Narrative:

Special event procedures were getting underway at a nearby airport. The first thing I noticed was that there were no maps for the special use airspace; which was unsettling; but I had worked this before and knew the flow. Normally; the special event position handles only the traffic departing because they come out back to back using fan headings of 130; 145 and 160 degrees. When I took the position I had the other prop departures still coming to my frequency as well as all inbounds from the southwest. The special procedures have jets flying heading 160 climbing to 4000' with a further climb to 6000' or 8000' depending on direction. Other props will all fly heading 240 to remain well south. Aircraft X departed the airport climbing to 2000' on my frequency. I climbed the aircraft to 4000' to clear the MVA and left it on the 240 heading. There was confusion as to who would work the departures and aircraft X was switched to the wrong frequency. We immediately saw what was happening and turned both aircraft. There was too much confusion from the start as to who was going to work what. A late start; no airspace maps and the ARTS configuration was incorrect requiring that I modify tracks. I recognize there was poor coordination on my part as to the plan of action in this particular case. We need to brief controllers who will work this special event at least a week beforehand and make sure everything is in place; (maps; review arts configurations; frequency requirements and coordination) and staff the position a bit earlier.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A TRACON Controller described a very confused operation during a special event that required a number of operational procedures that he considered to be inadequately briefed.

Narrative: Special event procedures were getting underway at a nearby airport. The first thing I noticed was that there were no maps for the special use airspace; which was unsettling; but I had worked this before and knew the flow. Normally; the special event position handles only the traffic departing because they come out back to back using fan headings of 130; 145 and 160 degrees. When I took the position I had the other prop departures still coming to my frequency as well as all inbounds from the southwest. The special procedures have jets flying heading 160 climbing to 4000' with a further climb to 6000' or 8000' depending on direction. Other props will all fly heading 240 to remain well south. Aircraft X departed the airport climbing to 2000' on my frequency. I climbed the aircraft to 4000' to clear the MVA and left it on the 240 heading. There was confusion as to who would work the departures and Aircraft X was switched to the wrong frequency. We immediately saw what was happening and turned both aircraft. There was too much confusion from the start as to who was going to work what. A late start; no airspace maps and the ARTS configuration was incorrect requiring that I modify tracks. I recognize there was poor coordination on my part as to the plan of action in this particular case. We need to brief controllers who will work this special event at least a week beforehand and make sure everything is in place; (maps; review arts configurations; frequency requirements and coordination) and staff the position a bit earlier.

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.