All Members Meeting

Hey C Area -

Some reminders for you…

Today at 12:30 there will be food and the All Members Meeting in the East/West Conference room. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions and hear about what is going on. I encourage you to attend!

Also, remember the 15th is NATCA shirt day! Wear your NATCA swag and be entered into a drawing for a gift card!

Article 5 - We are still in need of an Article 5 for a CPC-IT 6/30-7/11 and 1 R Side 8/4-9/12. Please let a sup or me know if you’re interested.

IST Cadre - The Cadre Classes will be 4/15-16 or 4/17-18. IST training will be from 5/4-5/17. Please let a sup or me know if you would like to teach.

Low Map Changes - There is a packet in the area with some proposed changes to the low map. Please take some time to review this and give your input.

As always, I am here for you anytime. You are appreciated!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

c.area.natca@gmail.com

On Your Radar

Medicals

Hey C Area,

There has been some interesting developments regarding scheduling medicals. The D Area has seen a couple of instances of things not being done correctly, and I wanted to give you a heads up that if you are scheduled a medical on your RDO or outside of your shift duty time, please let me know ASAP.

Reminders:

Article 66 section 5 “All medical examinations required by the agency…shall be scheduled during duty time. Employees shall be reimbursed for mileage and parking fees” (eg. you’re scheduled for a medical in Gig Harbor and you live in Issaquah).

Article 66 section 6 “Whenever an employee spends more than 8 hours in an official duty status on a day during which he/submits to a medical examination, evaluation, or review, the employee is entitled to overtime benefits for all time spent beyond the 8 hours. The incrememnt of payment shall be one minute”

Please let me know if you have any questions about this!

Also - when I send out info requesting your feedback, the best way to do that is either an email (you can reply to this one or directly email c.area.natca@gmail.com) or a text to my phone number. Having your thoughts in writing is a better way for me to reference them and less chance of me forgetting what all your thoughts and points were.

In Solidarity,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

c.area.natca@gmail.com

On Your RADAR

C Area Update

Hey there C Area,

First - A big ol’ CONGRATS to Alex Fontaine for finishing up his D Side training! Well done to all those who helped in his success!

Article 5 - We have 2 opportunities coming up for an Article 5 detail, will be M-F. The first is a CPC-IT 6/30-7/11 and the other is 1 R Side trainee 8/4 - 9/12. Please let me or your sup know if you would like to volunteer for either of these.

IST - Please let me or your sup know if you’d like to volunteer to teach IST. The Cadre Classes haven’t been scheduled yet, but the weeks for teaching IST are 5/4-5/17.

Cross Coupling - Eric will be meeting with Orlando Holt next Friday who is apparently the Cross-Coupling guy. The original thought was we would like to see it done on lows to help with frequency congestion. Where we run into a problem is with using BUECs (which can’t be cross coupled) and picking the transmitter sites to pair. Considering we have an odd number of transmitters between 18 and 09, it doesn’t bode well for this to be successful, but we will see what Orlando has to say and I will let you know.

Interim Altitude - We will not be participating in the B & D Area’s trial period. Keep on keepin’ on as usual.

Low Map - I know I sent out a lot of data in my last email about some proposed updates to the low map. I have received no feedback on this, so my next thought is to have a copy of the list or picture of what is proposed in the area so you can see it. I will try to get this done next week. Still requesting feedback on this.

Meeting with the A Area & Airspace - There is a lot to cover here, so stick with me. Overall, it was a great meeting and we were able to get a lot of things discussed. Eric and I were able to meet with Matt, Dan, and Jared Simpach (sup airspace rep for the A Area. Lee is our new airspace rep and was unable to be there). Here is what we went over:

* Metering trial period with PD FL240. We are going to make this permanent and the SOP will be updated to reflect this. Some reminders for this procedure:

—We still need to give the A Area some delay. Sometimes it works out that they come over with no time or due to the sequence they end up with no delay, but it should not be the norm for us to take all the delay and give the A Area none.

—This does not alleviate our responsibility to sequence and separate aircraft. If you have an aircraft with a delay and the one behind it does not, we still need to ensure that we’re setting up a sequence that works, which may mean descending that no delay aircraft and assigning a speed.

* We discussed a shelf (I’ve attached a photo) over YKM that would be from FL200 up to but not including FL240. The idea behind this is so the A Area can continue an aircrafts descent on the CHINS without pointing out every arrival to 09. It was discussed to have the option to add or delete this airspace depending on flow, but since we have no other airspace boundaries that we do this for (when it comes to flow purposes), it was proposed that this area be added to 01’s airspace permanently. We would still need to do an SRM panel for this change on top of everything else to make it happen, but it would keep more aircraft off of 09’s scope when the CHINS is busy and SEA is landing north. I will keep you up to date on this as new developments come up.

* Sequencing low-performance jets. The A Area has an LOA with S46 when it comes to sequencing these jets that pose a challenge with the rest of the flying public. It has been proposed that we copy the list that the A Area already has with S46 (C500-550, C25A/B/C/M, EA50, EA50P, SF50, PC24, HDJT) and have the ability to stack them under better performing aircraft. They will still need to be sequenced with each other.

* CLS and other arrivals south of Seattle. We are waiting to get a proposal from Dan (A Area Rep) about what to do with the aircraft that land at airports south of Seattle. We talked about a couple of options and expressed our concerns with their initial proposal, but the gist of it is they are requesting to have these aircraft cross the boundary at or below FL240. We will continue to discuss this to come up with a solution that works well for both areas..

* Sequencing. The A Area expressed concerns with multiple instances that we are handing them aircraft 5M in trail with little to no pull away. They proposed us coming up with a procedure to require that we give the A Area 8M in trail with matched speeds on every aircraft. I am not a fan of implementing a procedure for instances like this, but ensured that I would share the A Area’s concerns with the C Area. Please be mindful of what you’re handing off to the next area/facility, keeping in mind if it’s not something you would appreciate receiving (even if it is considered legal), it is probably not going to be well received on the other end.

MAZAMA Airspace - If you haven’t heard of this yet, it is on its way….. After a lot of details continue to be hashed out between us, the A Area, and the military. It will be west of DIABLO, the littlest little polygon of airspace that you did ever see. As we figure out more details for it, I will keep you posted, but know neither the A or C area are happy about this little shape and it is causing a lot of work for everyone. And - no one knows who actually agreed to go forward with it. That’s the best part.

I want your feedback on this and everything, so please reach out and share your thoughts and concerns.

Thank you for all you do, you are appreciated!

In Solidarity,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

On Your RADAR

Happy 2025

Hi there C Area,

Sorry for the late greeting, but my boys shared their flu bug with me the week after Christmas and I’m finally returning back to civilization.

A Big ‘Ol CONGRATS to Christopher Costanzo for finishing up training on his D sides! Well done to everyone involved in his success!

Some more updates for you…

There has been a suggestion to update some of the airport markings on our low map, decreasing the clutter and ensuring the airports are marked with the correct identifier (like a square vs a little circle with a line in it, etc). They would still be identified on the emergency airport option, but the main map would have a little bit less on it. The initial suggestion would remove the airport marker on the main map for the following airports:

R49, 63S, S83, WN92, 6WA4, 1S5, S70, S40, 1S7, S73, S95

Change the airport identifying symbol from a square to the upside down L (indicating there is no published approach to this aiport)

S52, S97, S10, 3W7, S72, M50

Add a square:

2S8, PSC, EAT, COE (currently represented by a circle for the VOR at PSC, EAT & COE)

Add MYL to the emergency map

Please let me know your thoughts on this and I will move forward with talking to airspace about the next step.

Article 5 - There is an opportunity for an Article 5 class (2 R Sides) from 4/7-5/30, give or take a couple of weeks on the back end. There is discussion of having the class run M-F to get them through a little quicker, so as soon as I have for sure dates, I will send them out. There will be another Article 5 class opportunity after that one beginning possibly early/mid May, 1 R side and a *possible* CPC-IT D-side. I will keep you posted. Please let me or your sup know if you’re interested in the 4/7 Article 5 detail by January 19th.

Cross Coupling - I received some paperwork from Jackie last week and will spend time looking over it with Eric in regards to setting up Cross Coupling on lows. There has been a lot of back and forth with it lately and once I have a good handle on what the capabilities and options are, I will let you know.

Interim Altitude - The B and D Area are creating a trial period regarding Interim Altitudes between lows and highs. They have asked if we would like to participate in this with the B Area, making it like we work with the A Area. Whatever the final altitude in the data block is, that is what they will be climbing to when coordination is completed. We are kind of already doing this with 16/47/09, but this would make it official. Let me or Eric know what your thoughts are on this and if you have any further questions.

AWS Requests - I finally was able to talk with Stan and we have finalized the AWS requests. I will reach out to you if I haven’t already with the results, thank you for your patience with this. You’ll see those changes on the next pay period that is published.

Overtime - Our new overtime calendar has officially started, complete with the new tracking and status changes. Remember - you cannot be solicited for overtime on your protected weekends, and if you are please let me know. There is no tracking reference or hour adjustment that needs to be made to go between available & limited, it’s more of an on/off selection, but do remember that when you make the request, it will not be effective until the next pay period to be published.

Management - This is a friendly reminder about talking with management. I know Amy sent out an email addressing this, but I wanted to reiterate if management wants to talk to you and you feel that it may lead to discipline, absolutely request a rep. Even if you’re not sure - request a rep. We are here for you to ensure that these processes are done properly and we would rather you ask for one and not need one than vise versa.

Feedback - There is a lot going on in our union and work lives, and it is important that you feel heard and represented. Our local meetings are the best place to have open dialogue with your E-board, but we realize that schedules can’t always line up. At the end of my emails, I will include a link to the form that Amy sent out for you to fill out at any time so we can be better about being available for you. Please utilize this as often as you’d like so we can address things as they come up.

I am available if you have any questions or concerns, thank you for all you do. You are appreciated.

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

On Your Radar

NATCA Updates

Hi C Area,

I know a lot of info has come out in the past week, especially today.

Read the emails from NATCA National. There are a lot of important links in these emails that will answer a lot of your questions.

If you can’t find them, please reach out with your email address so I have fast access and I will forward whatever you need.

Regardless of what happens tonight, remember we are all in this together. Thank you for your continued dedication to our job and mission to keep the flying public safe.

In Solidarity,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Happy December

Hi C Area,

First - a big ol’ CONGRATS to Robert for certifying on D47/48! Well done to everyone involved in his success!

Some updates for you…

Overtime - the list that is in Webscheduler reflects the preferences for the new leave year. There is no way to set a future date, and so it was updated to get the correct overtime sequence set for the assignments in the new pay periods. I have updated the sups and OM about this and careful attention is being paid to the overtime lists when it is called out. I will keep tabs on this until overtime is reset.

Leave - I will be on leave starting Monday for the week, but I am in town and available if you are in need of anything.

C-Cret Santa - If you are participating, please get your gift in and under the tree as soon as possible. Thank you!

Spot leave - Entering spot leave requests became available starting last week, so please feel free to put your requests in for the 2025 leave year.

A Big thank you to you all for your kindness and encouragement this year, especially with the new Fatigue MOU changes. There has been a lot of effort put into everything done for our area this past year and especially lately with the SGET changes, 3120.4 requirements, SOP and airspace changes, and all the updates. I appreciate everyone who has stepped up to help the area out with their time and knowledge, and I look forward to all the amazing things the C Area will accomplish in the year to come.

I am and will continue to be available to you, and a very Happy Holiday season to you all.

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

2025 Spot Leave

Hello C Area,

You may have already seen this in TEAM or posted in the area. Spot Leave for the 2025 Leave Year will be opening on Thursday December, 12th at 1 AM. Any leave requests stamped by Web Schedule before that date and time will be removed.

Devin

What's up with the Slots?

Hey C Area,

Some of you noticed that we ended bidding with 30 SLOTS “Remaining”. I assure you that we did bid all our accrued HOURS of leave. The discrepancy is because we have so many 4/10 lines. 2 of our 4/10s earn 5 weeks of leave (25 slots) but bid those week in 20 slots, Similarly the other 4/10s bid their 4 weeks with 4 slots less than an 5/8 schedule. So you have 2 people leaving 10 slots and 5 people leaving 20 slots, presto, you have 30 slots left unbid. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Devin

Round 5

Hey there,

Reminders on Round 5 -

You can bid up to 5 days provided you have the leave amount for it, this includes your accumulated leave. Your leave balance should reflect if you have enough to select 5 days this round in BidATC. If there is a discrepancy with this, please reach out.

There are 48 slots left after bidding the past 4 rounds from the original 790.

Devin will be conducting Round 5 after tomorrow and will be following up with you on your overtime preferences.

AWS - please get your sheets into my headset box if you have a request. I was hoping to address them before I left, but Stan is gone the rest of this week so we will look them over when I get back.

Have a great Thanksgiving! Thank you for all you do.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Overtime

Because you didn’t think you’d hear from me again this week….

The overtime briefings have started - please attend one.

I will be contacting you in order of seniority to get 2 things - your yes/no status and your available/limited status.

There is a copy of what weekends are protected on what lines in the green folder in the area. This is not the master sheet, nor is it where you sign up for these things. It will be filled out for area awareness, please don’t fill it out.

The email to change your status after you select it initially - AJT-ZSE-CScheduling@faa.gov

I will have this available if you need it in the future.

Trainees - Your weeks are already kind of pre-determined since there are 1 of you per crew. There will be a trainee line sheet in the area for your reference as well.

I will be happy to go over any questions with you to get all of this accomplished. Please be patient with me, I will not skip you but please get back to me timely so we can get through everyone.

You guys are awesome, thank you for your help getting through bidding!

Happy week to you,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

I forgot.........

Reminder for round 4!

You can bid 6 days. If you want to bid 6, you must “add week” before you submit your bid so you can select that last day.

Happy Bidding!

Crumbley

Round 4 and OT

Hi C Area,

We finished round 3 today and I have given Stan all the leave that we requested. I will start round 4 tonight that will include the 8 hour earners only. Trainees - you folks will not bid round 4 but you will have an opportunity to bid round 5 with any accumulated leave you may have, up to 5 days.

Overtime - You all should have received the email from Drew. If you did not receive Drews email or can’t find it, please let me know so I can send you a copy of the new OT MOU. Briefings will being 11/25 (Monday) and I highly encourage you to go to one. I will give you all an opportunity to get briefed on this and ask any questions to me or during the briefing before I start contacting people in order of seniority. I will need to know if you want to be on the “yes” (volunteer) list or the “no” (non-volunteer) list. The other thing I will need to know is if you want to be in “limited” status (where every 3rd week you will not be contacted for overtime) or the “available” list where you will be open to overtime any weekend. I am hoping to have a copy of what the facility tracking outline will look like by tomorrow (Monday) morning and have it in the area for you to review. You will need to select a line that will rotate through every 3 weeks for the year and will not change, regardless of when you are assigned overtime or if you change between “available” and “limited” status. Again - please try to attend a briefing this week or reach out with questions. I would be happy to go over it with you.

AWS Request Sheets - So, I put a stack of them in the green folder and they are all gone, so I put another stack in there today. Please have these done by Thursday 11/28 and in my headset box.

C-Cret Santa - They will be collected Wednesday afternoon and distributed in headset boxes on Thursday. This is a fun way to get to know your coworkers and spread a little bit of kindness and cheer to the area! Please consider playing :)

I will be available all week until I leave Friday, and then Devin will be here for you until I return 12/6. Thank you for all you do, and I hope you have an excellent week and a blessed Thanksgiving.

For you all in the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

AWS/Dream Sheets

Hi C Area,

I got AWS sheets out to the area, they’re in the green folder with our schedule at the desk.

If you would like to fill one out, please do so and have it in my headset box by Thanksgiving. If you’re out of town and have a request, please email or text me and I’ll fill one out for you. Remember - we still need to abide by the new Fatigue MOU and have 10 hours between shifts. Please do this math so you’re not requesting something that will have to be denied right off the bat.

I’m sorry for the haste, I should have had them out earlier and it just feels like I’ve been running amuck. So, please accept my apology for being slow to get these out.

Thank you for all you do, and I’m always available if you have any questions about any of this.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Round 3

Hi C Area,

I’m about to hit start on round 3. This is the “shotgun” round where you can bid any 5 days.

The website seems to be having some issue getting notifications out to people when they’re up to bid. To keep it moving, you can anticipate that you will be hearing from me when you’re up. Please try to keep an eye on where the bid is at so you know when you’re going to be up and can look over what days you want to take.

I will be out of the country 11/29-12/6. Devin will be available in my absence for any bidding or general questions that can’t wait for my return (which I’m pretty sure they all can’t wait, so please reach out to him any time). His number is 619-818-5335.

Hope everyone stayed safe and did not incur that much damage from the wind last night!

C-Cret Santa deadline is 11/27 - if you don’t know what to say on the little survey (which is just to help folks have a good idea of your interests and stuff if they don’t know you well), feel free to just put your name down and I’m sure Santa will figure it out (yes, Devin, we all know Santa isn’t real, this is just a fun game).

Thanks for all you do, and please reach out if you need anything, any time (except 11/29-12/6).

Have a great rest of your week! And give JT a little grace as he turns 50 tomorrow. You don’t look a day over 49, dude!

Always for the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Updates

Hi C Area,

We’re moving through bidding well, thank you for that!

Reviewing what pay period comes out next, we will need to look into blocking off January 12-25 so we can get the transitional pay period published with this upcoming one. The new rest requirements make it difficult to just work on one pay period without incorporating it into the next. If this time is important to you, please bid it the next available opportunity you have. The schedule will start getting built a week from today (Nov 24th) so if we can finish round 2 and 3 by then, everyone will have had an opportunity to bid those days. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

C-Cret Santa! I’m putting C-Cret Santa Surveys in the area. This is voluntary but a lot of fun! Please consider participating, filling out a survey and putting it in the “Completed Surveys” envelope. They will be collected Wednesday 11/27 and distributed to headset boxes in sealed envelopes on 11/28. Please have your gift under the tree by 12/15. Remember - Be nice! and Have fun! There is no official limit, but something around the $25-$30 mark is a reasonable amount to share some holiday spirit with your co-workers.

Remember - Open season is now until December 9th. Make sure to review your plan info on benefeds.gov.

Have a good rest of your week and please reach out with any questions, comments or concerns.

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Round 2!

Hi C Area,

Thank you for your patience. I have been waiting to meet with Stan to go over reallocation since Sunday, but we got it done today and I am about to hit START.

There are some added slots on Saturdays in the summer, around mid-winter and spring breaks, and Thanksgiving and Christmas. As promised, slots reduced during IST and area refresher/OCP. The only other area we saw reduction was at the end of September.

Round 2 consists of 1 week, bidding around RDOs. Make sure you select each day so your initials are showing in each day you bid.

I am available if you are in need of anything, otherwise happy bidding!

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Great job!

C Area - you guys rock! We got through bidding days off and Round 1 leave in less than 30 hours, being the first area to get that all done!

I’m sorry I didn’t get this out before we started, things got busy, but I did get feedback that folks wanted to start bidding leave at the same time as RDOs so we went for it.

We will work on getting Trainee lines set up so you folks can start bidding soon, and I will meet with Stan tomorrow (Sunday) to talk about leave slots. I will let you know when we start Round 2.

Reminders -

• Round 2 will be 1 week of leave, can be bid around your RDOs.

• Select every day you want to take off for your week. Verify those dates are correct before hitting “Submit Bid”. It will list each individual day, and if there is only 1 day in your cart, then that’s what you bid.

• I will put “Dream sheets” in the area soon. We will review them all, but please remember that we need to preserve the new fatigue hours and there are still a lot of things that may come up in the future. We will do what we can with the guidelines we have. I will do like last year and contact you individually after we are done with them.

• I have not heard when the OT MOU will be completed, but we will be updated as soon as it is, of this I have no doubt.

Once again, great job and please reach out with any additional questions.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

REMINDER!

Hi C Area,

Open season begins 11/11 and goes until 12/9.

FSAFEDS - If you would like to sign up for this, it’s a great opportunity to have some money available for medical expenses. Check out the website if you would like information on this option.

BENEFEDS - This is the website to visit to review available health plans and sign up or change them.

One thing to review - some health plans offer incentives or reduced prices for things like gym memberships. An example - BCBS offers a Wellness Program, where you complete their “challenges” and they send you a debit card (that they will reload in the future) with money you can spend on medical expenses.

I will let you know when we begin bidding, hoping by the end of the week.

Question - We will begin RDO selection as soon as we can, leave can be started right away or after we get RDO’s going. Any thoughts on this…? Please let me know if you’d like to do them concurrently, start bidding leave once RDOs are progressing, or if you’d like to wait until RDO selection is completed.

Overtime - We are still waiting on the overtime MOU to be completed locally. In short, you will select, in order of seniority, what rotation you would like for the 3rd week to be protected from being eligible to work overtime. I wish we would be able to start this selection process once you pick out RDOs, but until the MOU is finished, we can’t. There are examples in the area of what that would look like. I’ll keep you posted when we know more.

Thank you for all you do! I appreciate you

Crumbley

360-635-8244

2 more things...

1 - A big ol’ congrats to Logan for finishing up his D side training with a certification on D07/11! Well done to all who helped in his success!

2 - The area is in need of a Training Rep, please let me know if you would be interested in this or would like more information about what it would entail.

Thank you!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

November

Hi C Area,

First - a big ol’ congrats to Miguel for completing his D side training in the C Area, as he got certified on D8/18/9, and to Christopher for certifying on D47/48! Well done to you both and to everyone involved in their success!

In conjunction with Miguel’s certification, there is an opportunity for an Article 5 from 1/21-3/20. This will be for 1 R side. Please let me or your sup know by 11/15 if you are interested in this.

Bidding briefings are happening this week - please take the opportunity to attend one of them, and I am available if you have any questions on anything.

Thank you for all you do, I appreciate you

Crumbley

360-635-8244