TRACON controller providing OJT described a loss of separation when traffic increased significantly;...

Narrative:

This event occurred during on-the-job training. It has become common practice in our facility to keep multiple sectors combined due to minimal staffing. In the past; these two subject sectors would be split apart throughout the busy hours of the day because of the unpredictable nature for the two sectors to suddenly increase in both volume and complexity. At any moment this combined sector; can be sequencing arrivals to four satellite airports; feeding arrivals and working the bulk of departures off the primary airport; separating en route aircraft across 70 miles of airspace; and have 13 other sectors calling for coordination. At the time of this event; it was moderately busy and the trainee asked for help but it was already too late to split the sectors. I told her to keep working and the controller-in-charge came over to coordinate as it became unmanageable. The loss of separation occurred when the trainee descended a mooney from 7;000 ft to 5;000 ft while converging with a navion at 6;000 ft. I did not hear the trainee make the transmission to the mooney because I was giving instructions to turn other aircraft at the time he/she issued the descent instruction. Traffic volume has been steadily decreasing over the last few years at our facility and it has become a common practice to combine our five operational positions into just two. The motivation behind this has been to increase volume and complexity for the trainee and that the staffing level does not permit us to both train and have more scopes open. Some of the trainees are not proficient or experienced enough to train on combined sectors and it is putting an undue hardship on the instructors to accomplish training. Many of the trainees have no air traffic experience and don't understand the basic fundamentals. Instructors are trying to teach this at the same time as managing unpredictable traffic volume. Management needs to hold regular training team meetings and have skill checks performed by certified personnel to identify weaknesses in the trainee. Training should be tailored to the trainees skill level (i.e. Splitting sectors) and skill enhancement training performed where necessary.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller providing OJT described a loss of separation when traffic increased significantly; positions were combined; and complexity increased. The reporter noted facility 'combined sectors' for training; as one causal factor.

Narrative: This event occurred during on-the-job training. It has become common practice in our facility to keep multiple sectors combined due to minimal staffing. In the past; these two subject sectors would be split apart throughout the busy hours of the day because of the unpredictable nature for the two sectors to suddenly increase in both volume and complexity. At any moment this combined sector; can be sequencing arrivals to four satellite airports; feeding arrivals and working the bulk of departures off the primary airport; separating en route aircraft across 70 miles of airspace; and have 13 other sectors calling for coordination. At the time of this event; it was moderately busy and the trainee asked for help but it was already too late to split the sectors. I told her to keep working and the Controller-In-Charge came over to coordinate as it became unmanageable. The loss of separation occurred when the trainee descended a Mooney from 7;000 FT to 5;000 FT while converging with a Navion at 6;000 FT. I did not hear the trainee make the transmission to the Mooney because I was giving instructions to turn other aircraft at the time he/she issued the descent instruction. Traffic volume has been steadily decreasing over the last few years at our facility and it has become a common practice to combine our five operational positions into just two. The motivation behind this has been to increase volume and complexity for the trainee and that the staffing level does not permit us to both train and have more scopes open. Some of the trainees are not proficient or experienced enough to train on combined sectors and it is putting an undue hardship on the instructors to accomplish training. Many of the trainees have no air traffic experience and don't understand the basic fundamentals. Instructors are trying to teach this at the same time as managing unpredictable traffic volume. Management needs to hold regular training team meetings and have skill checks performed by certified personnel to identify weaknesses in the trainee. Training should be tailored to the trainees skill level (i.e. splitting sectors) and skill enhancement training performed where necessary.

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	1114493
Time
Date	201309
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Navion
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	M-20 Series Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Instructor Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Person 2
Function	Departure Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Developmental
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

TRACON controller providing OJT described a loss of separation when traffic increased significantly; positions were combined; and complexity increased. The reporter noted facility 'combined sectors' for training; as one causal factor.