NATCA ZDC May/June 2010

NATCA ZDC
May/June 2010
Legislative Update
Local BBS
May 23rd through the 25th, hundreds of NATCAvists Not yet a signed up to the BBS? Go to
descended upon Washington, DC for NATCA in www.zdcnatca.com and register
Washington 2010. Hundreds of meetings were held with today! At the very top of the home
Members of Congress, the U.S. Senate and their staffers. page is a link to “create an account”.
During these meetings with Congress, our members To sign up you will need your
encouraged their representatives to pass FAA NATCA ID #. To obtain your ID #,
Reauthorization now to improve safety and move our please see your Area Rep, President,
aviation system forward. We hope to have positive news Vice President or Webpage
about FAA Reauthorization before the congressional recess Administrator.
July 3rd.

Mid-Atlantic NATCA Softball

Tournament

Sign up in the Union trailer for the First Annual Mid-Atlantic NATCA Softball Tournament. Come
join your fellow NATCA brothers and sisters from around the area for a day of softball and fun.
Families are welcome; there will be plenty of activities for kids. Stop by before or after your shift for
the all day cookout.

When: June 16, 2010 (Wednesday)

11am-7pm

Where: Bready Park

814 Ferndale Avenue, Herndon, VA 20170
(Next to the Herndon Community Center)
NATCA ZDC May/June 2010

NASA Survey Request

www.NASASurvey.us

A workgroup formed by NATCA and the FAA has created a survey that NATCA is strongly encouraging
each of you to take. The purpose of this survey is to help gather data that will be used to improve our
working conditions. The survey is anonymous and none of the information will be traced back to you. You
must be afforded sufficient duty time to take the survey.

www.NASASurvey.us

Members in Need

Randy Zak and Brian Moore of Area 1 are both in need of leave donations due to illnesses. They both
have been approved in to the Leave Donor Program. If you are able to donate, please go to:
http://employees.faa.gov. Under TOP REQUESTS click Voluntary Leave Transfer, on the left side of that
page click on RECIPIENTS LIST AND ONLINE DONATIONS, on the next page select EASTERN
REGION, then scroll to their names. It will give you further directions from there. Thank you in advance
for your kindness.

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NATCA ZDC May/June 2010

Torrey Reich, ZDC NATCA Safety Rep

Almost every evening, Scandinavian Airlines – was found that “these aircraft have been designed,
SAS926, an A330-300 departure out of IAD through for reasons of passenger comfort and aerodynamics,
the SWANN Sector (17), takes an “Airbus turn” at to make what we would consider shallow turns at
BROSS that commences more than 15 miles prior to altitude”. The turns mentioned here are not 70
the fix. The turn gets nowhere close to BROSS and degree or greater turns.
encroaches upon the DuPont Sector (18) in
transition to the Woodstown Sector (19). This The 2003 bulletin (03-5 SPECIAL) went further in
almost always requires a point out to Sector 18 as depth by explaining aircraft behavior while
the aircraft begins its early turn towards their performing advanced RNAV procedures. One of the
airspace. Airbus departures out of RIC on the benefits of RNAV described in the bulletin was
YEAST departure (MOL transition), take “Airbus “increased flight path predictability and
turns” at YEAST that unnecessarily require point repeatability”. This came with the caveat, however,
outs be made to the Irons Sector (14). that “RNAV databases and equipment are not fully
standardized, and there is no firm guidance on how
The complexity of our operations at Washington the information is processed by aircraft systems.
Center – and the volume of air traffic in the Mid- [Further], these track differences should not be
Atlantic region – requires most of our traffic to be significant enough to appear as deviations from the
separated procedurally. When aircraft violate published procedure”. This guidance is open to too
airspace boundaries, evasive action may be required much interpretation for application within our rigid
and controller workload is greatly increased. The airspace structure.
“Airbus turn” situation is becoming all too common
for Airbus aircraft operating in the U.S. (particularly Clearly, these flight paths are not predictable, and
with foreign air carriers) and highlights the need for the track differences are significant enough to be
corrective action. considered deviations from published procedures.
System errors have occurred due to this issue, and
There were two Air Traffic Bulletins released by the they will continue to occur until addressed by the
FAA on this issue in 2000 and 2003 respectively. Agency. In the ten years since the FAA issued its
The 2000 bulletin (00-1) addressed “High Altitude first Air Traffic Bulletin covering this topic, these
Turn Anticipation” in response to “reports of certain procedures are still not covered in FAA Order
aircraft beginning to turn a significant distance from 7110.65T, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL. Be aware of this
a fix”. The bulletin addressed a known issue of issue at your sector, and please bring it to someone’s
“Airbus aircraft; specifically, the A319/320/321, attention if an Airbus does this when you are on
making turns greater than 70 degrees above FL180”. position. Hopefully, we can soon compile enough
The A330 was identified with this issue as well. It data to get this issue the attention it deserves.

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NATCA ZDC
Training Update
Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to write to you about some things that
I have been hearing going around the building and
some concerns I have for the summer. I have been
hearing a lot of complaining about the new people
recently and I wanted to address some of the
perceptions that are out there and what we can do
to change some things. First, I have been in three
areas in this facility and spent 10 years at Boston
Center, so I have seen things done a myriad of
different ways. I spent eight months in the training
department, so I have seen things from up there too.
I feel I have a pretty good perspective from a lot of
different areas.
I know training sucks, it sucks for the trainer and it
sucks for the trainee. We spent a lot of years with
no trainees or trainees that had ATC experience
coming from other facilities. We pretty much
stopped getting new people in 1992 and training
newbies didn’t start in earnest until about three or
four years ago. That’s a long time where we were
all pretty much at the same level. Add to that the
max exodus of the past few years and the workforce
has changed dramatically. Just some stats: we have
80 trainees in various stages in the building with 5
more coming in before the end of the fiscal year, we
have 41 new CPCs, we have 45 CPCs eligible to
retire right now, and 114 are eligible within the next
five years. Since we have 370 bargaining unit
members (this includes staff specialists, medical
dqs, etc…), you can see that 1/3 of our controllers,
at least, are in training or new CPCs and about 1/3
of our controllers are eligible or soon to be.
Training is going to be a huge part of this job for the
next decade; you can look at the numbers and see
that for yourself.
Some of you more senior folks seem to think that
the new people coming in don’t care about their
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May/June 2010
Lia M. Keith, NATCA ZDC Training Rep
training or have a bad work ethic or don’t care
about the job the way you do. I have to disagree
with you. I have worked with almost all of the new
people either upstairs or in different stages of
training, and I have to say that couldn’t be farther
from the truth. Yes, there are always a few bad
apples, but the VAST majority worked hard to get
here, waited a long time to get hired, are in massive
debt just to get qualified to get hired, and want to be
great controllers. I respectfully submit that many of
you have forgotten what it is like to be at the
beginning again. I know for myself, that some of
the knowledge and experience that I have learned
over the years is so ingrained, that I can’t even
extract it at a level to teach it. I do it almost
subconsciously. The training process is in dire need
of a huge overhaul; we aren’t training the new
people to their highest potential. That is our fault,
not theirs. We all learn differently and that is
ignored in the FAA. We all want to change a lot of
things about the process, but you know how
difficult that is in this place. The 7110.65 is one of
the worst publications ever written to teach
someone how to do this job, the trainees need our
experience and expertise to weed through the mess
and make sense of it. I am not making excuses; over
the past year or so, I have had dozens of trainees
come to me with great questions about something
they don’t understand, we open the books, and it
takes all my knowledge, experience, and expertise
to give them an answer. That is ridiculous! The
supervisors don’t do the most basic things required
in the training order to ensure that the trainees are
prepared and understand what is expected of them.
They are left completely on their own to figure out
the best way to study, how to study, and what to
learn. They need us to mentor them to be
successful. We need to mentor them so that when
we leave here in the next few years, we feel secure
in who we left our family’s safety to.
Continued on Next Page
NATCA ZDC
Training Update
How do we do this? I have thought a lot about this
and the very first thing that comes to mind is to
change our perception of the new people that are
here. I always try to put it in this perspective, if you
figure that we get 4 hours a day on the boards times
5 days a week times 50 weeks a year, that is 1000
hours of actually talking to airplanes times the
numbers of years experience. That means that a 20-
year CPC has 20,000 hours of time on the boards. If
we compare that to a new person that has a few
hundred hours of training you can see the startling
difference. We can’t expect them to think or act in
the same ways that we would. I also try to
remember to think of this, if you took the worst
quarterback in the NFL right now and you put him
up against the best high school football prospect,
99% of the time, the NFL quarterback is going to
make that high school superstar look like a chump.
It’s just a matter of experience. We have it, they
don’t. We have seen thousands of different
scenarios play out in hundreds of different ways,
they have seen dozens. It is unfair to judge them by
their mistakes; we need to judge them on their
potential. I personally, see huge potential in most of
these young people, but their potential will be even
greater if we give more of ourselves to them.
Instead of watching while they struggle, try to lift
them up, give them the benefit of your experience
and excellence. Offer yourself in positive, uplifting
ways, not through derision and negativity. Please
understand I know that you all are training
constantly and it is incredibly difficult. I know the
FAA doesn’t reward you or support you in the way
that it should. I know we are all left on our own to
accomplish this, while inept, highly paid
supervisors don’t do their jobs. Unfortunately,
May/June 2010
Continued from Previous Page
fixing this is a way, way bigger issue. All I can do is
appeal to all of you, whose experience and expertise
I value and respect, and ask you to help the new
people become as experienced and excellent as you
all yourselves. Also, watch over them as the
thunderstorm season approaches. They do not
always have the experience or expertise to handle
some of the situations they are put into. When most
of us were learning, we had experienced D-sides
and L-sides to guide us through when things got
out of hand. Now if there is help to call, often it is a
brand new D-side we are calling. Use your
experience to ease their workload when you can
and you are not only helping them, you are teaching
them a valuable lesson about how we all work
together when things go downhill.
I have a lot of ideas about training that I would like
to try to accomplish, an areas specific phraseology
guide and study guide, monthly dysim refreshers
for skills trainees don’t get to get practice a lot,
improvement in the scenarios we can use for skill
enhancement and that we use in training upstairs. I
am working to get all of these things accomplished
but it is an uphill, time-consuming project. I would
love your input and help in all of these things,
please offer up your solutions and suggestions, I am
open to any ideas.
Thanks so much!
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NATCA ZDC May/June 2010

Area 1 Update
Dan Glancey, Area 1 Rep

Some recent questions have been asked lately about medication and medical issues. There is a
service that NATCA offers that people do not seem to know exist that may help in answering
these questions. It is the Virtual Flight Surgeon (aviationmedicine.com). This is a service
provided as part of your membership. This is not in any way affiliated with the FAA; they are
familiar with the rules the FAA Flight Surgeon uses. You can ask a question or just look up
medicines. When asking a question you will need to have your member ID handy. If you do
not know it you can ask me or any other rep. I have used this a few times and they respond
fairly quickly, usually within a few hours. I suggest that when you have some time, look at the
site and become familiar with it, you never know when you may need them. You can also look
up medicine to see if you will be able to work on it.

I know it is only June but it is time to start thinking about next year’s schedule. If you have any
ideas or suggestions you can e-mail me or just leave me a note.

Fun Fact:

In the fall of 1983, controllers at Washington Center

launched an organizing effort to create an independent
union at their facility. They called themselves the National
Air Traffic Controllers Association.

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NATCA ZDC May/June 2010

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