S46 speed reductions
Starting at midnight, the new S46 LOA finally goes into effect. With it, S46 will have control to slow arrival airplanes up to 40 kts.
We agreed to this after the 3-mile area had been expanded to pretty much everywhere — significantly lessening our exposure of having a loss of separation — and I feel confident in how it will work on the floor.
Like us, they have a big board that shows all the arrivals, and it’s highly unlikely — for their own sake — that they’re going to slam the brakes on the first aircraft in a long sequence.
That being said, when we negotiated this change with them, we told them that we will not ship them the front airplane until they’ve taken radar on the aircraft behind them.
They want to talk to inbound aircraft — and requested a note in there about us shipping them within 40 miles of SEA — but we made clear to them that, if they want to talk to the airplanes, they have to take the handoff on the front plane and next plane before they get to talk to the first one.
When I’m working long sequences going forward, I intend to wait to ship them the first one until they’ve taken the second one. Then I’ll wait to ship them the second one until they’ve taken the third one, etc.
PAE north flow
Previously in a north flow, the LOA instructed us to hand off Sector 31 PAE arrivals to SSP, and it noted that S46 would accomplish the internal coordination. That part of the LOA has been eliminated. Accordingly, if you have someone on the DEVYN arrival, you’ll still hand them off to SSP, as the aircraft will enter that sector first. However, if an aircraft is direct to PAE from the east, you’ll hand them off SSE instead. If they’re VFR, you could hand them off to SSP, SSE, or SSA — depending on how they enter S46 airspace.
BFI/RNT north-flow procedures remain the same — we hand them off SSA and SSA will accomplish internal coordination.
Let me know about any problems
A lot of thought and collaboration went into the new LOA — thanks again to Derek Adams for representing us so well in the CWG — but considering the number of changes, there may be unintended consequences. If you run into problems, please forward them to Matt Coughlin, our airspace rep, or myself.
Microwave moved
Our microwave in the area recently got moved because it was blocking an electrical panel. Please do not move it back to its former location.
Weather deviations
On Monday evening, our facility experienced some pretty crazy weather deviations. I was here on OT, and I just wanted to say how proud I felt to be a Seattle Center air traffic controller. Our people did an incredible job of safely working airplanes through some really complex traffic situations.
In solidarity,
Dan Rasmussen
801-860-3821