All,
Hopefully everyone is having a good week. A few new things this week and a few carryovers from last week. Looking forward to seeing everyone today at 4pm at Dave and Busters!
New OM
During my grueling two day collaboration training on 2/14 and 2/15 I learned that we will be getting B Area Supervisor Jason Alliston as our next OM. I discussed a few things with him and I am cautiously optimistic about how he will be as an OM. Not sure when he will take over, but I think they are shooting for April.
Supervisor Duties
In case you care who is assigned what, here are the following duties that are assigned to our area FLMs:
Baker - Airspace & Procedures/510/Pubs
Brennan - Quality Control
Brier - Training
Michelsen - Schedule/TMU
AMDT Change
The change should currently be in effect. Has anyone seen any issues on the floor with the increased delay?
Pending Requests
Jason Poole is still planning on briefing all of the supes on this in March. However, our incoming OM (Jason Alliston) is in agreement with me on this and plans to follow the contract as well. Make sure you are letting me know about any issues with this.
Just as a reminder, here are the relevant contract excerpts:
Article 24 Section 14
Spot leave is leave requested for any period during a posted watch schedule. Leave requests for the shift being worked shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload within thirty (30) minutes of the request being made. Leave requests for future shifts shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload within two (2) hours of when the request was made, or prior to the end of the shift, whichever is less. Approval/disapproval shall not be subject to conditional circumstances. Leave requests shall be approved in the order that they were requested. If the request was disapproved and annual leave for that time period later becomes available, the leave shall be approved in the order that the request was received.
Article 32 Section 8
When considering an individual request for a shift and/or days off change, the Agency will consider the staffing and workload of the losing and gaining shift as a precondition to approval. If it is determined that those needs are adequately met, the change shall be approved.
Area Training Rep
I got a few volunteers for this and we are currently in the process of setting up the details. More to come.
CEDAR/Hot Sheets
Anyone getting PRoCs yet for not checking their CEDAR? Let me know.
Refresher Training
Refresher Training will be taking place May 21-24. We are still looking for some volunteers and some ideas for this. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on either.
Next is some notes from Garret from our Meeting with the Coast Guard last month:
ZSE/USCG Meeting Summary – January 2018
Background: At the request of the US Coast Guard, two pilots from the North Bend Sector arrived at the Auburn Municipal Airport for an informal face-to-face meeting and facility tour with ZSE personnel on Friday, January 26, 2018. The primary purpose of the meeting was to improve mutual awareness of operational requirements and limitations between all parties in order to increase safety and efficiency.
Participants: Lieutenant Chad A. Perdue was the lead representative for the USCG. Glen Wood (Airspace and Procedures Support Manager) was the lead representative for ZSE. Representing the D-Area was Garret Wilkerson (Airspace SME), Bill Kohler (Airspace SME), Drew Stewart (NATCA Area Rep) and Vaden Michelsen (FLM). Representing the B-Area was Jonathan Bradshaw (Airspace SME) and Annika Preciado (FLM).
Takeaways and Discussions:
1. USCG primary concern: The North Bend Sector operates the MH-65D helicopter (Type AS65/G, aka “Dolphin”), which is not approved for flight into known icing conditions. This limitation often prevents USCG pilots from being able to accept an IFR clearance at or above the MIA as required by ATC. Therefore, the Coast Guard was most interested in learning how ATC might be able to issue them a clearance for an Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) without having to climb to the MIA.
Solution: We discussed how pilots should contact ATC in advance and (1) relay their current position (preferably by referencing a FIX, WAYPOINT or FRD) and altitude, (2) emphasize MEDEVAC priority, if necessary (i.e. “Coast Guard Rescue”), and (3) state the approach requested.
If the pilot is unable to accept a clearance at or above the MIA, it was suggested (weather permitting) that they make an alternate request to maintain VFR until established on a published segment/transition of the approach (no closer than the FAF) at or above the published altitude of that segment/transition.
We explained how in this case, ATC could issue an approach clearance below the MIA, only if the pilot is able to maintain VFR and subsequently report established on a published approach segment/transition at the proper altitude. We also discussed how contacting ATC in a timely manner with such a request helps increase efficiency since other traffic may also be a factor.
2. Fuel limitations: Due to the somewhat limited fuel capacity of the MH-65D (AS65/G) helicopter, their ability to absorb additional delays is also limited. If ATC does need to delay them for traffic, it is important to issue them an accurate expectation of the delay time.
3. OTH pilot training: Since both new pilot and recurrent training require a certain number of approaches in a given time period, the Coast Guard will periodically request multiple approaches at OTH. It was discussed how to streamline this process and increase efficiency for both the pilots and ATC:
a. The D-Area suggested that the Coast Guard call the FLM/CIC desk number about an hour before such training flights to coordinate timing and give the sector controllers a heads up. This gives ATC the opportunity to plan accordingly for workload and staffing.
b. After discussing their needs further, ZSE also suggested a specific way for the Coast Guard to file their IFR flight plans for approach training at OTH:
i. KOTH..OTH..EMIRE..KOTH, requested altitude 040, with “NO SIDS” in the remarks.
We explained our requirement to issue a transition on the OTH6 SID, which the pilots usually do not want to fly. By having them file this route with “NO SIDS” in the remarks, they can be cleared “as filed.”
This routing also allows ATC to issue a clearance for the ILS or LOC RWY 4 approach once the pilot reports established on the transition between the OTH VOR/DME and EMIRE at or above the transition altitude of 3000. This routing also gives the controller the ability to issue the approach clearance without radar-identification.
4. OTH call signs: North Bend Sector commonly uses C6501, C6512, C6514, C6522 and C6581. They told us the first two digits represent the helicopter type, except that the C66XX call signs are also the AS65/G when the last two digits are rolled over from 99.
Slack Instructions
This is not really all that complicated but you do have to make a few moves to ensure you get all of the alerts for the area slack channel. Here's the best step by step process I can come up with.
If you have are already set up in the slack app, skip straight to step 4.
- Download Slack
- Go to your email and click on the link I sent you (might say from Devin Carlisto)
- Set up your account. Please put your full name in the name spot and as your display name, please only put your operating initials.
- Click the multi-colored hashtag - # - (pound sign if you're over 50) in the top left corner of the app. When this menu comes up, there should be a lowercase "d" there with a lock next to it. Click on that.
- You are now in the D area slack. To get any notifications, you have to turn on "all" notifications individually for each channel. So now click the three vertical dots in the top right. Then go to settings --> notifications and turn on all notifications. If this gets to be too much for you, you can always go back and change it later.
- Please announce yourself! I am keeping a list of who all is set up in the slack and I promise I will hassle you relentlessly until I know you are at least on the slack. Whether or not you choose to participate is up to you.
You can follow the same process (step 5) in the main ZSE channel (#general) if you want to get notifications for that as well.
The following people still need to sign up:
Zach Deubler
Tim Clark
Andrew Ferguson-Johns
Eric Johnsen
Wonbae Kim
Jordan Sandoval
Kelly Saunders
Matt Williford
Korri Courtois
Mark Baden
Geoff Goodfellow
Mark Haechler
Brett Lewis
Bill Kohler
Derek Myers
Paul Ross
April Warfel
Carl Warfel
Denise Spencer
Jared Zautner
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR SLACK
I wrote those instructions mostly from memory so forgive me if I missed something. Also, I have taken several people's phones and set it up for them and I can do this for you as well. Just find me on break and I'll do it. Also, I can do this at the Dave and Busters Meetup today (2/19) at 4pm!! Hope to see you all there!
In Solidarity,
Drew