Narrative:

The schedule that was published at the sector noted that gateway atcaa was supposed to go cold at xa:00. Several aircraft were still in the airspace. I still have not been told how or where the miscommunication occurred; but the point of this is that there are at least 8 different parties that have the opportunity to miscommunicate because of the way the new procedures were designed. The end result is that ZLC had coordinated the schedule incorrectly and it needed to be hot for 2 more hours. I know this is one of many [safety reports] I have filed on this airspace; and I don't want to be the guy who no one listens to anymore; but this really is unsafe and I don't know how else to accomplish change.the previous procedure was aircraft would depart rapid city; request use of the airspace; and the controller would determine their accommodations. Said controller would then notify the affected adjacent controllers. Then when the aircraft left the airspace we would let the adjacent sectors know it was cold. I believe this is the definition of air traffic control assigned airspace. The controllers have complete control of what is happening inside their sector boundaries and are not subject to traffic managers and flm's miscommunicating; as so often happens. At times the old procedure could be labor intensive; but it was completely controlled with no opportunity for incorrect scheduling. In the new setup there are so many moving parts that are so frequently mishandled that it can't possibly be the best way to design this. I would like to see less people involved in the coordination of airspace to bring the initial coordination closer to (or all the way) to the sector level. Area 5 could be responsible for what traffic management does now and we would eliminate at least 2 steps if ZLC did the same thing.I would like to propose that the airspace be physically turned on at the sector 10-15 minutes prior to it actually going hot. We still have several combat maneuvers going on at the last second when airspace goes hot. The flm's are not doing their mandated notifications prior to activation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZDV ARTCC Controller reported several aircraft operating in military special use airspace at the same time the airspace was scheduled to be inactive.

Narrative: The schedule that was published at the sector noted that Gateway ATCAA was supposed to go cold at XA:00. Several aircraft were still in the airspace. I still have not been told how or where the miscommunication occurred; but the point of this is that there are at least 8 different parties that have the opportunity to miscommunicate because of the way the new procedures were designed. The end result is that ZLC had coordinated the schedule incorrectly and it needed to be hot for 2 more hours. I know this is one of many [safety reports] I have filed on this airspace; and I don't want to be the guy who no one listens to anymore; but this really is unsafe and I don't know how else to accomplish change.The previous procedure was aircraft would depart Rapid City; request use of the airspace; and the controller would determine their accommodations. Said controller would then notify the affected adjacent controllers. Then when the aircraft left the airspace we would let the adjacent sectors know it was cold. I believe this is the definition of air traffic control assigned airspace. The controllers have complete control of what is happening inside their sector boundaries and are not subject to traffic managers and FLM's miscommunicating; as so often happens. At times the old procedure could be labor intensive; but it was completely controlled with no opportunity for incorrect scheduling. In the new setup there are so many moving parts that are so frequently mishandled that it can't possibly be the best way to design this. I would like to see less people involved in the coordination of airspace to bring the initial coordination closer to (or all the way) to the sector level. Area 5 could be responsible for what traffic management does now and we would eliminate at least 2 steps if ZLC did the same thing.I would like to propose that the airspace be physically turned on at the sector 10-15 minutes prior to it actually going hot. We still have several combat maneuvers going on at the last second when airspace goes hot. The FLM's are not doing their mandated notifications prior to activation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.