All,

 

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Lots going on right now so bear with me and try to make it to the end of this update.

 

Line Waterfall

I hit a snag with our line waterfall.  I assumed that as soon as we bid out Al's line, we would immediately bid out April's line.  Well Poole pushed back on that idea and it put us in a bind.  So because we are not bidding out April's line just yet, I have to give her a chance to bid in the waterfall too. I did, and she took KR's old line.  So there has been a slight amendment to the waterfall.  I am meeting with Poole on Wednesday in hopes of settling this and bidding out April's line but if I am unable to come to an agreement with him, I will send it up to Troy and Don to sort it out.

The adjusted waterfall to take place for PP11 is as follows:

MK to AL
KR to MK
AW to KR
AM to AW
CH to AM
KD to CH
YJ to KD
ZK to YJ
GR to ZK
KX to GR

 

RNT is Now NATCA

Renton Tower has joined our ranks as a NATCA facility.  For us, this means that ZK will be picking up a few years of seniority and will be moving up in the world.  I don’t know for sure yet exactly where he fits with the added time but I think it is right around KC.  Amy will be gathering the information on this soon and updating our seniority list.

 

Area Training Rep

This is still at the facility level.  I spoke to Troy last week and he plans to meet with Don Hill to discuss specifics.  If you have any questions or suggestions about it, please feel free to take those to Troy.

 

Article 46 Move to B Area

As of yet, this is still not happening.  Any discussions regarding this move are on hold until the fall.  If you hear anything about it let me know and I will run down its accuracy.

 

LSC Vacancy

Expect there to soon be a facility wide solicitation to replace Dawn McElvain on the LSC.  I’ll let you know when that officially comes out.

 

Full MVA Redesign

Garret has been working to learn the new MVA program and is making some progress on getting our MVAs adjusted.  To do this in the most effective way would require a total redesign of our MVA Map.  I am onboard with this because the end result is going to be lower MVAs all around.  If you are opposed to a change in our MVA map, please let Garret or me know.

 

Cascade Approach

Cascade has begun the process of renegotiating their LOA with us.  So far they have asked for the following:

EUG airspace

  • ZSE control on contact for all RBG / OTH landers.
  • ZSE control for turns up to 30° on aircraft leaving airspace.

MFR airspace

  • ZSE route all MFR landers from 36 direct SAMIE.
  • Notify Cascade when sectors combine/decombine. Just so Cascade knows if an aircraft needs to go to 30 or 10 if they’re climbing high eastbound.  (I assume it'll still be anyone's guess what frequency they end up on)

They are also are interested in taking some of our airspace.  They want to increase their vertical boundary by 1-2,000 ft.  I am generally against the idea of giving up airspace but I wanted to see what you all thought about it.  Cascade says that their MVA in the SW corner is 9,100 and it’s tight sometimes especially when MFR is landing 32. Also, they could top our Mt McLoughlin MVA, for better radio coverage for Sector 10 and aircraft would not need that V122..LMT transition. 

We are in the early stages of talks with them so please jump on the slack and let me know your thoughts or tell Garret or me in person as well.

 

A Sides Being Converted to D Side Processors

From the ERAM Adaption Oversight Team:

ERAM "Tech Refresh 2 Early D" is underway to address an ERAM risk related to hardware failures and limited availability of spares, including the D/A positions.  In the current ERAM software baseline, the replacement processor do not support D/A positions, which will continue to using existing hardware until delivery of the EAE200 system release.  In addition, Risk 246, P615 Performance Issue, identifies CPU and memory utilization issues associated with existing D/A position processors.

An opportunity exists to replace additional processors during "Early D" and reduce both risks affecting the D/A processors by converting converting D/A positions if the D/A functionality is not required.  This adaptation change must be implemented in advance of hardware replacement to ensure the current, fallback and alternate releases installed on the processors are compatible with both the old and new hardware.

The conversion of D/A positions to D positions is optional, and sites should retain any D/A positions they feel are necessary.  Any remaining D/A positions will be replaced during the "Tech Refresh 2 Full" activity and the delivery of the EAE200 system release that supports D/A positions using new hardware.

Impact on us:

We have 2 D/A position processors on the D area, known to us as "A Sides."  There is one hidden behind our bay headers and one in between Sector 13 and 14.  We were asked if we could convert one of those to a full "D side" processor.  I elected to upgrade the one in between 13 and 14.  This will likely have no impact on us, but it is possible they install a D Side screen to go with the new processor.  If you actually read everything above and are now all the way down here I am pretty impressed.  Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns regarding this process.  Anthony Goodwin can probably answer them as well.

 

Shift Change Request Reminder

Remember that shift changes for an entire pay period can be done 28 days before the first day of that pay period.  So the actual day of the request could be 40 days out but as long as it is within 4 weeks of the Sunday that starts the pay period, it is legit.  A simpler way to look at it is that at midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning is the first second that you can put in a request for a pay period that is two ahead.

 

Credit Requests

The biggest thing I want to remind everyone of with credit requests is YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE CREDIT ON THE BOOKS TO REQUEST TO BURN IT.  Meaning if you have 4 days of credit requested throughout the year then it is not possible for you to have the days necessary to cover that since we can only have 24hrs of credit.  Please keep an eye on this.  It is a very easy thing to get caught doing wrong and if you get caught doing it, you will likely be the reason mgmt audits everyone’s leave requests.

 

In Solidarity,

Drew