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On the Cover On 5 Feb 2015, Hatteras B East and Hatteras B West ATCAAs were added as part of the Cherry Point delegated airspace that can be used up to 29,000 feet.

ATC Facility Officer – Maj Jose R. Hernandez

SNCOIC – MSgt Marshall K. Crawford

Training Chief – GySgt Louie S. Cruz

Tower Chief – GySgt Harlan C. Black

Radar Chief – The Invisible Man

Writer/Editor – Joseph G. Hendrickson

Table of Contents

From The Point 3

Training 5

To the Point 6

This quarterly newsletter is published solely by the Editor and does not imply any consent, approval or endorsement

by the ATCFO or the commander of MCAS Cherry Point.

WWW.CHERRYPOINTATC.COM

Apr 2015

Airspace Expansion On February 5th, 2015, in a dark room in the middle of the night, switches were flipped, frequencies were activated and software was loaded to transfer a large portion of Eastern North Carolina airspace to MCAS Cherry Point. Nearly 20 years of negotiations have gone into this effort and the delegated airspace had actually grown once during that time. Obviously, many individuals have worked hard in this endeavor with a lot of them having moved on, but that hard work has paid off. Things began to pick up speed in 2013 with proposals and counterproposals between Washington Center and Cherry Point. Once the boundaries were agreed to, the real work started. Several activation dates came and went in 2014 as automation for STARS and ERAM were critical milestones. During December it looked like February 5th was going to be the day. Myriad tasks that had been started, stopped, started again and/or put on hold needed to be completed. The core of the training program for this expansion resided in 11 Letters of Agreement that established boundaries, procedures and responsibilities for the dozen or so entities involved. All qualified controllers would be subject to passing nine written tests and up to three practical application simulation scenarios. Facility directives were issued in the form of a 99 page study guide along with a 10-part supplement to segregate the lesson topics. Although many hours had already been invested, formal training began on January 5th, 2015. During the training phase the facility completed 377 manhours of simulations and 50 controllers completed their required written tests. Behind the scenes, numerous tasks were nearing completion. Communication lines, remote radio transmitters, frequencies, branch configuration, VIDS information, Flight Publications, NOTAMs, minimum vectoring altitude charts, video maps, Special Use Airspace (SUA) notification charts, SUA activation screens, slide show briefs, SUA activation forms, fixed pairs, etc. A preliminary evaluation was done by

MCIEAST on January 21st followed by the certification by a team from the Naval Airspace and Air Traffic Control Standards and Evaluation Agency (NAATSEA) on January 28th. The facility was found to be fully prepared to accept additional assigned airspace on January 29th.

Facility Management

Maj Rick Hernandez ATCFO/CALO MSgt Marshall Crawford SNCOIC/Manpower GySgt Louis Cruz Training Chief GySgt Lance Heidemann Automation/Video Maps GySgt Lee Pugh TERPS Joe Hendrickson Pubs/Documentation

Cherry Point Airspace Committee

Jeff Knipple ATC Supervisor Jason Woodin ATC Supervisor Tim Henry ATC Supervisor/TERPS Jordon Styrk NATCA Representative Brandon Strasler NATCA Representative Judson Woodard NATCA Representative Mike Lane NATCA Representative

Washington Center

Curt Johnson NATCA Representative Joe Keimig Center Airspace Manager

MCIEAST

LtCol Jimmy Hicks APP MCIEAST MSgt Thomas Kopp SNCOIC GySgt Daniel Albarracin TERPS David Plummer RAC Sue Price NAALS

NAATSEA

LtCol Joe Turkal HQMC APX-25 LtCol Aaron Rose NAVREP Maj Howard Mui CNO MGySgt Joe Roppo HQMC APX-25 ACCM Scott Swain CNO OPNAV Stephen Rohring FAA ATREP

The previous delegated airspace encompassed 5,356 square miles with sectors between 10,000 and 18,000 feet in height.

The new airspace has increased to 9,145 square miles with vertical limits at 23,000 feet and the availability of 29,000 feet with Washington Center coordination. Special Use Airspace includes 25 Restricted Areas, 8 Military Operating Areas and 5 ATCAAs.

Controller of the Quarter Lance Corporal Alan L. Tsang has been awarded the Controller of the Quarter for the 1st quarter of 2015. He accrued 125 hours of training on Local Control during the quarter and was an instructor for an additional 44 hours. Outside of the facility, he dedicated over 60 hours of volunteer work and received three Letters of Appreciation. Congratulations to LCpl Tsang!

Controller Cards are Back After a 3-year hiatus, the popular controller cards have been completed for 2014. A total of 149 cards were produced for controllers transitioning through the facility during the year. The annual class included 19 Rookies.

Supplement Managers Established On the same day as the airspace expansion took place, the facility established T&R Supplement Managers for each operating position. These managers will become the point of contact and subject matter experts for all Lesson Topic Guides, Local Qualification Standards and validation of written tests. The Marines listed below were chosen for their demonstrated performance as OJT Instructors on the individual positions in order to glean the information needed from the most recent and active sources. Orientation Cpl B. Bonilla Tower Flight Data Cpl J. L. Wurtsmith Ground Control Sgt R. M. Guinn Local Control Cpl C. K. Higgins Radar Flight Data Cpl R. H. Denson Radar Final Control Cpl J. D. McDaniel Approach East Cpl David M. Long Approach West Cpl J. E. Entzi Arrival Control Sgt F. M. Finch Other updated supplements in the works will include Approach North, Radar Supervisor, Tower Supervisor, ATC Officer and Facility Watch Officer. The main areas of focus for the latest updates were to include Aviation Career Progression Model events, Basic Instructor events, expand Local Qualification Standards and reduce the inherent redundancy of the Lesson Topic Guides. Follow our progress at www.cherrypointatc.com

Training Program Statistics Jan-Mar OJT Hours 3,309.70 OJF Hours 440.17 Tower Simulation (Training) 194.20 Radar Simulation (Training) 372.22 Simulated GCAs 1,291 MOSs Issued 19 Position Qualifications 46

Qualifications Name Date Position MOS SSgt M. R. Kolenc 8 Jan 15 APW 7253/54 Mr M. J. Vitchers 13 Jan 15 APE Sgt A. S. Rasmussen 14 Jan 15 APW 7253/54 GySgt J. D. Meyer 14 Jan 15 APW 7253/54 Sgt C. T. Steinman 14 Jan 15 RD LCpl K. P. Sizemore 16 Jan 15 FC 7257R LCpl D. W. Moore 20 Jan 15 RD Mr A. M. Kawczk 20 Jan 15 LC 2ndLt E. M. Cabrera 29 Jan 15 FC Cpl J. Navarrete 2 Feb 15 GC Cpl M. A. Van 3 Feb 15 APW 7253/54 LCpl J. M. Fedina 3 Feb 15 RD Mr M. J. Vitchers 6 Feb 15 AR Sgt B. A. Alvarez 12 Feb 15 LC 7252 Mr D. J. McIlhenny 20 Feb 15 FD,GC 1stLt D. J. Engel 23 Feb 15 GC

From The Schoolhouse For the first time in the history of MCAS Cherry Point (my 22 years), we have not received a trainee from ATC School during an entire quarter.

Qualifications Name Date Position MOS PFC M. J. Stoll 27 Feb 15 FD Cpl C. A. Browning 27 Feb 15 FD Sgt W. L. Slater 27 Feb 15 LC 7252 LCpl D. W. Moore 5 Mar 15 FC 7257R SSgt M. H. Hartka 10 Mar 15 APW 7254 Sgt C. T. Steinman 11 Mar 15 FC 7257R Mr M. J. Vitchers 11 Mar 15 FC GySgt L. A. Pugh 12 Mar 15 RD Cpl A. Hasan 20 Mar 15 AR Cpl E. J. Ayala 20 Mar 15 APW 7254 Cpl J. N. Allen 24 Mar 15 FD Cpl J. L. Rayburn 27 Mar 15 FD Sgt J. J. Hall 31 Mar 15 APW 7253/54 LCpl S. R. Klaiber 31 Mar 15 RD Sgt C. A. Stoy 31 Mar 15 GC 7257T

This is a phrase that we commonly associate with our counterparts in ATC Maintenance but on occasion are guilty of ourselves. Have you ever changed a procedure, intentionally or accidently, that turned out to be more efficient, effective or expeditious only to be told that ATC NATOPS doesn’t allow it? A change happened here in 2011 and NATOPS evaluators fixed it in 2014. These events actually began in August 2010 at the now historical conference that created Chapter 6 of ATC NATOPS. We (Marine ATC) decided to adopt Total Training Months (TTM) vice hours for position training and establish our training program separate from the Navy. Never one to wait for the paperwork to catch up, we at Cherry Point went ahead and changed to Total Training Months (TTM) across the board on 1 Jan 2011 for three reasons. 1. The decision had already been made at a Marine Corps wide conference. 2. MCIEAST had already stated that there would be a regional directive to support TTM. 3. The annual update to the facility manual was being published. A noticeable improvement in training took place on Radar Final Control. For 10 years, the limit on RFC was between 250-175 live approaches with the average number of days to qualify at 99. When we removed the limit on approaches an amazing thing happened. The average number of GCAs required for each qualification rose by 13 but the time to qualify dropped to 78 days, a reduction of 21 days for each of the 71 Marines that trained after Jan 2011. Mathematically, that freed up nearly 1,500 days of training.

More importantly, this allowed these Marines to move to the next position 3 weeks earlier. Needless to say, the regional directive never materialized. When the NATOPS Manual came out in 2013, we purposely did not alter our standard TTM on RFC since our number of approaches were well within the NAVAIR limit and we did not want to reintroduce the stigma of limiting traffic exposure. Besides, if TTM works for every position in the facility, why would it not work for RFC. We had accidently improved training on RFC by jumping the gun and then sticking with it for over 2 years. Fast forward to Sep 2014, the NATOPS Evaluation Team from MCIEAST finds (correctly) that we are not in compliance with NATOPS on RFC training. They could have issued a waiver on the spot had they been a bit more curious about why we were doing it different. A Facility Directive had to be published immediately so now we are back to training the correct way but not necessarily the best way. In fact, I believe that both ways are correct depending on the availability of approaches and empirical data compiled by each facility. I quickly drafted a waiver request as allowed by NATOPS and will formally propose that our next Chapter 6 gives us the option for TTM on RFC. I am confident that we will eventually return to the process that has already proven to work better.

“IF IT’S NOT BROKEN, FIX IT UNTIL IT IS”