Narrative:

I got departures on nonstandard set of headings from a trainee in the tower. Aircraft X was the 3rd one out of the cluster. I gave him a turn that I thought would pass behind aircraft Y who was on the arrival. Looked again and saw aircraft X had accelerated and wasn't going to pass behind aircraft Y. I gave him a turn and asked aircraft X if he had him in sight. He said yes and I told him to maintain visual separation. He read back that he would maintain visual separation but I believe he didn't restate his call sign per the incredibly awkward phraseology.we were covered up all day. Eight to nine photo missions; a stupid required ads-B aircraft that has to log time in the class C airspace to get a rebate on his new ads-B; multiple flight school aircraft; and 8 or more F18's inbound for the overhead to a crossing runway. Add to this a FAA flight check aircraft on what I'm pretty sure was a continual illegal odo (opposite direction operation; ILS check to runway 20R while we continued to land the other parallel runway 02R). I was about as frazzled as I've been in years. Chaos. All day. It wears you out and you make mistakes.for the love of god don't approve 7 plus photo missions at the same time on a thursday which is often our busiest day. Don't schedule a flight check at the same time. Who approved all the military? At least they were full stop. All this mixed in with our regular rapidly expanding air carrier and civil load was chaotic with our poorly designed RNAV's and airspace. We need a tmu (traffic management unit) desk in this facility.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BNA Departure Controller reported receiving departures from the Tower that were assigned incorrect headings.

Narrative: I got departures on nonstandard set of headings from a trainee in the Tower. Aircraft X was the 3rd one out of the cluster. I gave him a turn that I thought would pass behind Aircraft Y who was on the arrival. Looked again and saw Aircraft X had accelerated and wasn't going to pass behind Aircraft Y. I gave him a turn and asked Aircraft X if he had him in sight. He said yes and I told him to maintain visual separation. He read back that he would maintain visual separation but I believe he didn't restate his call sign per the incredibly awkward phraseology.We were covered up all day. Eight to nine photo missions; a stupid required ADS-B aircraft that has to log time in the Class C airspace to get a rebate on his new ADS-B; multiple flight school aircraft; and 8 or more F18's inbound for the overhead to a crossing runway. Add to this a FAA flight check aircraft on what I'm pretty sure was a continual illegal ODO (Opposite Direction Operation; ILS check to Runway 20R while we continued to land the other parallel Runway 02R). I was about as frazzled as I've been in years. Chaos. All day. It wears you out and you make mistakes.For the love of god don't approve 7 plus photo missions at the same time on a Thursday which is often our busiest day. Don't schedule a flight check at the same time. Who approved all the military? At least they were full stop. All this mixed in with our regular rapidly expanding air carrier and civil load was chaotic with our poorly designed RNAV's and airspace. We need a TMU (Traffic Management Unit) desk in this facility.

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.