Narrative:

My attention was drawn to LC1 when he was coordinating something on the land line that sounded urgent and unusual; though I don't recall what it was. When I looked at the radar scope; I observed a PC12 climbing northbound out of about 1;800 ft; and a BE9L descending south bound out of about 2;200 ft; 2 or 3 miles apart; head-on. LC1 was trying to turn the BE9L; but no joy. Next he stopped the PC12's climb; then descended him; then turned him right. At one point they were within a half mile head-on; both at 1;800 ft. The turn may have avoided a head-on collision. I've seen this particular situation happen several times; although this was the closest one yet. We have automatic releases on small IFR departures on a 010 heading. Inbound VFR traffic from the north is supposed to be routed over vancouver mall; which is northwest of pdx. This should keep them procedurally separated. The problem is with VFR traffic inbound from the northeast. It's out of their way to fly over the mall; so the north sector (P80) has been turning them toward the airport early; without coordination; right in the face of the outbound 010 heading. I'm not talking about occasionally; it's pretty much routine. On the rare occasion they do coordinate; it's usually lengthy; drawn out; not to the point; and they don't use the term 'apreq'. Recommendation; the VFR inbound traffic from the northeast should continue toward vancouver mall. We have control to turn them on contact; and we know whether or not we have outbound traffic. The TRACON doesn't know if we have outbound traffic. If they want to turn traffic toward the airport early they need to apreq it. They are mostly ignoring a procedure that keeps opposite direction airplanes separated. If they want to deviate from that procedure; they need to get approval.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PDX Controller witnessed a near conflict event between a VFR arrival and an IFR departure; claiming the TRACON routinely turns arrivals into conflict situations without coordination with the tower.

Narrative: My attention was drawn to LC1 when he was coordinating something on the land line that sounded urgent and unusual; though I don't recall what it was. When I looked at the RADAR scope; I observed a PC12 climbing northbound out of about 1;800 FT; and a BE9L descending south bound out of about 2;200 FT; 2 or 3 miles apart; head-on. LC1 was trying to turn the BE9L; but no joy. Next he stopped the PC12's climb; then descended him; then turned him right. At one point they were within a half mile head-on; both at 1;800 FT. The turn may have avoided a head-on collision. I've seen this particular situation happen several times; although this was the closest one yet. We have automatic releases on small IFR departures on a 010 heading. Inbound VFR traffic from the north is supposed to be routed over Vancouver Mall; which is northwest of PDX. This should keep them procedurally separated. The problem is with VFR traffic inbound from the northeast. It's out of their way to fly over the mall; so the North Sector (P80) has been turning them toward the airport early; without coordination; right in the face of the outbound 010 heading. I'm not talking about occasionally; it's pretty much routine. On the rare occasion they do coordinate; it's usually lengthy; drawn out; not to the point; and they don't use the term 'APREQ'. Recommendation; the VFR inbound traffic from the northeast should continue toward Vancouver Mall. We have control to turn them on contact; and we know whether or not we have outbound traffic. The TRACON doesn't know if we have outbound traffic. If they want to turn traffic toward the airport early they need to APREQ it. They are mostly ignoring a procedure that keeps opposite direction airplanes separated. If they want to deviate from that procedure; they need to get approval.

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.