Area Rep.  For those that may not know, Frank was previously an Area Rep at Oakland Center in addition to his other NATCA responsibilities.  If you don’t see me at work, or can’t get a hold of me please feel free to reach out to Frank at 510-303-1213 or ZSEFTR@natca.net with any issue(s).

Losing Day/Swing EA and Shift Balancing

We know this isn’t popular but due to the traffic not declining like we thought we will be losing all EA on the day and swing starting next week (8-26).  We will also be moving the least senior person from each swing shift to the day shift.  When there is no leave this will effectively give us 8 on the day and 6 on the swing.  When there are multiple requests for bid leave on the same shift, we will have to go under this new number with the intention of balancing to make sure one shift (day or swing) isn’t taking a larger load than the other.  Please check web schedule for your schedule changes.

Extra EA Issues and EA Balancing

There is a lot of nuance with respect to additional EA, as traffic eventually declines, we’re hopeful we’ll be able to address this more appropriately.  The plan right now is to go back to 1 slot of EA on the dayshift and 1 slot of EA on the swing shift starting PP21/22 depending on the traffic forecast.  Expect more info on this in the near future.

Due to needing to have 3 people on the mid for contingency purposes for anyone on Crew A that wants additional EA there will be an option to rotate to the mid for a week starting in PP21/22.  This would effectively work by getting the person that rotates into it 4 days of EA for that week with having to work at least 1 mid shift.  Crew B will effectively be able to do the same thing by rotating one person into and out of the mid at a time.

In the near future we’ll come up with a process to solicit interest in rotating a session to the mid for the purposes of extra EA.

We are not able to rotate to the mid on any of the published pay periods for the purposes of balancing out EA due to not being able to assign EA after publication at this time.

Lastly, management wanted to thank everyone for getting their ELMs done early.  Apparently, we are ahead of all the other areas.

If there are any questions please feel free to reach out to me.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065

5 and 5 Schedule Feedback Survey

Before we get to the survey, due to the recent changes in the canceling bid leave process mentioned in the last update please double check your bid leave for pay periods 17, 18, and 19 to make sure it was either approved or canceled the way you intended.  This goes for everyone, including the people not at work.  If you think something isn’t correct in those pay periods please let CW or myself know.

If there any questions about the survey below please feel free to reach out to me.

2020 current 5 and 5 schedule feedback survey

In an effort to get feedback on how our 5 and 5 schedule is going for everyone working it since we’ve been on this longer than most would have expected, we have some quick questions.  We would basically like to know if you think we should consider rotating the day and swing shifts, or stay on straight days/swings instead of rotating for future unpublished pay periods.  And, should we consider re-soliciting crew preferences (Days, Swings, Mids) for future unpublished pay periods.  Under COVID guidelines we won’t be able to swap from A crew to B crew and vise versa.  Also, we would need to get management buy in to be able to enact any sort of change if the majority wants to rotate and/or re-solicit preferences.  The questions for these changes are for the remainder of this year starting with one of the future unpublished pay periods.  As of right now this is just a solicitation of feedback and no guarantee of us being able to change anything if the majority wants to.

To be clear, if we are still going to be 5 and 5 in January 2021 we have every intention to re-solicit preferences before then anyways since we normally bid schedules before the beginning of the year.

Lastly, just as a reminder you can still swap with someone for the entire week if you want Days, Swings, or Mids that rotation.

Please click here for the survey

Thanks in advance for your time and feedback in filling out the survey.

James Darlington

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065