Narrative:

I was working a position called elkhorn and I had 3 other positions combined with me. This is standard procedure for that time of night due to the fact that most of the time it is very slow. I took a hand off from ZOA on an unmanned aircraft inbound to bab. Concurrent with this; I had numerous arrivals into smf and was dealing with a complex arrival sequence which was unusual for that time of night. When unmanned came over to the frequency I flashed the data tag to bab tower (which was accepted) and cleared the aircraft for the approach. The standard tfr was in place which is required for this operation. The aircraft was descending on the approach and was outbound on the approach leaving 15;000 ft. The tower at bab called and requested that the aircraft hold at a fix because there was traffic that was taxing out for departure and that they wanted to get it out prior to the unmanned aircraft's arrival. At that point I told the aircraft to hold at the fix they requested; a fix that was not immediately known to me; and I did not issue an altitude to maintain as the unmanned aircraft operations are very specific. With this new request from bab; I decided to ask for a coordinator/hand off. The controller in charge (controller in charge) plugged in and began to assist me. I heard him speaking with bab tower; discussing the departure was now ready to depart. This subject departure requires an east turn to the north; to intercept a radial; climbing to FL230. At this time the unmanned aircraft was holding at a fix east of the airport (bab) at 7;000 ft. I overheard my coordinator telling bab that they couldn't release this departure with the holding aircraft right over the airport. I backed this up and said 'no' out loud. I did not hear the coordinator release the aircraft; but he did. I was still working on arrivals and sequencing when I heard the departure and call on UHF. I was unable to respond because I was separating; sequencing; and clearing other aircraft for approaches on VHF. At that point my coordinator said 'oh crap.' I looked over at the departure and saw that he was 3 miles from the unmanned aircraft at 6;800 ft and climbing. I issued a traffic alert to the departure but by the time I got it out he was already above the unmanned aircraft with more than standard separation. In my estimation the closest the aircraft came was 2 miles and 500 ft; but this all happened with two radar sweeps so I can't be certain. The collision alert never sounded. It is note worthy to mention that; due to the performance of the aircraft; the time it takes for this type of departure to reach 7;000 ft is about 15 to 20 seconds. Recommendation; this was a very different situation than what we normally do on a day to day basis. The unmanned aircraft is a very unique operation that requires a tfr. The aircraft is not able to maneuver very well outside of its canned procedures. What should have taken place is that if the departure aircraft absolutely needed to depart prior to the arrival; the coordinator should have removed the departure procedure and assigned runway heading or another climb out that would not have conflicted with the holding unmanned aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: NCT Controller described confused operational event involving a departure and an unmanned aircraft operation at KBAB.

Narrative: I was working a position called Elkhorn and I had 3 other positions combined with me. This is standard procedure for that time of night due to the fact that most of the time it is very slow. I took a hand off from ZOA on an unmanned aircraft inbound to BAB. Concurrent with this; I had numerous arrivals into SMF and was dealing with a complex arrival sequence which was unusual for that time of night. When unmanned came over to the frequency I flashed the data tag to BAB Tower (which was accepted) and cleared the aircraft for the approach. The standard TFR was in place which is required for this operation. The aircraft was descending on the approach and was outbound on the approach leaving 15;000 FT. The Tower at BAB called and requested that the aircraft hold at a fix because there was traffic that was taxing out for departure and that they wanted to get it out prior to the unmanned aircraft's arrival. At that point I told the aircraft to hold at the fix they requested; a fix that was not immediately known to me; and I did not issue an altitude to maintain as the unmanned aircraft operations are very specific. With this new request from BAB; I decided to ask for a coordinator/hand off. The CIC (Controller in Charge) plugged in and began to assist me. I heard him speaking with BAB Tower; discussing the departure was now ready to depart. This subject departure requires an east turn to the north; to intercept a radial; climbing to FL230. At this time the unmanned aircraft was holding at a fix east of the airport (BAB) at 7;000 FT. I overheard my Coordinator telling BAB that they couldn't release this departure with the holding aircraft right over the airport. I backed this up and said 'no' out loud. I did not hear the Coordinator release the aircraft; but he did. I was still working on arrivals and sequencing when I heard the departure and call on UHF. I was unable to respond because I was separating; sequencing; and clearing other aircraft for approaches on VHF. At that point my Coordinator said 'oh crap.' I looked over at the departure and saw that he was 3 miles from the unmanned aircraft at 6;800 FT and climbing. I issued a traffic alert to the departure but by the time I got it out he was already above the unmanned aircraft with more than standard separation. In my estimation the closest the aircraft came was 2 miles and 500 FT; but this all happened with two RADAR sweeps so I can't be certain. The collision alert never sounded. It is note worthy to mention that; due to the performance of the aircraft; the time it takes for this type of departure to reach 7;000 FT is about 15 to 20 seconds. Recommendation; this was a very different situation than what we normally do on a day to day basis. The unmanned aircraft is a very unique operation that requires a TFR. The aircraft is not able to maneuver very well outside of its canned procedures. What should have taken place is that if the departure aircraft absolutely needed to depart prior to the arrival; the coordinator should have removed the departure procedure and assigned runway heading or another climb out that would not have conflicted with the holding unmanned aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.