Narrative:

I was training on radar and my trainee had two IFR cessnas that departed; the two cessna's frequently orbit directly over the airport for 3 to 4 hours at a time. Aircraft X departed first and was instructed to climb and maintain 6;000 ft. Shortly thereafter; aircraft Y departed and was instructed to climb and maintain 5;000 ft. When aircraft X reached 6;000 ft; the pilot advised that he would like to fly VFR-on-top at 5;500 ft. The ceilings were around 2;000 ft and we didn't have PIREPS about cloud conditions above the base layer. My trainee instructed the pilot to maintain VFR-on-top at 5;500 ft and when the pilot neared 5;500 ft he advised that he could no longer maintain VFR-on-top. At this point aircraft X was approximately 500 ft from aircraft Y and within 3 miles. Traffic was issued to the 2 aircraft involved. The aircraft were diverging from one another when aircraft X advised that he could no longer maintain VFR-on-top and he was instructed to climb and maintain 6;000 ft. I decided to submit this report because I was unsure if aircraft X reported VFR-on-top at 6;000 ft with a request to descend to maintain VFR-on-top at 5;500 ft. If aircraft X did report VFR-on-top at 6;000 ft; then I believe no error occurred. I'm also a relatively new radar trainer and I'm still learning how to manage this responsibility while allowing the trainee to make mistakes and learn how to correct them themselves. Recommendation; I would recommend that the cessna either relocate to slower areas of our airspace or preferably go away. Sometimes as many as four aircraft will depart to orbit in our airspace for 3 to 4 hours. While I realize that our responsibility is to provide this service to the flying public; it also makes our job unnecessarily challenging. The area where they most often congregate is in the most complex portion of our airspace. Depending on runway configurations; three towers can be feeding aircraft into this airspace simultaneously. When the orbiters perform their operations as low as 4;000 ft; it restricts our ability to climb high performance aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller providing OJT with limited training experience described a questionable separation event involving VFR-On-Top clearances.

Narrative: I was training on RADAR and my trainee had two IFR Cessnas that departed; the two Cessna's frequently orbit directly over the airport for 3 to 4 hours at a time. Aircraft X departed first and was instructed to climb and maintain 6;000 FT. Shortly thereafter; Aircraft Y departed and was instructed to climb and maintain 5;000 FT. When Aircraft X reached 6;000 FT; the pilot advised that he would like to fly VFR-On-Top at 5;500 FT. The ceilings were around 2;000 FT and we didn't have PIREPS about cloud conditions above the base layer. My trainee instructed the pilot to maintain VFR-On-Top at 5;500 FT and when the pilot neared 5;500 FT he advised that he could no longer maintain VFR-On-Top. At this point Aircraft X was approximately 500 FT from Aircraft Y and within 3 miles. Traffic was issued to the 2 aircraft involved. The aircraft were diverging from one another when Aircraft X advised that he could no longer maintain VFR-On-Top and he was instructed to climb and maintain 6;000 FT. I decided to submit this report because I was unsure if Aircraft X reported VFR-On-Top at 6;000 FT with a request to descend to maintain VFR-On-Top at 5;500 FT. If Aircraft X did report VFR-On-Top at 6;000 FT; then I believe no error occurred. I'm also a relatively new RADAR trainer and I'm still learning how to manage this responsibility while allowing the trainee to make mistakes and learn how to correct them themselves. Recommendation; I would recommend that the Cessna either relocate to slower areas of our airspace or preferably go away. Sometimes as many as four aircraft will depart to orbit in our airspace for 3 to 4 hours. While I realize that our responsibility is to provide this service to the flying public; it also makes our job unnecessarily challenging. The area where they most often congregate is in the most complex portion of our airspace. Depending on runway configurations; three towers can be feeding aircraft into this airspace simultaneously. When the orbiters perform their operations as low as 4;000 FT; it restricts our ability to climb high performance 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.