1. D-side Briefings -
There is apparently some kind of QA audit going on regarding briefings from the D-side when "going to one." They are trying to see if they are taking place, and whether or not they are recorded when they do take place. The supervisors have apparently been told to keep an eye on this and keep track of all the briefings they see. I'm told no names are being attached to these, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.
2. Training Priority -
You might have heard something about a trainee's second and fourth days being their priority days. This is coming from Don, and here is how I understand it. On days where there are multiple trainees and not enough OJTI's to train them, priority will be given to those trainees on their second or fourth day of the week. This eliminates having the supervisors having to pick and choose who gets trained on a specific day when all the trainees can't be trained. The goal remains to train every trainee every day, but on those days when we can't, this is supposed to help the supervisors know who should be trained. Don says that this won't affect annual leave, i.e. if it is a trainee's second day, they shouldn't deny your leave solely based on needing to train them that day. Look for new training plans to have some sort of explanation of this second and fourth day rule in them.
I've told Don that it sounds fine on the surface, lets see how it goes and possibly revisit it if we find some snags. Let me know if this second and fourth day thing causes any problems so I can fix it.
3. Radar Map Changes -
Al has been working on cleaning up our map a little bit, and also helping clear up how we should be vectoring at LMT and ACV.
He is tying all of the military fixes to one button (currently named the LMT TACAN 32 button) so that when you hit that button, you will see all the fixes relating to high approaches, and vectoring for final. This way you don't have to always have them displayed as we currently have it. He is also putting together cheat sheets for each approach at LMT that shows different fixes on the approach, and what altitudes you should be vectoring them at. Look for these changes to happen sometime at the end of this month. I've attached a sheet that Al put together, listing all of the changes specifically.
4. Another Radar Map Change -
There is an idea to remove the vectoring "tick marks" and approach gate at ACV and have them tied to either a DIK button and/or a map button. The rationale is that it will clean up the scope and you can pull it up when you need it rather than having it constantly displayed. If it goes on the DIK, it would be tied to the button that pulls up the MIA lines and altitudes.
Any thoughts on this idea? Sound good or leave them constantly displayed?
5. Parking Decals -
Don't forget we have to get new parking decals. Our week to visit the guard shack starts Sunday May 3rd. I've attached a flyer that explains what you need to do.
6. Schedule Ideas -
If anybody has any ideas for next year's schedule, let me hear them. I've already had Drew approach me with one idea, and I'll propose that to you guys as we get closer to schedule building and negotiation. For now, if you have an idea, run it by me and I can run it by the area.
That's everything for now. Let me know if you have feedback on any of the items above!
Chico