Aus controller described an airspace incursion event in a complex corner of airspace abutting both c...

Narrative:

I had just taken the position from a developmental and his strips were not in any particular order; just in front of him. A cessna centurion was en route to drt from iws. He should have handed off automatically to zch. For some reason; he did not. This seems to be a trouble spot for our radar coverage and automation. The centurion got within 1 1/2 miles of the boundary with zch when I turned him to re-route him per our letter of agreement with sat. When I located his strip is when I noticed he should have handed off to zch. I then pointed him out to zch and coordinated with sat to send him direct drt. This corner of our airspace seems to be a trouble spot for automation. We connect to 3 different sectors with houston center and also houston approach. We have auto hand offs; but for some reason I have noticed that in this area they do not always hand off. I would recommend getting up to date equipment in this facility.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: AUS Controller described an airspace incursion event in a complex corner of airspace abutting both Center and IAH TRACON airspace. The reporter listed the failure of the automated hand off function as contributory to the problem.

Narrative: I had just taken the position from a Developmental and his strips were not in any particular order; just in front of him. A Cessna Centurion was en route to DRT from IWS. He should have handed off automatically to ZCH. For some reason; he did not. This seems to be a trouble spot for our RADAR coverage and automation. The Centurion got within 1 1/2 miles of the boundary with ZCH when I turned him to re-route him per our letter of agreement with SAT. When I located his strip is when I noticed he should have handed off to ZCH. I then pointed him out to ZCH and coordinated with SAT to send him direct DRT. This corner of our airspace seems to be a trouble spot for automation. We connect to 3 different sectors with Houston Center and also Houston Approach. We have auto hand offs; but for some reason I have noticed that in this area they do not always hand off. I would recommend getting up to date equipment in this facility.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1045805
Time
Date	201210
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	AUS.TRACON
State Reference	TX
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 210 Centurion / Turbo Centurion 210C 210D
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Departure Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Aus controller described an airspace incursion event in a complex corner of airspace abutting both center and iah TRACON airspace. The reporter listed the failure of the automated hand off function as contributory to the problem.