Dearest A area,
Greetings and salutations.
Kenny Hobbs earns “Safe Hands Player of the Month” award
Talk about coming through in the clutch.
Sweet Mr. Kenny Hobbs and his wife had been expecting their second child to arrive any day when Mrs. Hobbs’ water broke last week.
Just minutes later, the baby arrived into the waiting arms of Kenny inside the confines of their Buckley home.
Both mother and child, whom they named Wrenley, are doing well.
Congrats to Kenny and his family.
(Please note, this is the second time I have gotten to write a news story on a Hobbs brother. I wrote a story on his brother Travis, who’s in the B area, 17 years ago.)
To open or not to open, that is the question
With the arrival of our summer guides, which includes the return of the 0630 shift, I’ve had a few people ask me about whether we should be opening a third sector during the hour between 0530-0630.
I am not, nor will I ever be, a big believer in staffing chairs. I believe in trying to design our guides so as to provide us with the coverage that we need, and then we open and close sectors as needed.
Having said that, I do believe that having the 0630 shift provides us with insurance and flexibility during that first hour. We had to fight pretty hard to be able to keep that shift for part of the year. It will be a whole lot easier to keep it when we negotiate next year’s schedule if we can show them data that we use the extra body during the busy periods of the year.
Resultantly, on days when we have all of the early bodies (our three 6s and the 0630), I suggest opening 3/12 as soon as three people have arrived at work, and then the fourth body can get our break rotation going when they arrive.
Please don’t treat this as a hard and fast rule. If you think you should pursue a different plan because of traffic, training, or any of the myriad other things that are involved in our work, please feel free to do so.
I trust all of us to continue to use our best judgment about opening and closing sectors.
One of the things I’m most proud about our area is the fact that if management allowed us to not staff the desk for an entire day, I have no doubt that we would manage the area without any interruption.
Next year’s schedule
While we’re on the topic of next year’s schedule, I’ve fielded a few questions about our preparations for next year’s MOU negotiations.
Given all of the uncertainty about the potential implementation of new fatigue rules, I’m waiting for now to get more information before we proceed.
I don’t want to get into the weeds trying to come up with brand-new schedules when we don’t know what will emerge out of the collaboration process between NATCA and the agency.
Sector 3’s west-side BUEC upgraded
Sweet Matt Coughlin has been working with various parties for almost a year to address the fact that if we lose the west-side transmitter for Sector 3, we can’t talk to airplanes in the northwest part of the sector.
The FAA just installed an upgraded radio tower for the BUEC transmitter at HQM. From the conversations that I had beforehand, I had been led to believe this new tower would reach all the way out to DOLFF. However, based on the coverage map Chatty and I received, it appears the coverage might not make it all the way there.
Please test it out in the coming days and let me or Chatty know if you think it reaches any farther west than the old one did.
Certification
Congrats to Cody Edwards for getting certified on Sector 3/12. Keep it rolling.
In solidarity,
Dan Rasmussen
801-860-3821