Bidding information

Thank you for your patience as we get everything together to present it to you in a way that isn’t totally confusing.

Or maybe it is. Hoping it isn’t, but you know how to get ahold of me.

Some personnel changes are coming up. Chaz leaves March 21, Alex Unruh leaves May 26.

Brian Spencer is retiring in June, and there is a line on the Fri/Sat set that was built for him. If he stays past June 1, it reverts to a Sat/Sun straight 09 line.

Mid Priority

 This is a new idea that has been the talk of the area over the last few days. Hopefully this will clarify the reason for it, and how it will work.

 Background

In the recent past, we have seen mid lines vacated or left unworked for an extended period of time. This has created a situation where some people have wanted to work the mid shift, and others have not. In an attempt to assign the open shift to those who most want it and conversely, to keep those who don’t, off of it, we have come up with Mid Priority. The main intent of this is to allow for more certainty in our schedules, regardless of desirability. On most regular rotation non-mid lines, you will see a note with a “mid priority 1,2,3…”. Mid priority 1 indicates this is the first person considered to work the mid shift when the regular person is off. This would be for 1 of 3 reasons.

 Permanently Vacated Line

If a person vacates a mid-line permanently, the mid priority line 1 will become the new regular mid person. Essentially, they will now hold a mid-line and priority 2 is now next.

 Scheduled Short Term Leave 

If a regular mid person is on annual or other leave for a short term (1-3 weeks), the normal scheduling process will apply. If the day or swing shift is over guides, the mid priority line will fill the mid shift. If the day and swing shift is under guides, the mid will be assigned as overtime. If mid priority 1 is also on leave and the day or swing is still over guides, then it falls to priority 2 and so on.

 Long Term DQ (not leaving permanently)

This is the wildcard of the 3 situations. Since this would be the most unpredictable of the 3 reasons, it will be evaluated on a case by case basis with input from those impacted. The goal being that if a hardship is created, it will be shared equally among those involved.

I know this is new and change is hard, but it was done in an attempt to bring a little more consistency to the schedule while complying with the rules laid out in the contract.

A copy of this email and the lines we will be bidding will be in the area for you to view. Please leave them in there so others can review it as well.

The lines are available on bidATC :: Area Home to view. If you have any issues getting into bidATC, please let me know.

Have a wonderful week

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Input

C Area - lots going on. It’s going to be a full week!

First, the OJTI Cadre course is coming up in November, so please let me know if you would like to attend and help out. We need at least one person from the C Area to attend.

A big congrats to Spencer Sangiorgio for certifying on R7/11 and Alex Mathers for certifying on D18/08/09. Well done to all involved in their success!

There is a go/no go meeting 10/11 to finalize the PSC/YKM to GEG project, and you will be briefed this week on the new LOA. As of now, the radar has received its registration and pending nothing out of the ordinary, GEG will take over PSC/YKM the night of 10/15. As far as I know, MD will be there Sunday morning to oversee the airspace opening. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Vancouver High Specialty (Cranbrook) is having an annual procedures meeting on the 18th. If you can think of anything you'd like to see discussed by them, procedures or any questions you might have, please let me know ASAP.

10/17 is when we will start using ERIDS for PIREPS. Each area has a choice on how to configure their ERIDS.  The choices would be: 1) to display only the NOTAMS on the homepage, 2) display WX messages above the NOTAMS, or 3) display NOTAMS above the WX messages. If I don’t hear otherwise, the default will be to add WX messages to the homepage and have them order above NOTAMS. Let me know.

Amy sent out an email tonight that briefings will begin this week in hopes to start bidding on Saturday. I will be putting an email together with our line information as soon as I can so you can see what we’re bidding and what everything looks like.

There is talk with the A area about making a small cut out of airspace near YKM that would be 01s. The goal with this is to eliminate some coordination from 01 to 09 during a north flow while metering. Nothing is solidified, but I would like your thoughts on this so we can move forward. Arrivals on the CHINS have been requesting lower after YKM so they can make the altitude restriction at RADDY, which has resulted in more frequent point outs from 01 to 09. I know this can be cumbersome, especially when 09 is busy.

I finally got to see the draft of GPI/MSO arrivals after ZLC had a chance to look it over. I am hoping some time this week we find out when it goes into effect and we can brief the floor.

Please reach out to me with your suggestions, questions, concerns, etc. I am here to help you guys, and if I don't hear anything, I can only guess that things are going amazing. These emails are great to keep you involved and informed of the goings on in the area and building, but they are also my best tool to reach out to you with the needs of the area, especially to you whom I don't get to see on a regular basis.

Thank you for all you do! Have a great week!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Welcome Fall

Happy end of September, C Area!

I have quite a few things to tell you about, so PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL IN ITS ENTIRETY! …..you know who you are…..

A big congrats to Hunter for certifying on 7/11! Well done to all who made it possible and worked hard to help him in his success.

We have 3 new hires in the building who have joined NATCA and are looking forward to training on the floor! Ezekiel (goes by Zeke), Jun, and Jeydi are upstairs and have been down to visit a few times. Welcome to the C-Area!

There is an OJTI Cadre Course happening in November. Ideally, we are looking for 1 volunteer from the C Area to attend and become a Cadre. If you are interested or want more information, please let me know.

GPI/MSO - I am STILL waiting on the trial LOA for the procedures that we are hoping will simplify the requirements for these two airports. If you are running into ANY issues with either, PLEASE let me know. Leave me a strip in my box, text me, email me, whatever works best for you. I cannot push for any changes if I don’t have examples to show ZLC. Call signs, times, and if you have a moment, a brief explanation of what happened.

PSC/YKM to GEG - The changeover is scheduled to take place mid-October, and yes, the floor will be briefed on the new procedures the week of 10/11-14. Right now, there is some question as to whether or not everything will be ready to flip the switch and what the contingency plan is if GEG isn’t ready for the airspace, regardless of the reason. I will keep you posted as those decisions are made, and in the meantime, I will be attending a lot of meetings ensuring that everything is moving in the right direction and the C Area isn’t missing any vital information that will impact our operations. Something I am aiming to keep to a minimum.

We are waiting on confirmation that the schedule is good from management, and I will let you know when I hear back on that. It has been submitted out of the building as of the beginning of this week.

Thank you ALL for your hard work and your patience as I try to get any answers and help to you all. I am here for you, as always.

I’m sure I forgot something, but I think this is good for now. Enjoy the last day of September and get your Air Traffic Control Costumes out! Tis the season! (Seriously, google ATC costume)

Crumbley

360-635-8244

It's my favorite season

If you didn’t already know, my favorite season of the year is bidding season! A schedule has been submitted to management and we are technically bidding 37 lines. If you haven’t already heard, we will be losing 3 people by June. Chaz will be leaving at the end of March, Alex Unruh will be leaving at the end of May, and Brian Spencer will be skipping valiantly out of the building towards his retirement the beginning of June. We have 34 lines that these changes will leave us with, and this way our schedule won’t be understaffed when summer hits. More will come out as we get the OK to bid and how it will look with the 3 who are leaving. Thank you for your patience as I get help navigating the schedule development process.

I have been on an SRM panel the past 2 days to go over the PSC relocation to GEG that is still scheduled to happen mid-October. Everything is in place for GEG to take over the airspace around the 14th I believe. I am trying to make sure any work that needs to be done with the potential to create any issues for us with radar or radios in the YKM/PSC airspace areas will not be done until after midnight on any particular day. So far that does not seem to be an issue.

Fun fact - YKM tower is still using a temporary tower due to the launched car incident in May. They are still in the process of bidding the work and it doesn’t sound like they’ll be back in the tower until at LEAST January of 2023.

If you ordered a facility t-shirt, they are in and are being organized. As soon as they are all labeled as to who’s shirt is who’s, they will be distributed.

We are still waiting on the wording for the GPI/MSO arrival procedure changes. Hopefully, that will come out soon.

Our area is gaining 3 new hires, academy grads. As far as I know, Jun and Jaydi are both in the building, and I have heard the 3rd should show up soon. We are not getting any transfers or anything outside of those 3 at this time.

Additionally, Annika will be leaving in November to take a job…somewhere else, I can’t remember now to be honest what the title is, but it was what Steve Robello has been doing. He will be taking over as the C-Area OM when Annika leaves.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation, I appreciate all you do. Have a great rest of your week, and if you need anything, please reach out.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

GPI/MSO Meeting

Hi C Area,

Wednesday afternoon, I was on a telecon with DJ, EW, JI, TD, Paul from airspace, and a bunch of NATCA, management, and airspace representatives from ZLC. The gist of the meeting was to go over the AIT between us and ZLC in regard to GPI and MSO arrivals.

The need from ZLC stems from the amount of arrivals they’re running into GPI and MSO, upwards of 40,000 operations/year at GPI and 45,000 at MSO. The goal of splitting off a new sector (ZLC 12, which they’re HOPING to have the frequencies for perhaps this month, but they also requested this all starting in February to be ready for the summer traffic…..so……….”any day now”….) was to help alleviate some of the frequency congestion and workload on 19. Having set the stage, the AIT was developed to help streamline operations into GPI and MSO, reducing the amount of coordination ZLC would have to do with us and GEG (MSO). The request for AOB FL230 was so they would not have to reach out to ZSE 8 for a point out and control.

We reviewed a lot of traffic layouts, showing arrival lines through 8 into ZLC19. We also showed some examples of how these arrivals can go through ZLC6, making more coordination for us. We asked what the need for the specific fixes into MSO was for as well. Basically, ZLC has an LOA with GEG/MSO for 10 or 11 approved fixes aircraft can be cleared to without coordination, and they wanted to give something similar to us.

Overall, it was a great opportunity to collaborate and find out what ZLC’s specific needs were and how we could help them without going down the tubes ourselves.

There is going to be a draft written up and a trial period with some new procedures, so you will have time to evaluate them and give constructive feedback.

The following are ideas we are looking into implementing, nothing is set in stone yet.

These are not current procedures, and it is meant to be an overview for you so I can share with you what is being discussed.

GPI

If the aircraft are over or north of MLP, we will issue them AOB FL230

If the aircraft are south or east of MLP, we will give them to ZLC desceding to FL280 or FL290 (still working on that altitude and whether it will be a flash through from ZLC20 to 19 or 12 or if we’ll point them out and hand them off to ZLC19/12}

There will be something written about ZLC having control for GPI arrivals for descent

ZSE will be responsible for making sure interfacility coordination is done between 48/11/8

MSO

ZLC will flash through to MSO (I did bring up when they take the handoff and sit on it, that is not the intent and we can hope that improves with time)

If the MSO arrival clips or goes through ZLC6, hand off to 6 and let them work the aircraft into MSO. No altitude requirement to 6, but if you’re going to give a descent, give descending to FL240 so they don’t have to coordinate with 48 for control (PD is fine). Don’t worry about right for direction, they would rather have less coordination.

We will be given the approved fixes list from ZLC/MSO so we can give any of the fixes on that list without coordinating

Still give descent to 150 if ZLC6 is not involved in route, PD is fine

We are working on how to get the runway in use at MSO on our board and who and how will notify us of it.

Thank you for all your input and patience as we work this all out. It was a real productive meeting and I think both facilities walked away feeling like their needs were understood and respected.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Updates!

C Area -

First off, thank you for your help collecting data for the MSO and GPI arrivals. I have continued to forward it all to Jackie and we will be meeting with ZLC this Wednesday to go over the procedures for these airports and see what we can work out. Don’t stop until then, though! If you see something that would help us paint a picture for ZLC, please email or leave the strip in my headset box, whatever is easier for you. I will let you know what comes of it.

I attended RT-1 a couple of weeks ago. It was a great learning opportunity for me, and I am thankful that I was able to go. I learned a LOT and I’m still processing it all. Lots of notes were taken, and I feel like I have a good basis of knowledge to move forward with. I will continue to learn and look things up, and want to do what is best for our area. I appreciate your patience with me as I make sure I have good and complete answers for you.

Bidding - 36 was a super number, but I have to report that it is no more. At this point, I’m not sure what we will be bidding, but as soon as I know I will for sure share it with you. Carly is working hard at building some schedules we can present to management, but we most likely will not be able to do anything fun with it like we had hoped. I will do my best to keep you posted as I find things out.

Management is - are you sitting down? - looking at our TOP numbers and isn’t happy with them. Additionally, I am hearing talk about mandating positions being open until certain hours at night. I don’t think the C area is the main culprit of this, but there are situations that management has taken notice of and doesn’t like, mostly pertaining to the mids. I tell you this to tell you this - we don’t want management coming down on us telling us what to keep open until 10 or 11 at night, or at least, I don’t think we do…? So please, use good judgement when it comes to that time after 9 or 10pm. If you’re here later, check in on those who are working. Don’t come in on a mid and bypass checking in on your fellow co workers. If it looks like it might get a little busy, keep things split a little later than normal. I know people like their “spools”, but those aren’t a guarantee all the time. If you have any questions about this, please reach out. I’m not pointing fingers, I hope this isn’t coming across as accusatory, but I want you to be aware of what management is seeing and thinking so perhaps we can avoid any unpleasantries.

As always, I’m available if you need anything. Thanks for all you do!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

MSO & GPI

Hi C Area

We have an opportunity to make changes to the agreement between us and ZLC about GPI and MSO arrivals.

What I need from you are times and call signs of situations that have caused an excess of work load to you or any kind of other issues. Efficiency, coordination, you name it.

Please email or text me the times and call signs so we can pass this along and make the changes I’ve been hearing through the ERC and word of mouth that you would like to see happen.

Thank you!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Checking in

Happy Sunday, C Area!

First thing - these past couple of weeks have posed some challenges and have caused a lot of frustration, I know. Between Seafair, Vancouver going down to very minimal staffing (for what, I still don’t know, maybe you do…?) causing a lot of reroutes through our airspace, and thunderstorm season upon us, I want you to know I, for one, appreciate you being there, working hard, and keeping things moving safely and efficiently. Well done to you all!

The MIA maps are up and running, so please be diligent in ensuring you have your maps up or are double checking the altitudes.

We are still working out something new with GPI arrivals with going through 48, ZLC6, 08, and ZLC20. Please be patient and keep me posted if you have any ideas or if you’re having any issues with this.

I have presented a tentative schedule to management for their approval before we start briefing the workforce. I will keep you posted when I hear more. In the meantime, I still appreciate any and all feedback or ideas for the schedule.

I will be at RT-1 this week, but I will be available if you need anything.

Thanks again for all you do! Have a great week!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Ending July on a great note!

Good Morning C Area!

A BIG congrats to Grant for certifying on 7/11 and Keith for recertifying in the area yesterday! Great job to the training teams and all who made it possible. Well done, gentlemen!

Have a great weekend, all!

Crumbley

Pre-August Update

Hi C Area!

I hope this finds you all well and staying cool in the sun that finally arrived! I have a few thoughts and updates for you all, and as always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions to keep the area moving in the right direction.

GEG LOA - any more suggestions or thoughts about this? I haven’t heard anything more since the last update I sent out. Will follow up with this and see where we are with the wording in the LOA but I still welcome any thoughts on this one.

MSO Arrivals - any issues with this…? I haven’t heard much feedback on how this is going, so please let me know if anything needs to change or be brought to the attention of the appropriate people.

There was some talk about seeing the Vancouver MIA maps. Unfortunately, we are not able to display them. We have a copy of what their MIA’s currently look like, but the updates and permanent ability to see them when we need them is not there. I would say if you have a question if an altitude will work for our brethren to the north, give them a call in enough time you can do something with it.

On to the goods - the schedule! Blaser is working on putting something together for us to look at. We are potentially bidding 36 (please don’t hold me to that…. just an estimate for right now). If you have thoughts on what you would like to see, please let me or Blaser know. We are working on something that would allow for a straight day line (possibly with a mid) and a straight swing line with a couple rattlers per set of days off.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, complaints (with possible solutions..?), or concerns. I appreciate you all!

Have a good one!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Last one... potentially....

I can’t go on vacation without proclaiming it to the world, from the top of someplace very high (“Cars” reference! ….anyone….?) a big congrats to Hunter for certifying on R-side Lows this morning! Well done to his trainers and all who helped in his journey towards certification. Congrats, Hunter!

Have a great rest of your week everyone. I appreciate you all.

Crumbley

Thank you!

Hi again!

We got a volunteer for the SGET trip next month, but if you’re still interested in it in the future, please let me know.

Big congrats to Jennifer Hilton for certifying on 47/48 tonight! Great job to her trainers and all who helped in her success. Well done, ma’am!

Have a great rest of your week, all!

Crumbley

SGET

Hey there C Area!

I know this is pretty last minute, and I’m sorry to do this, but we are in need of a volunteer to do SGET training in Oklahoma City from August 2-11.

Please -

Check your personal schedule and see if you’re available to do it.

Disregard if you’ve already told me you can’t (but I appreciate your willingness to check!)

Let me know ASAP if it’s something you’re available to help out with.

We need someone by Friday so we can keep our spot in this class.

Thank you everyone!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

July Updates

Happy mid-July, C Area!

First off, thank you for your timely responses to the T-shirt forms. Whether you decided to get one or not, I appreciate you taking the time to message me back and as a result, the C area was the first to get a response from all it’s members! I’m sure we’ll hear when the order is placed, but they won’t be waiting on us :)

A big congrats to Chase and Xylen for their recent certifications on R-side lows and D-side lows, respectively. Great job to their trainers and everyone who helped in their success. Well done, gentlemen!

I will be out of town and will have spotty reception at best from the 15th - 24th of July. Devin will be available if you are in need of anything during that time. Thank you, Devin!

The GEG LOA is still in the works. We are working on trying to get COE arrivals a lower altitude that we won’t have to coordinate. It was initially proposed that the W/E boundary lines for GEG would be what we would use, all arrivals to COE from the east and south that would be within those lines would get assigned a lower altitude. Another suggestion was to use the W/E boundary line that is on the north side of GEG’s airspace and S72 for the south side of the area that COE arrivals would get assigned lower. GEG assigns COE departures to 90 initially, so we had discussed descending them to 100. If you have any thoughts on this, please share with me, Jackie, or Darlington.

The new joint letter between us, ZLC and GEG MSO approach has been in effect for a little over a week now. If you’re having issues finding it, it’s not in the ZLC LOA on ERIDS. Look under Local Docs, Air Traffic, LOA’s, Centers, Joint. There you’ll find the ZLC ZSE GEG AIT which covers the new procedures. I want to know your thoughs on this, what is and isn’t working about it, any suggestions to make it better, etc. It would help if you include the times that the situation happened with AID’s so we have some data to back up the concern.

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns, I’m happy to help any way I can.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Update

Hi C Area!

A couple of quick updates for ya

Thank you to the DataComm volunteers for stepping up, I appreciate your time and efforts to help out!

Amy sent out an email recently for facility shirts. Please get your form filled out ASAP so she can place the order.

WOMEN’S CUT FORM

MEN’S CUT FORM

These shirts run a little small, so be aware of that when you place your order. The front is the octopus, the back is the radar sweep with the mountain and the fish. Local is purchasing a shirt for the members who would like one.

We are looking into the LOA with GEG for when they go live with Chinook airspace in October. If you have any thoughts on that, please let me or Jackie know.

On another note, it was mentioned that management thinks it would be a good idea to publish 1 under guides for the summer because the airlines aren’t supposed to have the flight schedule they were planning on. I have stayed it off so far, but please don’t hesitate to split a position or sit on a D side if it’s needed or looks like it could be beneficial. We don’t want to lose a body when we could really use it.

COVID - if you test positive for COVID with an at home test, that’s enough to let the flight surgeon know. To get reimbursed for your leave, you will need a PCR test (per Amy’s email June 3rd I think it was). After you get the result, fill out your CA-1 and let management know you are requesting to be put on COP. Please reach out if you have any questions on this. It can be a little confusing but we’re working on getting all the steps dialed in.

Thanks guys, as always, I’m available if you need anything.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Datacomm

Hi C Area!

We are still looking for 2 volunteers to be Datacomm SME’s for the implementation coming next spring.

The cadre class is 11/1-5 and then either 11/7-9 or 11/10-12 for the last part of the class. Yes, they are holding classes on Saturdays.

The training portion of this detail is 1/7/23-3/31/23. Classes are 3 days long and will run Mon-Wed and Thurs-Sat.

Please let me know if you’re interested or if you have any questions about the process.

Thank you!

Crumbley

New C Area Rep

As of today, Amanda Crumbley will be stepping up as C Area Rep. I want to thank her for stepping up and filling the role as I have become extremely busy in life and with my other NATCA duties. I remain an officer of the local, as your treasurer, I would be happy to field any issues you may have and coordinate with Amanda to get them resolved. With that, here is a message from Amanda. Going forward any emails from this address will be from her.

---

Hi C area!

The decision to step into the area rep role wasn't one I took lightly, but I am looking forward to the challenges and learning opportunities that being your area rep presents.

I hope to continue to foster a good working relationship with management and our surrounding areas.  I know there are concerns with other facilities that need to be brought forward, and I will work hard to ensure they are resolved.  My hope is you bring some solutions to the table with your concerns so we can all work together to resolve issues.  

Please feel free to reach out to me with your questions and concerns, and I will do my very best to address them or figure out where I need to go for answers.

Thank you,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

CPDLC CADRE Solicitation

Data Comm training and implementation has been tentatively scheduled for the first half of 2023 at ZSE. We are currently looking for 2 people to be the CADRE, trainers for the Data Comm team at ZSE. If you are interested in being a Data Comm instructor please let me know. The training dates are scheduled for October 31 - November 10 and you must be available for those dates.

Devin Carlisto

Email: devin.carlisto@natca.net

Text: 619 818 5335

C Area Update

Flight Strip Reduction/Elimination CWG

The facility is chartering a Collaborative Work Group (CWG) on reducing or eliminating paper flight strips. There will be at least one member from each area to represent the needs of their area. If you are interested in participating please let me know.

PSC/GEG

The target date for PSC/YKM sectors to move to GEG is October 2022. This date may slip depending on many factors. In the meantime we will be crafting a new LOA for GEG to include PSC/YKM sectors. I have spoken informally with many of you about things new would want to pursue in a reimagined LOA. So far some of the topics identified are:

• Name of approach control to remain Spokane Approach? or change to another inclusive name.

• Reduce manual coordination from aircraft between MIA and 090 at PSC/GEG.

• CARP being used beyond mid shift times.

• PSC staying open an extra hour.

• YKM arrivals below 110 requires manual coordination, elimination of language.

If you have any other idea please let me know.

Spot Leave

C Area,

Spot Leave Requests

We’ve agreed to open up spot leave request for 2022 unpublished schedules on Sunday 1-16-22 at 1:00AM local. Opening spot leave requests during a mid is when the least amount of people are in the control room in an effort to maximize everyone’s opportunity to access web schedule at the same time.

To be clear, any spot leave requests made prior to 1:00AM on Sunday 1-16-22 for unpublished schedules will be deleted and you will have to re-enter your request.

If there are any questions with this please let Devin or myself know.

AWS Request 

If you haven’t made an AWS request and want to do so please let Carly Way know as soon as possible.

Lastly, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for the opportunity to be your area rep a second time.  It’s been truly a unique experience during the pandemic, 5x10 schedule, 5x5 schedule, and all the changes associated with that over the last 2 years.  Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Thank You!

James Darlington 

NATCA C Area Rep

904-347-3065