Staffing
The A and B Area are sitting at 45 bodies while the C and D Areas have 44. TMU currently is at 11 CPC’s where they are expecting to gain 3 more during this year. Of course they also plan on losing at least two during that time.
We have four transferring CPC’s due to arrive this year: 1 in June, 2 in July and 1 in October. As for new hires, we really have no idea what that looks like. We were scheduled to receive 29 new hires for FY2015 and with that we were suppose to get 8 in February (we got 0) and 8 in March (where only 2 made it) and so far we’ve received one in April. We’re not really sure what the rest of the year looks like for ZSE, but I know that the Agency is re-evaluating the placement of new hires.
OKC is currently washing out students at a rate of around 50%, which is an alarming high number, and based on some of the feedback from the instructors down there, the new Bio-Q process is not an improvement in screening new controllers.
As for attrition, we don’t stand to lose a lot of controllers over the next 20 months (except for the D area where it looks like they’ll lose 5 in 5 months) and we do have a lot of trainees here in the pipe line (A-12 trainees, B-12, C-11 & D-10). Additionally we have seven more CPC transfers due to arrive within the next 22 months.
HWY 164 Construction Project
Beginning April 13th, the City of Auburn will commence with the HWY 164 widening project, starting from in front of our facility to just past Hemlock. The purpose for this project is to make this area safer as they’ve reported several accidents and deaths over the past 5 years.
The bad part for us is twofold, 1) they are putting up a barrier to prevent us from making a left turn (west) out of the facility and 2) to go west bound we now must make a right turn, merge over two lanes in a matter of 400 feet to get in the left turn lane and then make a U-turn at the new light on Hemlock. Coming from Enumclaw, you will be able to make a left turn into the facility.
The Project Manager/City Engineer assured us that the new lights will be “talking” with each other therefore building us a gap to make the right turn and merge over to the left turn lane.
This is not an ideal situation for us to say the least. In the meantime, we are working on trying to get a waiver to allow and exit only egress on the southeast side of the facility (onto Hemlock). Currently under the security regs, they do not allow more than one gate area access at an ARTCC. Additionally, the agency does not have any funds to install an “exit only” gate here at ZSE.
Here is what to expect during the construction.
· Road lane closures will be from 9 am to 3 pm Monday – Friday.
· A flagger will be positioned outside the ZSE entry/exit area when there is an impact to our traffic flow.
· The barrier will be the last thing installed, therefore left turns out of the facility can still be accomplished during construction.
So we have a little bit of an uphill battle here and we’ll continue to press on until we can get that exit only gate.
Flight Surgeon Update
A couple of weeks ago Jeff and I were invited by the Flight Surgeon for a briefing followed by a Q & A. Here are some of the topics he covered.
Terminology – Incapacitation means that your medical has been temporarily been suspended.
Disqualification – Your medical has permanently been suspended, therefore you either need to find a new job within the agency or you’ll be looking at a medical retirement.
Kidney Stones – Generally incapacitated for 30 days and you could be required to report to the fight surgeon every 30 days after for up to two years.
Sleep Apnea – Incapacitation of a minimum of 30 days. Includes a sleep study, a Cpap and a follow-up at your expense. You will need a yearly check in with the flight surgeon to where you have to show that you have been using you cpap for at least 75% of the time (for the whole year), or at least 6 hours a night.
Refractive (Lasik)eye surgery – Incapacitated until you meet the vision standards with a 6 month follow up.
Medicine checks – The operation center is open from 8 am to 8 pm Monday-Sunday. Your responsibility is to check with your FLM to see if the medicine your taking is disqualifying or not. If it’s outside the centers timeframe, then that’s managements issue. You could also bypass management and call the flight surgeon directly.
DUI’s – If you BAC is below .15 you will not be subject to a rehab treatment plan. However you will be incapacitated until the flight surgeon receives a copy of the arrest record which can take up to 3 to 4 weeks to attain.
If your BAC is over .15 then you’ll be presented with a rehab treatment plan that could require a minimum of 4 weeks in an out-patient program followed up by 2-3 meetings a week with an EAP counselor for the first few months, then down to weekly meetings after about 6 months. The plan usually lasts for a year where you will also be subject to random alcohol tests every week. Lastly you will have to sign a “last chance” agreement where you must abstain from alcohol for the rest of your ATC career.
In a nutshell, you get a DUI that is over .15 BAC, you’ll probably be spending about $20K in legal fees and treatment.
Don’t get a DUI! J
Self Referral – If you self refer yourself to a treatment program, the agency will issue a “last chance” agreement when you’ve completed the program.
One of the many benefits of NATCA is the service of AMAS. They have worked with our flight surgeons and know the standards. If you have any questions about medicine and how it affects your medical or any other medical questions, please give AMAS (720-857-6117) a call.
Lastly, if/when you see your family physician, for example either blood work for high blood pressure or even just a check up, any notes he takes about you, ask to see them. The notes your doctor takes about you may be shared with the flight surgeon and depending on how things are documented or if he even gives his opinion about your status could jeopardize your medical.
The Flight Surgeon's office number is 425-227-2300 (Dr. McDermott)
Tech update
Sometime towards the end of May, ZSE will be installing a SI/SO patch on the floor for each sector in area. The SI/SO will then be tied to the Cru-Art, therefore you will be required to sign on the position your working. National is still working on an MOU, so we don’t know all of the specifics as of yet.
Solidarity Event
Kip Karsh will be organizing a Whirlyball event to take place sometime this fall/winter. Kip will soon have more details about the event and a sign-up sheet to see who would be interested.