Suggestion to ARTCC staff regarding event planning...

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Hi all --

Some time ago, Don mentioned an issue with event staffing (can't remember if it was in the forums here or perhaps at the LAST Town Hall meeting, the one before the most recent one) wherein he encouraged controllers NOT to all log off the instant the event ends, if there is still a significant amount of traffic in the area.

While not a controller myself I can definitely see from their side -- if you as a controller have been slogging away with massive volume for four hours and your brain is fried, and there are a bunch of latecomers and you really don't feel it's fair for them to expect you to hang around because they couldn't make it during the event's advertised duration, when that published end time comes I completely understand you are ready to bail and rest.  However, from the pilots' standpoint, many of whom just might not have been able to get home from work and get dinner on the table and get to their PCs in time to get an earlier run at it, it can definitely leave pilots with the impression that the controller staff doesn't really care about them because as soon as the event ends, all of the ATC positions go dark within minutes, regardless of the fact that there are still 25 pilots in the terminal area.

Here's a possible solution, and its similar to what I do in my real-world job managing large crowds for special events.  And that is -- use a different set of times externally rather than internally.  Example: at the University where I work we host a massive open-house every Spring, drawing anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 visitors.  The event runs from 10am to 4pm.  The bus service, however, is staffed from 9am to 5pm.  When 4pm hits, the drivers are not shutting the buses off where they stand and walking away -- they came into the day knowing that their loops were scheduled until five.  So while most of the crowd is making their way home well before 4pm, the ones that made it there later and are experiencing the exhibits right up until they close will still have an hour of bus service to get back to their cars.  From their standpoint, we're running that extra hour as a courtesy -- but from the drivers' standpoint, they came in knowing they were working until five, so it's just what they plan to do from the outset.

It's a little different since I'm talking about people who volunteer to work the extra event but they do get paid for doing so.  So there's an incentive to stay until scheduled.  But I do think there's merit to the mindset when you may say an event runs from 2300-0300 but you internally agree that controllers who volunteer to work it are committing to cover until 0330.  The staff may see that 0330 time as an obligation, but the pilots who are still on at that point would see it as "bonus time"... and, not knowing any better, WILL PROBABLY THANK YOU FOR IT!

Just a thought.  Easier said than done?  Probably.  But, something to consider.

[Robert Reifsnyder]

I like your suggestion. I will point out, at least from my experience, that for some facilities staffing the event during it's actual scheduled time usually takes all available controllers and then some, so it's usually an issue of available controllers. Most facilities probably don't have extra controllers for 2 different timetables. I hope that helped. I'm working nights so I may be explaining that while I am half asleep and it might make sense lol

[Ian Fisher]

I see what you’re saying.

I feel however if you start doing this then people are start going to be upset you didn’t stay on for an hour after that extra hour, and then the extra hour after that extra hour won’t be enough. Somebody is always going to not be happy. It’s unfortunately just how events work.

For arguments sake if you planned a basketball game for your friends from 2-4 and some of your friends are working until 6 you obviously wouldn’t be playing basketball anymore. Unfortunately they would miss out. I don’t see what’s so different about this.

I think an entire reconsideration of how events work on the network is what is needed. That being said I don’t really have any ideas on that at this time. Maybe there is nothing that can be done.

You also run into a domino effect near the end of events. Due to my work schedule there is times I’ve showed up at the tail end of events. The majority of controllers had logged off, so even though I’ve waneted to potentially control the amount of traffic constitutes a workload too high for the limited about of people who are available to stay. It would be detrimental to both the controller as they would feel discouraged due to not being able to provide service at the level that is expected, and the pilot because people would inevitably be forgotten about.

Another issue you run into is an event in the VATSIM sense is not the same a a concert, or sporting event. You don't get to "close" the network at the end of an event. So while an arbitrary time is set as the end of the event it allows the ambiguity from members of the network to say that "X ARTCC logged off early". That being said, there is no standard that you can put in place to handle the problem every single time.
 
Speaking from personal experience I remember one time I tried to clean up an event and it turned into a good amounts of pilots trolling and shouting obscenities on frequency which ruined it for the rest of us. Experienced VATSIM controllers have been around long enough to realize these situations and stay away from them.

[Brad King]

Easier said than done?  Probably.  But, something to consider.

This is the gist of it. As the EC of an ARTCC that has on occasion been called out on this I can say that there is a methodology already being applied in the background.

The main problem breaks down into: a) controller retention and b) pilot satisfaction and these are at odds with each other quite often.

As an example. ZDC hosted KDCA for an event this year. We are always weary of this but it is something we get requested quite often. As luck would have it we were IMC North Ops. I mean it could be worse but not by much. We instituted holds in both the air and the ground. This was an extremely exhausting event.

I filtered among the staff and we decided that I was going to monitor aircraft entering the airspace within the event time and despite any holds we were going to give them service because, with the pilot's departure times, it was a reasonable expectation they would have made it to the airport without the holds and delays. We also cancelled the ground holds at ZNY with what I hoped was sufficient time and brought those aircraft in to the best of our knowledge.

This led to staff committing to be on with heavy traffic loads while our other controllers started falling away.  Ultimately I believe we were on around 45 minutes or so past the event time, with controllers fading away doubling down on increasing workload as coordination and airspace pickups now became an issue.

Once again, I have to reiterate, we were exhausted. I personally had not gotten out of my seat in five hours and my voice was hoarse. I was completely burnt out from controlling on VATSIM for a good while after that.

Now KDCA had a lot to do with this but we feel it is an airport worth cycling in every so often. I am glad NEC18 is next because this diversifies the traffic quite well for KDCA. What I can tell you is this background consideration of remaining on past the published event time did nothing to improve perceptions. In more than a few circles it was greeted with a lot of backlash. I think we even have our own phrase.

Could we staff controllers for after event relief? Of course. When we can we do. More controllers would be nice but it is not a reality every time. As someone who has done cleanup I can also say it is not necessarily enjoyable.

Could we have controllers agree to stay on longer than the posted event time? Yes, but I feel inevitably we'll just shorten the event time. It would be a false pretense as there is simply a limit to what we can take and often it is long past the point of enjoyment on our end. Our controllers are wanting to sign off at the end of the event time for a reason. We risk positive controller retention especially in the veteran controllers.

Anyhow just my two cents. I think I prattled on a bit here. This is a recurring discussion on our staff and I am sure other ARTCC's staff too. My thoughts on this is there just needs to be better acceptance of compromise and there is a hard limit on what we can do within the scope of a hobby before we start thinking about it as work. Most times it starts becoming like work is when the controllers leave.

[Matthew Kosmoski]

I filtered among the staff and we decided that I was going to monitor aircraft entering the airspace within the event time and despite any holds we were going to give them service because, with the pilot's departure times, it was a reasonable expectation they would have made it to the airport without the holds and delays.

That's a respectable thing to do.  Sticking around extra time for pilots who arrive outside of the event window as a result of delays beyond their control is commendable.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Hi all --

Thanks for the insights.  Keep in mind, as I said from the outset, I'm not a controller and I understand and appreciate that there are considerations I don't have perspective on.

Rob R -- yeah, I definitely get that staffing an event already pushes your resources to the limits.  The fact that it's 100% volunteer, as opposed to my real-world example which is volunteer also but *PAID* volunteer, certainly does make a difference -- I completely understand.  So some of this post is a bit of a pipe-dream, sure.

Ian -- I don't agree that making a habit of staying after will create an ever-ballooning expectation.  After all, in the end, you can always fall back on "the event ended at 0300."  I'm sure that SOME pilots may still complain (a few will complain no matter what you do!) but I think MOST will appreciate that you already stayed on more than what was published.  On the other hand, your point about a few lingering controllers suddenly taking on the entire traffic-load (and the complexity of merging up as they drop out one by one) is one I hadn't considered.  Maybe having the WHOLE staff agree to an extra 30 minutes will help.  But I see what you're saying and why the request isn't quite as simple as I make it out.  I appreciate your shining some light on the other side.

Brad -- you offer your event at KDCA as a counter-example but I think you did things in exactly the spirit I was talking about.  The event had ended, but you stayed on to handle the traffic that was already in the terminal area.  I think all I am really suggesting is that you might coordinate in the PLANNING stages a contingency plan to do exactly that, which might make things easier when the time comes.  Kudos for the dedication; I'm sure MOST of the pilots that wound up stuck in holds DID appreciate what you and your staff did!

[William Anderson]

So I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I agree with what Brad had posted. Those are the same challenges that we are facing in Atlanta.

One thing that contributes to this issues is the pilots themselves. If you are not aware, or do not know, Atlanta, like other facilities, receives a lot of newer pilots during regular operations. During an FNO, it seems that the number of new pilots seem to multiply. 

Where the fatigue sets in is not the time on the network. It's having to deal with repeating instructions multiple times, solving problems of when people are not listening, causing conflicts and go arounds, and finally trying to deal with people who may not be so experiences but decided to fly on the busiest night in VATUSA. This isn't even mentioning the abnormal traffic levels and conga lines that form. Now after 4 hours of this, people expect us to stay online!?! It really blows my mind, especially when these controllers have their own RW lives to live. There may only be 2 or 3 ARTCC's that have the staffing to do what was being requested. Finally, a lot of facilities aren't even adequately staffed in the first place and have to search for help from the ACE team, or just be short staffed.

Personally, I think that we are searching for a solution to the wrong problem. In order to fix this problem, we must focus on controller retention while keeping in mind that our hobby isn't the most popular. That being said, we also need to focus on quality of controllers. Why? Well numbers are great, but having a lot of controllers does nothing if you can't control and cause more and more problems.

I do apologize for ranting a bit.

[Manuel Manigault]

To put some facts and figures behind this discussion.  One hour before the Never Dull at Dulles event started (12/15/17 2230z-2330z) KIAD saw 4 departures and 2 arrivals.  From 12/15/17 2230z - 12/16/17 0400z,  KIAD handled 74 departures and 134 arrivals over 4.5 hours.  This equates to 46 operations per hour -- 10 times the Business as Usual traffic of 4.4 operations per hour!  From 12/16/17 0400z to 0500z (one hour after the event)  KIAD had 18 departures and 21 arrivals.  Two hours after the event end time (0500z-0600z) KIAD had 7 departures and 8 arrivals.  The data definitely supports what Don mentioned in a recent post about considering extending FNOs to 5 hours at least.  The issue is with staffing.  I would love to see data on the percentage of our membership who actually work events.  I can't imagine it being more that 10-15% of an ARTCCs roster.

[Don Desfosse]

Yeah, this is definitely a tough one, on both sides.  I can't really add much to the arguments that have been made.  Some of these events, particularly single field events, can be literally quite exhausting.  Brad's example is an absolutely outstanding one (and kudos for all you did to stick it out).  I've always encouraged folks to stay on later than advertised to reasonably accommodate a reasonable overflow as much as possible.  In a few cases I've been ticked at how many people got left in the dust when a facility has en-masse logged off.  Was I right to be ticked?  Yes, no and maybe, all combined.  (And I apologize to all that I ticked off in the process! -- I'd like to think I've grown, matured, and settled down a bit since those early "ticked-off" incidents)  There is no easy answer.  We do have limitations, as hobbyists and as humans.  I've also done cleanup many times, consolidating positions with traffic levels that frankly I had no business attempting (remembering horrid memories of the end of my first CTP when I was a brand spankin' new TRACON controller and everyone else logged off in exhaustion and I tried to handle the 104 arrivals myself, plus some departures and "other field" operations for good/bad measure) and it really sucks. 

All I can ask is that event and facility leadership do the absolute best they can to consider that this is a frequent "thing", and try their best to plan for it and try to make reasonable accommodations.  If that means scheduling a few people to start later and end later, and that works for your facility, great.  If it means asking for one or two ACE Team controllers or friends from another facility to come on about an hour before the events' end and stay for some cleanup, great.  If it means (for just about any event, including FNOs) trying to feature more than one airport to dilute some of the incessant pummeling that the "one" airport would get, even if that means needing a few extra bodies, great.  There are probably a few other ideas out there too.  All we can do is our best, but if we try to plan and accommodate and are successful, great.  If we can't do it, understood.  Just like anything in life, though, just do your best, for the controllers, for the pilots, and for our community as a whole!

[Steven Fedor]

To put some facts and figures behind this discussion.  One hour before the Never Dull at Dulles event started (12/15/17 2230z-2330z) KIAD saw 4 departures and 2 arrivals.  From 12/15/17 2230z - 12/16/17 0400z,  KIAD handled 74 departures and 134 arrivals over 4.5 hours.  This equates to 46 operations per hour -- 10 times the Business as Usual traffic of 4.4 operations per hour!  From 12/16/17 0400z to 0500z (one hour after the event)  KIAD had 18 departures and 21 arrivals.  Two hours after the event end time (0500z-0600z) KIAD had 7 departures and 8 arrivals.  The data definitely supports what Don mentioned in a recent post about considering extending FNOs to 5 hours at least.  The issue is with staffing.  I would love to see data on the percentage of our membership who actually work events.  I can't imagine it being more that 10-15% of an ARTCCs roster.

And with this FNO, we had some controllers who were able to be flexible with their schedules, so we couldn’t make sure we had a cleanup crew of a center, 3-4 in the Potomac TRACON, and some scattered local controllers. These guys stayed on til 05z or a few minutes after to make sure we could serve as many pilots as we could.