All,

Hope everyone is having a good week.  Just a couple of quick things.

Webscheduler App

This is from the National Office:

It has come to our attention that an APP has been developed to access Air Traffic Web Schedules program without the approval of the FAA and should not be used.  This is a reminder “The use of personally owned equipment, contractor furnished equipment, vendor equipment, or other non-GFE to connect remotely to the FAA network requires explicit written approval of the FAA CIO prior to their use, which includes APPS on mobile device.”

It’s unclear to me why they capitalized APP but the message is clear either way.  I have seen this app around and I know it is popular.  Please do not use any apps to access FAA networks.

Poor Staffing

So it has been a rough week or so for staffing in the area.  Management has been really rolling the dice by going under guides.  This is something I can bitch at them for but I can't stop them from working a shift under guides.  We just need to keep track of when it happens and make sure they are being consistent about it.  By that I mean if they are denying leave to go under guides but going 3 under to accommodate a class or something then I can address that with them. 

Most importantly, if you work a shift under guides, especially some of these ones that are 2-3 under, please let me know if anything unacceptable is going on on those shifts.  By that I mean are they:

  • Pushing you over 2 hours?

  • Not giving you help (D-sides, etc) when you ask? 

  • Not accomplishing training?

  • Unsafely combining sectors?

These are things we can address.  But I can't just go to them and tell them everything needs to be at guides all the time because:

  1. They ultimately have the right to assign work, we just have to have a discussion about it.

  2. If I push for them to be at guides all the time I am concerned that they would deny more leave instead of approving leave to go under guides.

This is all a bit of a tricky thing to navigate with mgmt.  I appreciate any details you can provide about these situations as they arise.

Valar Morghulis,

Drew