NAATS News content -- 0901

Wally Pike, NAATS President

We've discussed our pay issue with several staffers now and, while no breakthrough has yet been achieved, we generated more and more support during this August recess. We've talked again with the FMCS mediators assigned to this case and agreed that no negotiations are taking place with the FAA. The matter remains at impasse pending a congressional resolution.

We should soon have a pretty good idea of where we stand with Congress on our comparability issue. Our visibility on the Hill is high and several offers of support have been received. All of your work on this is very much appreciated.

The Senate bill on ATC retirement (S.871) now has a House counterpart (HB2523). Our lobbyist advises that there is only a lukewarm reception from Congress on this but we're lending as much support as possible and keeping a close eye on the issue. If you're so inclined, we encourage you to contact your congressional representatives. My thanks to Al Osborn, MIA AFSS, for his help on this.

EA Regional Director Ron Maisel and I met with the members and FacRep Bill Hawkenberry at EKN AFSS last month. As always it was good to discuss our concerns and receive input from the members. I enjoyed the opportunity of meeting face-to-face and listening to the suggestions and ideas of the bargaining unit. I met with the members at IPT on September 8th. I've also received invitations to MIV and BOI. I'm also coordinating trips to DEN, SEA, and a SW Regional Quarterly meeting with the appropriate Regional Directors. All meetings are subject to congressional workload and coordination with the appropriate Regional Directors.

Status of the Aviation Labor Coalition (ALC) - I've talked with the other union presidents including NATCA President John Carr and PASS President Mike Fanfalone. We're awaiting an ALC invitation to NATCA asking them to participate. Once that happens, I will probably sign the charter, a copy of which is posted on our web page. The BOD has authorized me to use my judgment on this and, as I've previously stated, I'm concerned about ensuring inclusion by all the FAA unions. A reminder, this isn't an affiliation or merger and any FAA union should be free to join or quit at any time. The idea is one of using the combined strengths of all our organizations to achieve mutual goals. The charter formalizes a process that was begun during Personnel Reform by NAATS, NATCA and PASS and has continued informally during the intervening years.

On a related topic, I attended a meeting of the FAA Labor Management Council (FLMC) at the end of August. This council has replaced the old National Partnership Council (NPC) and we signed the revised charter. This is the group of FAA unions with the FAA associate and assistant administrators along with the Deputy Administrator and I believe it is a good forum to discuss crosscutting issues.

We discussed the Model Work Environment implementation rollout. I've asked Webmaster John Dibble to post a copy on our web page. A reminder - MWE is not supposed to be disciplinary in nature. Any questions or comments should be directed to Craig Campbell, our national MWE representative, or me.

Another issue discussed at the FLMRC is the new FAA Performance Management System (PMS). NAATS Chief Negotiator Bill Dolan is bargaining this matter and a copy will be posted on our website. Please contact Bill with any questions or comments.

The agenda for our national meeting in LAS currently being finalized. We have commitments from Fanny Rivera (ACR-1), Jim Washington (ARS-1) and Jeff Griffith (AT-2) as FAA speakers. There is also the chance that our friend from north of the border, Ron Smith, will attend. The FacRep training will be scheduled the same as last year. We should have all the details out to you in the next 10 days or so.

Liaison Updates

Kate Breen, NAATS ATX Liaison

Well it happened, I finally got the training on CRU-X and let me tell you it was something to behold! If the program is installed correctly, it should operate with little effort. If you are having problems at your facility, let either your facility management know or give me a call or send a cc mail. The regions have a person whose only job is to trouble shoot CRU-X, so any problems you are having should be fixed quickly if that regional person knows about it. What I've been hearing is the regions have weekly telcons regarding CRU-X so make sure your facility management knows about any problems you maybe experiencing. There has been an oversight on training all the NAATS Regional CRU-X representatives, only one or two have been trained to date. Bill Dolan is working the issue and will hopefully get the rest of the NAATS Reps trained together in one class very shortly. The one good thing that CRU-X has done is pushed the FAA to get all air traffic facilities on the Wide Area Network (WAN) by January of 2002.

On the budget issue, again air traffic is saying they have a 15 million dollar shortfall, but watch the spending frenzy these last few weeks of the fiscal year and tell me there's a shortfall.......ugh!

Training, nothing new, still no movement on getting the second shift of classes going.

Staffing, Bill Dolan is getting the management one proposal for staffing numbers hopefully next week when he gets into town. He will then negotiate the numbers with management here at headquarters, as soon as he completes the negotiations I'm sure your regional directors will advise of the outcome. So anything you hear about allocated staffing numbers at this point is simply a proposal and nothing that has been finalized with NAATS.

Traffic Count/CATTS, there is a workgroup being put together for after the first of October to explore what we now count and what we should be counting. With the FAA trying to become a performance based organization (PBO) they are using a new cost accounting system to put a price tag on services we now perform. They can't count effectively unless they count everything we do, not just pilot weather briefs and inflight services. You'll be hearing more about this in the coming months, stay tuned!

Last but not least! Thanks to Wally and the Board of Directors for selecting me for this position, my last day here in the office is September 27th. I hope that I have served the membership well in passing information and representing the Board's viewpoints. It has been a terrific learning experience and I encourage members to get involved through either the liaison program or even just workgroups. Help NAATS nationally to help us all locally! Thanks for the support and I'll see you in Las Vegas!

Convention Reminder

NAATS National

Membership Meeting

October 17-18, 2001

at the

Luxor Hotel & Casino

Las Vegas, NV

NAATS Room Rate: $79.00/night
Reservations Phone: (800) 288-1000
Deadline for NAATS Rate: September 14, 2001

OASIS UPDATE

Jeff Barnes, OASIS Representative & the OASIS Human Factors Team

08/29/01 - I have a pretty long update this time with some good news and some good info...

I've been at Harris Corporation since last Thursday. Last week I was here to go to the monthly Program Management Review, a high level review of the OASIS program for the program managers. There I found out that Harris is going to do most of the SEA AFSS equipment upgrades early, installing them with the software upgrade scheduled for the second week of October. The workstations on the floor will be upgraded from 300 MHz Pentium 2 machines to 1.2 GHz Pentium 4 computers. The Weather Graphics Processor is being upgraded to a Sun Blade server...I know this doesn't mean much to a lot of people, but they represent a major upgrade. Some testing remains to be done on the Weather Graphics Processor to ensure it can be installed in October. The only pieces of equipment that will remain to be upgraded in SEA is the NT server and the Flight Data Servers.

Today the OASIS lead engineer told us that Harris is currently providing almost a thousand weather graphics products for OASIS, and they still have more to produce that have been mandated by the Human Factors Team.

We will have a remote workstation at the national meeting. The Human Factors Team members and any SEA controllers that would like to will be giving demos. We hope to set it up just outside the meeting room to minimize distraction, but we may be forced to do the demos in the meeting room. If so we'll have to keep our cries of joy (screams of anger? hehe) stifled in the interest of not disrupting the meeting.

I am going to include here the waterfall linked to very tentative installation dates that have been calculated by the program office. These are dates that installation would begin. To the best of my knowledge only AND is under contract right now, so Harris requirements could cause changes in the dates. Some factors affecting the list...

The Alaskan sites will very likely have to be moved further back in the waterfall. It would not surprise me to see them slip toward the back. The reason is questions of architecture and communications. Alaska has special needs in those areas that take more time to resolve. Any kind of communications work tend to take twice as long due to technical difficulties and dealing with local service providers. Plus we have to be sure that the FSS's get adequate performance from their systems, which will mean changes from the original architecture, some of them potentially major. If they do get slipped all the stations that were originally after them would be moved forward three spots in the installation.

Currently installations are scheduled to take place at a rate of 2 per month with the install of the 5th AFSS, ABQ. With the installation of the 33rd station, DCA the installations are scheduled to pick up to 3 per month. This is very aggressive and ultimately may not be workable due to money constraints or the availability of training resources.

SEA in place
AND 01/02
STL 11/02
RAL 12/02
ABQ 01/03
DAY 01/03
AOO 02/03
BTV 02/03
BNA 03/03
BUF 03/03
GRB 04/03
RNO 04/03
GTF 05/03
CXO 05/03
HUF 06/03
LOU 06/03
COU 07/03
HHR 07/03
GNV 08/03
MMV 08/03
JBR 09/03
RDU 09/03
IPT 10/03
PNM 10/03
BDR 11/03
JNU 11/03 (See note.)
ENA 12/03
FAI 12/03
OAK 01/04
PIE 01/04
HNL 02/04
SJU 02/04
DCA 03/04
FTW 03/04
LAN 03/04
MCN 04/04
PRC 04/04
EKN 04/04
ANB 05/04
SAN 05/04
SJT 05/04
MIV 06/04
BGR 06/04
DRI 06/04
DEN 07/04
IKK 07/04
MLC 07/04
CPR 08/04
MIA 08/04
HON 08/04
ICT 09/04
MKL 09/04
GFK 09/04
OLU 10/04
GWO 10/04
CDC 10/04
RIU 11/04
ISP 11/04
FOD 11/04
BOI 12/04
CLE 12/04

Note: The Alaskan stations will likely slip. Stations they slip past will likely be moved up 3 positions in the installation to fill the gap. Alaskan FSSs will be installed concurrently with Alaskan AFSSs.
Fraternally,
Jeff Barnes
OASIS National Rep

The Controller's View

"When Elephant's Fight, It's the Grass That Gets Trampled" - Old African Proverb

Albert Osborn, Miami AIFSS

HOUSE PANEL CALLS FAA PERSONNEL REFORM A FAILURE

"The House Appropriations Committee last week called the Federal Aviation Administration's personnel reform "experiment" a failure and slashed nearly $60 million from the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 budget request for hiring new employees in all lines of business at the agency."
Business Aviation, 6/25/01

Pilots, trying to comply with Federal Aviation Regulations which require pre-flight weather briefings, often wonder why it takes so long to get through to an FAA weather briefer. The proverb and excerpt above provide some insight into this question. If you haven't already figured it out, the "elephants" referred to are the House Appropriations Committee and the FAA. The "grass" is the general aviation pilot.

As a pilot weather briefer at the busiest, and most chronically short-staffed, FAA Flight Service Station in the country, I have no disagreement with the Appropriations Committee's evaluation that the FAA's "personnel reform experiment is a failure." But I do have a problem with their remedy. It is like saying, "You're not running fast enough, so (as an incentive) I'm going to cut off one of your legs." How about saying, instead, to FAA leadership (as an incentive) "If you improve the quality of service to the aviation community, you get to keep your jobs."

Doing Less with Less

In 1995, the FAA jumped on the "down-sizing" bandwagon and promised to "Do more, with less." Since then, the flight service system has been systematically "starved" for personnel, equipment, and even office supplies. At Miami, prior to the beginning of down-sizing, our staff totaled one hundred people. Today, as a result of down-sizing, we total eighty people, a reduction of twenty percent. Traffic, in the meantime, has increased ten percent!

Sixteen years ago, Flight Service stormed into the high-tech world using a computer system that was considered ancient by the day's standard - the technology was 15 years old. We are using the same system today. It was so outdated that it was declared "unsupportable" in 1993. For over four years, the FAA has spent 30 million dollars, without success, trying to produce the replacement system. (A project that shouldn't have taken more than two years).

The FAA has a history of mismanagement and "boondoggles." To wit: the ARTCC "Sector Suite" debacle of the eighties, which cost the taxpayers billions and had to be abandoned. For the last several years, the agency has been walking down that same road with the replacement for the Flight Service computer system. The project has been repeatedly over-budget and behind schedule and after four years of development, is not expected at the busiest locations for years yet, because it can't handle high volumes of traffic or the complexities of an international environment!

During the last two years, the Agency has even severely restricted funding for basic office supplies. Employees have resorted to buying paper, pencils, copier toner, floppy disks, etc., out of their own pockets in order to do their jobs.

So, are we "doing more with less?" The answer is a resounding "No!" We are doing "less with less!"

Then what has changed as a result of down-sizing? Queue times! Pilots wait longer to talk to a briefer now than at any time in the history of the flight service system. The wait time is often unbelievable - up to thirty minutes! Some pilots of high performance aircraft spend more time waiting for a briefer than they do in flight! At Miami, we've had air ambulance flights wait fifteen minutes to reach a briefer. On a typical day, we have more empty chairs at briefing positions than briefers. It is not uncommon to have 10-15 calls "in the queue" for hours at a time, especially during weekends when everyone is flying. It is amazing how patient and professional pilots are in the face of the frustrating circumstances.

The other changes are more subtle but far more dangerous. What the aviation community doesn't see are the "shortcuts" being taken in safety-related items like currency of information, training, combining of operational positions, lack of adequate pre-duty briefings, etc., due to personnel shortages. Temporary shortages used to be addressed by use of overtime, but overtime has become only a memory in the FAA. It isn't even used during peak vacation periods anymore. Clearly, the agency doesn't care about the waiting times. Their excuse is a lack of money, but that seems unlikely given evidence of waste in other areas.

Additionally, controller burnout and morale is a significant factor at busy locations like Miami. The agency needs to do a better job of putting the people where the traffic is. The busiest facilities are traditionally the most critically short-staffed. Miami is authorized seventy-four journey person controllers. We presently have fifty-two, eleven of whom are eligible or overdue for retirement. We have eight new people coming, but they will not be productive for a year and during that year, we will probably lose six to retirement.

As every pilot knows, staying up-to-date with changes in the high-tech world of aviation requires a good deal of time. You would like to think that the pilot weather briefer who is guiding you, verbally, through a journey into numerous thunderstorms or severe icing has the latest information and is using the latest technology. Well, that requires a commitment to safety and service, which requires providing resources - enough people to handle the workload and state-of-the-art equipment with which to process information. We don't have the people and most home offices are better equipped than a typical flight service station!

So, Mr. Congressman, taking away the money that the FAA mismanages is not the solution to the problem. The solution to the problem is put people who know what they are doing into the FAA and then hold them accountable to solve the problems. After twenty-seven years with the FAA, it is clear to me that lack of accountability is the problem and we're getting worse, in that regard, not better.

Is Big Brother Watching?

Surveillance by Design
WILL A NEW CYBERLAW BYPASS THE U.S. CONSTITUTION?

Wendy M. Grossman - Scientific American, September 2001

LONDON - A legislative move in Europe that would also affect the U.S. is threatening the sometimes controversial ability of Internet users to mask their real-world identities. The move, which is heavily backed by the U.S. Department of Justice, is the cybercrime treaty, designed to make life easy for law enforcement by requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to maintain logs of users' activities for up to seven years and to keep their networks tappable. The Council of Europe, a treaty-building body, announced its support of the cybercrime effort in June.

Anonymity is a two-edged sword. It does enable criminals to hide their activities. But it is also critical for legitimate citizens: whistle-blowers, political activists, those pursuing alternative lifestyles, and entrepreneurs who want to acquire technical information without tipping off their competitors.

Even without the proposed legislation, anonymity is increasingly fragile on the Net. Corporations have sued for libel to force services to disclose the identities of those who posted disparaging comments about them online. Individual suits of this type are rarer, but last December, Samuel D. Graham, a former professor of urology at Emory University, won a libel judgment against a Yahoo user whose identity was released under subpoena.

Services designed to give users anonymity sprung up as early as 1993, when Julf Helsingius founded Finland's anon.penet.fi, which stripped e-mail and Usenet postings of identifying information and substituted a pseudonymous ID. Users had to trust Helsingius. Many of today's services and software, such as the Dublin-based Hushmail and the Canadian company Zero Knowledge's Freedom software, keep no logs whatsoever.

But if the cybercrime treaty is ratified, will they still be able to? Would they have to move beyond the reach of the law to, say, Anguilla? More than that, will the First Amendment continue to protect us if anonymity is effectively illegal everywhere else? Says Mike Godwin, perhaps the leading legal specialist in civil liberties in cyberspace: "I think it becomes a lot harder for the U.S. to maintain protection if the cybercrime treaty passes." Godwin calls the attempt to pass the cybercrime treaty "policy laundering" - a way of using international agreements to bring in legislation that would almost certainly be struck down by U.S. courts. (On its Web site, the U.S. Department of Justice explains that no supporting domestic legislation would be required.)

In real-world terms, the equivalent of the treaty would be requiring valid return addresses on all postal mail, installing cameras in all phone booths and making all cash traceable. People would resist such a regime, but surveillance by design in the electronic world seems less unacceptable, perhaps because for some people e-mail still seems optional and the Internet is a mysterious, dark force that is inherently untrustworthy.

Because ISPs must keep those logs and that data, your associations would become an open book. "The modern generation of traffic-analysis software not only can link to conventional police databases but can give a comprehensive picture of a person's lifestyle and communications profile," says Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. "It can automatically generate profiles of thousands of users in seconds and accurately calculate friendship trees."

In the not too distant future, nearly everything that is on hard copy today will travel via e-mail and the Web, from our medical records to the music we listen to and the books we read. Whatever privacy regime we create now will almost certainly wind up controlling the bulk of our communications. Think carefully before you nod to the mantra commonly heard in Europe at the moment: "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Do you really want your medical records sent on the electronic equivalent of postcards?

FOR ME BUT NOT FOR YOU?

As counterculturalist Stewart Brand has said, anonymity can be toxic to community, because it can foster irresponsible activity and sow mistrust. But an experiment some years back on the WELL, the San Francisco--based electronic conferencing system, showed that people typically wanted anonymity for themselves--just not for others.

PRECEDENTS FOR PRIVACY

In the U.S., the right to be anonymous is protected under the First and Fourth amendments. According to Mike Godwin, author of Cyber Rights, two significant Supreme Court cases establish the precedents.

NAACP v. Alabama The 1958 ruling upheld the NAACP's refusal to disclose its membership lists on the grounds that this type of privacy is part of the right to freedom of assembly.

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission The 1995 ruling struck down a requirement, instituted to control campaign spending, that political pamphlets include the name and address of their issuer.

About the author: Wendy M. Grossman, who writes about cyberspace issues from London, is also on the board of Privacy International.

Runway Incursion

Ward Simpson, GA Summit Representative
[email protected]

A runway incursion is any occurrence at an airport involving an aircraft, vehicle, person, or object on the ground that creates a collision hazard or results in a loss of separation, as defined by air traffic requirements. The FAA has a runway incursion team. Approximately 73% of all the incursions include General Aviation Aircraft. So why aren't we involved, why aren't we on the team? The ATP-300 section at FAA headquarters, which is our flight service branch, let it be known that we must be involved. They were quite adamant that runway incursion prevention starts with education before the pilot gets into the aircraft - it starts with the flight service controllers!

Over the years, we have been involved with many programs, "Operation Rain Check" for one, where we meet with groups of pilots and educate them on preflight services and how we do business. We are the first resource the pilot has before he or she departs. To spend an extra couple minutes with a pilot, during a preflight briefing, whose destination has been tagged as an airport with numerous reported runway incursions could possibly prevent an accident from happening.

What could be a pitfall for us, should we get involved in this program? The agency mandating that a runway incursion advisory statement be given to ALL the pilots we talk to! Notice, I emphasized earlier, "whose destination has been tagged as an airport with numerous reported runway incursions". This is exactly who we should be spending the extra minute or two with, the pilots who need it. I would never like to see us chasing our customers away like we have, using the "VNR" statement. Controllers were being written up for not using it, when in fact in their judgment, rightfully so, it should not have been used. Fear of being written up led to the overuse, misuse and abuse of the statement. The "VNR" statement became a roadblock to positive communication between the pilot and controller. Let's not make that same mistake with this new program.

A workgroup on runway incursions is to be held at CMD the week of November 12th to discuss our involvement with this program. Representatives from ATP, AOPA, NBAA and other user groups will be in attendance. Myself and four other NAATS members will also be there, all working together to make this program a success.

NTSB Representative Report

Daniel J. Holodick, NAATS/NTSB Accident Rep.
[email protected]

In early August, I was invited to participate in a fatal aircraft accident investigation down near the coast of Maine. Earlier this year, the details were worked out with the Portland FSDO office. When there was an accident within driving range, or of significance for Flight Service, I was to be called. It was a very interesting event; I arrived at the scene and was met by the Civil Air Patrol, who had spent many grueling hours in record heat, helping put out spot fires, and keeping the press at bay. These guys and gals deserve medals. The Sedgwick fire department had to cut their way through heavy brush and haul "Indian tank" fire fighting apparatus in about � of a mile to extinguish the fires. Kudos to these folks also!

When the investigators from the Portland FSDO arrived, we suited up, and trekked into the crash site. The aircraft was a Citabria, fabric covering with a wood spar. The aircraft had burned completely upon impact, and there was not much left, just tubing and lumps of metal. The investigation is still underway so I will not speculate as to the cause. As the preliminary accident report states, there were two occupants, and two fatalities.

The investigation crew, led by Jonathan Goode, were total professionals, and conducted themselves by the book. To say it was learning experience would be an understatement. As an observer, I tried my best to remain un-obtrusive. Mr. Goode's explanations and observations were very informative.

Later on in afternoon, I met with the son of the pilot. I introduced myself, and offered my condolences. When I told him I was with NAATS from Bangor Flight Service, he said words to the effect, Yea, I know you guys, thanks for being here. That little phrase brought everything together. If ever I felt like an advocate, that was it. I hope that future participation will bolster this advocacy with the flying public, and further our role in the safety of flight. Regional Accident Reps, please contact me with questions and address updates. Get with your training specialist, and get the Accident Investigation course on your training class request form.

Upcoming Events

Postponed Indefinitely
NBAA Convention
New Orleans, LA

October 15-16
NAATS Board Meeting
Las Vegas, NV

October 17-18
NAATS National
Membership Meeting
Las Vegas, NV

November 8-10
AOPA Convention
Fort Lauderdale, FL

November 12 through December 10
FEHB Open Season

Local Flight Service Honored by FAA

Nathan Solheim
Anniston Star Staff Writer ,08-21-2001

Air traffic controllers and other flight service workers at the Anniston Flight Service Station in Oxford were honored Monday as the national facility of the year by the Federal Aviation Administration.

FAA officials give out the award to flight service stations based on a number of criteria, including efficiency and pilot ratings.

Federal and local aviation officials were on hand to present the award to Victor Byrd, air traffic manager, and staffers at the Anniston Flight Service station.

Anniston beat out 60 other flight service centers throughout the United States to win the award.

"For us, it's nice because our people work so hard and the services we provide are above others," Byrd said.

Anniston Flight Service was also named the regional flight service station of the year, an award it won once before in 1997.

Many of the station's 43 employees attended the ceremony with their families as administrators applauded their efforts.

Bill Peacock, director of air traffic for the FAA, touted the accomplishments of the service center and drew particular plaudits to the station's work environment.

"One of the best things about coming to work at this facility is that you're having fun," Peacock said to the crowd.

Station workers serve 107 public airports and 70 private airports around the state of Alabama with pilot briefings, weather conditions, emergency services and other important information to aviators from around the country. It also serves an area that includes Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Florida and Georgia with support services for service stations during peak hours of air traffic.

One other notable service the station provides is support for the twice-yearly NASCAR Winston Cup races at Talladega Superspeedway.

"The people here enjoy their jobs and they enjoy what they do," said Mark Gibson, an air traffic control specialist with the station. "People here are competitive and hey, what can I say, we have good people here."

The Editor's View

Management by Expedience

Elinormarie L. Morrissy, Editor

In a perfect world, all equipment would work and communications between everyone would flow seamlessly and smoothly. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world; equipment breaks and people frequently misunderstand each other. In an effort to deal with some of those imperfections, the FAA came up with NOTAMs to inform the aviation community about malfunctioning equipment and other hazardous conditions and FAA Orders to standardize procedures and minimize miscommunication. Most controllers can remember being told at some during training, "Do it by the book and you'll be okay."

Doing most jobs in air traffic "by the book" is not always fast or convenient, but it is safe. Safety is air traffic's primary responsibility, regardless of whether controllers separate aircraft from each other or whether they separate aircraft from other hazards like weather, closed runways or broken equipment. This overriding concern for safety is part of the reason many Regional jobs that support the air traffic field require 2152 background. It is assumed that a person with that background will have a greater respect for rules governing aviation safety, than a person with just a management degree from a major university would. Sadly, recent experiences at Hawthorne AFSS have taught us differently.

On April 11, 2001 the following NOTAM text was faxed to Hawthorne AFSS:

!HHR 04/018 ZLA CA..RADAR SERVICES ARE LIMITED FROM SFC TO 14500 FT IN THE AREA FROM PSP TO 15S PKE TO EED TO 15S GFS TO PSP ATC MAY NOT BE DEPICTING ALL THE TRAFFIC. VISUAL VIGILANCE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The fax cover sheet also bore the following handwritten message from Mr. Bob Schimelpfening of AWP-530: "Please issue the attached NOTAM for ZLA. Please do not change the wording of the NOTAM as it has been coordinated & approved by AWP500, NATCA, & AWP400. This is a safety issue raised by NATCA." After unsuccessful attempts on the parts of both the Watch Supervisor and the Coordinator to inform AWP-530 that the NOTAM text did not conform to the standards in FAA Order 7930.2G, the NOTAM Handbook, it was published as received. It has remained in the national database for the last five months.

More recently, a new NOTAM was issued for an airport within Hawthorne's area of responsibility. Originally, due to a number of incidents involving critical loss of separation, a related NOTAM was issued through Hawthorne in October 2000 notifying the flying public that use of the LAX VFR Shoreline Transition Route (a TCA VFR corridor) was suspended at an below three thousand feet. A new NOTAM appeared in the national database without prior coordination with Hawthorne AFSS personnel. When investigated, it was found that the AWP-530 apparently found it more expedient to simply go directly to the National NOTAM Office to issue the following:

!LAX 08/030 LAX SHORELINE ROUTE TRANSITIONS ARE SUSPENDED 3000 FEET AND BELOW. ALTERNATE ROUTING (LAX MINI-ROUTE) HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED ON A LIMITED BASIS. NORMAL SHORELINE PROCEDURE REMAIN IN EFFECT 3500 AND ABOVE FOR FIXED WITH AIRCRAFT, AND 500 FEET AND BELOW FOR ROTARY WING. THE SHORELINE ROUTE IS DEPICTED IN THE LOS ANGELES VFR TERMINAL AREA CHART. FOR MORE INFORMATION, REFER TO WESTERN-PACIFIC AIR TRAFFIC DIVISION LETTER TO AIRMEN 01-05 FOR SHORELINE ROUTE AND LOS ANGELES TOWER LETTER TO AIRMEN 01-02 FOR MINI-ROUTE DESCRIPTION AND PROCEDURES.
INTERNET ADDRESS:HTTP:/WWW.AWP.FAA.GOV/FSDO/LET_LIST.HTM.

Anyone with expertise in NOTAMs (i.e. a Flight Service controller) can immediately see the flaws in both NOTAMs. The ZLA NOTAM contains excess verbiage, "Visual vigilance is highly recommended" that adds nothing of value to the pilot. The LAX NOTAM violates a number of paragraphs in FAAO 7930.2G. It violates paragraph 2-1-5b. - "NOTAM or aeronautical information concerning an extended (30 days or more) shutdown/closure�should be published." - in that this NOTAM or variations of it have been in effect since October 2000. It violates paragraph 4-2-1b. - "Each NOTAM shall be a complete report." - in that it refers to the Division and Tower Letters to Airmen. How can AWP-530 be certain that all pilots know about or have access to these letters? It also refers to a Website, which a pilot in flight has no legal access to. It violates paragraph 4-2-1k. - "A NOTAM shall contain only one effective period and/or event/condition." - in that it refers to suspension of the Shoreline Route and the new LAX Mini-Route.

Several Hawthorne controllers worked together to carefully lay out the case for the correct issuance and/or publication of these NOTAMs and presented their findings and suggested corrections to Hawthorne's Quality Assurance Specialist. She found merit in their suggestions and attempted to go through the proper channels to correctly issue and/or publish the NOTAMs. Unfortunately, she hit a brick wall in the Regional Office's refusal to rectify either situation. The matter was then taken to Hawthorne's Operations Manager who requested citation of the specific paragraphs above for his attempt to fix the problem. He, too, was defeated by the Region's intransigence. The conclusion reached by a number of Hawthorne controllers was that Management saw FAA Order 7930.2G simply as a "guideline" not requiring strict compliance. Now this begs the question, What FAA Orders require "mandatory" compliance and which are considered only to be "guidelines?"

In frustration, Rob Erlick and Scott Morrissy resorted to what they felt is their only avenue for correcting the situation and filed UCRs (Unsatisfactory Condition Reports) regarding these NOTAMs, while Assistant FacRep Steve Killgore set about filing a grievance on the overall handling of the matter. We all now must wait for their outcome.

It may be an imperfect world, but is it too much to ask to have Management that respects and complies with its own Orders - the same ones that govern our jobs and the safety of flight - in the same way the expect us to? Is it too much to ask for Management to do their job properly rather than expediently? Is too much to ask to have Regional and National Management respect the expertise and professionalism of Flight Service controllers in within their area of responsibility? Just how many "imperfections" can we accept before safety is permanently compromised?

The President's Management Agenda

FedWeek, August 29, 2001

The newly released "President's Management Agenda" addresses the White House's concerns in several areas previously disclosed, including programs to make the government more customer-sensitive, to reduce management layers and to subject more federal jobs to privatization reviews. The document was released just as administration officials indicated their plans to propose "Freedom to Manage" legislation that among other things likely will contain the first steps toward reform of civil service pay-setting, promotion, rewards and other policies.

Following are excerpts from two key chapters of the document:

Strategic Management of Human Capital

"The managerial revolution that has transformed the culture of almost every other large institution in American life seems to have bypassed the federal workforce. Federal personnel policies and compensation tend to take the same 'one-size-fits-all' approach they took in 1945. Excellence goes unrewarded; mediocre performance carries few consequences; and it takes months to remove even the poorest performers. Federal pay systems do not reflect current labor market realities: under current law, the entire general schedule that covers almost every kind of white-collar occupation must be adjusted by a single percentage in each of the 32 localities in the contiguous 48 states.

"In most agencies, human resources planning is weak. Workforce deficiencies will be exacerbated by the upcoming retirement wave of the baby-boom generation. Approximately 71 percent of the government's current permanent employees will be eligible for either regular or early retirement by 2010, and then 40 percent of those employees are expected to retire. Without proper planning, the skill mix of the federal workforce will not reflect tomorrow's changing missions.

"The first priority of the President's management reform initiative is to make government citizen-centered. The number of layers in government must be compressed to reduce the distance between citizens and decision-makers, and agencies should redistribute their allotted staff from higher-level positions to front-line service-delivery. Each agency has been asked to prepare a five-year restructuring plan as part of its 2003 budget request, based upon a workforce analysis, to accomplish this important goal.

"Agencies will reshape their organizations to meet a standard of excellence in attaining outcomes important to the nation. Each agency will identify how it will reduce the number of managers, reduce the number of organizational layers, reduce the time it takes to make decisions, change the span of control, and increase the number of employees who provide services to citizens.

"While the administration will be seeking some targeted civil service reforms, agencies must make better use of the flexibilities currently in place to acquire and develop talent and leadership. Such authorities are largely underutilized across the federal sector because many agencies are unaware of the existence of such flexibilities. The administration will assess agencies' use of existing authorities as well as the outcomes achieved under demonstration projects. This assessment will help us determine what statutory changes are needed to enhance management flexibility, permit more performance-oriented compensation, correct skills imbalances, and provide other tools to recruit, retain and reward a high-quality workforce."

"The expected near-term results:

Human capital strategies will be linked to organizational mission, vision, core values, goals and objectives.
Agencies will use strategic workforce planning and flexible tools to recruit, retain and reward employees and develop a high-performing workforce.
Agencies will determine their 'core competencies' and decide whether to build internal capacity, or contract for services from the private sector. This will maximize agencies' flexibility in getting the job done effectively and efficiently.
The statutory framework will be in place to make it easier to attract and retain the right people, in the right places, at the right time.

"The expected long-term results:

Citizens will recognize improved service and performance and citizen satisfaction will increase.
Agencies will build, sustain and effectively deploy the skilled, knowledgeable, diverse and high-performing workforce needed to meet the current and emerging needs of government and its citizens.
The workforce will adapt quickly in size, composition and competencies to accommodate changes in mission, technology and labor markets.
Government employee satisfaction will increase.
High performance will become a way of life that defines the culture of the federal service."

Competitive Sourcing

"Nearly half of all federal employees perform tasks that are readily available in the commercial marketplace-tasks like data collection, administrative support, and payroll services. Historically, the government has realized cost savings in a range of 20 to 50 percent when federal and private sector providers compete to perform these functions. Unfortunately, competition between public and private sources remains an unfulfilled management promise. By rarely subjecting commercial tasks performed by the government to competition, agencies have insulated themselves from the pressures that produce quality service at reasonable cost.

"Because agencies do not maintain adequate records on work performed in-house, they have often taken three to four years to define the jobs being considered for competition.

"To compare the cost of in-house performance to private sector performance, detailed estimates of the full cost of government performance to the taxpayer have to be calculated. The development of these estimates has devolved into a contentious and rigid exercise in precision.

"In accordance with the Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act, agencies are assessing the susceptibility to competition of the activities their workforces are performing. After review by OMB, the agencies will provide their inventories to Congress and make them available to the public. Interested parties may challenge the omission or inclusion of any particular activity.

"Agencies are developing specific performance plans to meet the 2002 goal of completing public-private or direct conversion competition on not less than five percent of the full-time equivalent employees listed on the FAIR Act inventories. The performance target will increase by 10 percent in 2003.

"The administration will adopt procedures to improve and expand competition. As a first step, OMB has proposed that reimbursable (fee-for-service) work involving performance by a federal agency be recompeted every three to five years, similar to standard contract review, renewal or solicitation procedures.

"The administration will seek to implement findings of the Commercial Activities Panel, a commission created by Congress to examine the policies and procedures governing public-private competition.

"Finally, the administration is pursuing administrative and legislative actions to incorporate the full costs of agency work into the daily budget and acquisition process. This will eliminate the complex, after-the-fact calculation of public-sector costs.

"The expected results:

Recent competitions under OMB Circular A-76 have resulted in savings of more than 20 percent for work that stays in-house and more than 30 percent for work outsourced to the private sector.
From 1995 through 2000, the Department of Defense completed over 550 A-76 initiatives, which resulted in an average 34 percent reduction in cost. DoD expects to achieve $11.7 billion in savings as a result of A-76 competition between 1997 and 2005.
Numerous studies conducted by the GAO, the center for Naval Analyses, and others confirm the magnitude of these savings.
Competition promotes innovation, efficiency and greater effectiveness. For many activities, citizens do not care whether the private or public sector provides the service or administers the program. The process of competition provides an imperative for the public sector to focus on continuous improvement and removing roadblocks to greater efficiency.
By focusing on desired results and outcomes, the objective becomes identifying the most efficient means to accomplish the task."

NAATS PRT News Focals

John Dibble, Public Relations Team Chair
[email protected]

One area where NAATS has been lacking in our efforts has been in the area of public awareness. No one, outside of aviation circles, seems to know who we are or what we do. While it's easy to say the Agency has done a poor job of promoting our services, we can't sit back and do nothing.

We have organized a team of News Focals to help gather and disseminate news about what is happening around our option. Each focal is responsible for a group of facilities and will gather and spread information about what is going on in Flight Service.

The things we are looking for are Flight Assists, Controller Awards, Facility Awards, visits from dignitaries, visits to congressmen/senators, equipment outages/problems, air show participation, anything that might be of interest.

The focals will need to have contacts in each of the media outlets in your flight plan areas - radio, TV and newspapers. This is not an easy task, so I am asking each of the FacReps to gather the information (email contacts, phone and FAX) and forward it to their focal. Each of you can help by giving the information to your FacRep, or by volunteering to collect the information for your FacRep. I will be giving a briefing at the National Convention in Las Vegas, and hope to be able to show some examples of what we have accomplished through this program. Remember, if they don't know what we do, they have no reason to support us! We still need a few more volunteers to be News Focals - particularly those interested in covering Alaska and Northwest Mountain Regions.

For a list of focals see: www.naats.org/nprt/nfocals.htm.

Regional Supplements

NEW ENGLAND REGION

BANGOR AFSS NEWS
Daniel J. Holodick, BGR FacRep

It's been a while since my last update; there have been a few changes. Mr. Ronald Ellis has retired, moved out to Oregon and R. Daniel Turner is currently occupying the ATM position. The bid has closed, and we are waiting to see where the chips fall. We are still operating with 4 supervisors. Our body count is at 30 with one in the Training department. There are 3 new occupants at Bangor, Scott Cunnigham, Derek Smithers, and Jeff Dibler, Welcome. (We still need more though), John Whelan, is slated for points south at the end of September, we will all miss him and wish him the best. There is always the possibility of our senior members packing it in, we will see. We have received our SUA/ISE computer and we are looking forward to getting it on-line. We have formed a schedule committee and we are working for a palatable watch bill.

There has been an on-going problem with our communications link for M1FC. Frequently, in the evenings and Mid-watches, line noise invades out in-flight radios, rendering them un-usable. Then, our M1FC locks up and must be reset by the FSDPS. Airways Facilities is working on the problem, and hopefully it will be resolved soon. The Bangor ICAO weather briefing issue is being worked at the regional level. After years of data collection, numerous proposal re-writes, correspondence with Senator Collins and Senator Snowe, support from Congressman Baldacci, Fmr. Senator Bill Cohen, and the high brass from the Air and Army Guard, it looks like all that stands in the way now is the almighty dollar. As always, we feel that when safety is involved, dollars are meaningless.

If this gets published before Sept 10, please make sure you vote for your elected officers. In reference to the pay issue, please take the time to write your Senators and Congressman. There is strength in numbers, flood their mailbox! I would like to thank the folks here at Bangor who have not only written letters, but also have written checks to the PAC fund. Thanks, I think it is a sound investment. My thanks also to Wayne Shepard for his support and hard work.

WESTERN-PACIFIC REGION

HAWTHORNE AFSS NEWS

Elinormarie L. Morrissy, HHR AFSS

Belated Condolences

Two HHR controllers lost family members last month. Heartfelt condolences go out to QA Specialist Bobbie Scoville on the loss of her stepfather and to Mike Zagar on the passing of his mother.

Farewell Keith, Best of Luck

We said goodbye and best wishes to yet another HHR alumnus recently. SATCS Keith Gosik is moving on to take the Operations Manager position at Reno AFSS. He and his family are probably busy settling into their new home and enjoying the spectacular mountain views even as this is being written. From everyone here at HHR, once again we wish Keith, his family and his co-workers the best of luck.

Welcome Back

HHR ATM Mike Lammes is back on the job after a two week vacation. He looks rested and refreshed and ready to tackle next year's schedule with the new FacRep.

And the Winner Is...

On October 1st there'll be a new FacRep at HHR. Scott Morrissy is busy learning the ropes from outgoing FacRep Tyrone Naramore. After attending FacRep Training, Scott's first challenge will be the ever entertaining negotiations for next year's schedule numbers. In the meantime, I think I'll stock the family medicine cabinet with lots of aspirin.

Console Site Survey

Last Tuesday, September 4th, was the deadline for submission of the suggested layouts for our new OASIS consoles. There was one glitch, however. It has now come to light that the expanded supervisors console will no longer be used. Since it was the widest console among those slated for deployment as part of HHR's Operations floor plan, its omission had an impact in how the consoles would have been laid out in any of the suggestions submitted. No word has been given yet on whether or not other floor plan suggestions that take this major change into account will be accepted or not.

Yes, Virginia, There is Overtime

Due to recent un-ignorable staffing shortages, co-workers have been enjoying the benefits of some overtime pay. Who started that nasty rumor there was no overtime money?

And the Race Is On - Again

Now that a new FacRep has been elected, it's time to choose who will serve as the next Assistant FacRep. The nominees are Lori Collins, Rob Erlick and Steve Killgore (current Asst. FacRep). Voting begins September 13th. Best of luck to all the candidates.

ROB-BLE ROUSING

Rob Erlick
[email protected]

Greetings. It's been two months since my last rant. It's not that I didn't have any material, I just missed the deadline. I long for the day that I don't have any material; that would be a happy day indeed. This month, let's talk about position logs and combining positions. I think (and have had the point agreed upon by many people) that we are not properly and/or fairly working combined positions.

We all have to work combined positions during our shifts, and we all get cheated out of the proper credit for working those combined positions. A good example is the Flight Watch position combined with Inflight. Which are you getting "time" on? Why is that a question? You are working both. You are wholly and completely responsible for both. You will get nailed for any mistakes at either position. But you only get credit for one! If we are responsible for the job, we need to be fully credited for working the job.

This brings up other problems in the system. If you can't physically work one position combined with another (frequencies and outside lines not available at both, necessary charts, etc. not available...), you can't sign off one combined with the other. You actually have to be signed on both of them. Ah, but you can't do that. You have to use fictitious initials followed by your real initials. Why? You are working both. The fictitious initial guy/gal isn't working the position. We all know what's going on. What is Management trying to hide by this tactic? If you're not allowed to work the positions at the same time, they why are we doing just that? If we are, why can't the world know it? What are we hiding? Vexing question, huh?

The mid shift really highlights the problem. Someone who works a lot of mids works three, four or more positions each mid. Let's say they have them for six hours, they only get credit for one of the four positions for that 6 hours. Even though the controller was completely responsible for each and every one. When the end of the month comes, it's time for supervisor to tell the controller that they need time at ...

Now we enter a tenuous subject - Flight Watch. As mentioned above, it is sometimes combined with Inflight. Here at HHR, they are on opposite sides of a wide aisle. The frequencies are no accessible from a common position. You have to jump from one side to the other to effectively work both positions. Safe? Not at all! Then again, why is any position ever combined with Flight Watch? Each facility that has Flight Watch gets (theoretically) additional personnel just to staff the Flight Watch position. This is a separate position that must be bid on and should never be combined. If it is, the word fraud comes to mind.

I could go on and on. Here at HHR, those magical initials frequently signed on multiple positions are "KY." Is KY working the position? No! Can you say "falsifying government documents?" I knew you could!

E-mail me [email protected] with your comments.