A380
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Human Factors
Due to lack of clear separation standards regarding the A380; and wake remnants; I was not thinking I needed more than 5-6 miles behind the super. Lack of training on and complete inability to track a 'wake remnant'; I was unable to determine when it was safe to climb a B737 after passing the A380. Often on WOOLY; we work climbing opposite direction traffic through holes in the weather. This was the case during this event. My facility also failed to distribute a new memo from the FAA which contained new and important separation standards for the A380. In my opinion; had I been given this information in the weeks prior to this event; I would have been thinking about needing 7 miles for wake behind the A380. PCT office staff consistently drop the ball on disseminating information to controllers. One would think at the rate things are over looked or not disseminated; that we live and work in the middle of Montana; not in the nations' capital; in the 3rd busiest facility in the country. It is routine that a pilot will ask for a transition to an RNAV Approach that we didn't know had changed or a pilot asking us why we are using the 'old SKILS1 arrival when the SKILS2 went in affect today'. Secondly; not having equipment to actually track or show wake turbulence is a huge handicap. Working numerous aircraft and keeping track of where an airplane had been is impossible and asking us to do so is just ridiculous. Give us the tools to do the safest work.
PCT Controller experienced a 'wake remnant' loss of separation event when passing behind an A380 vectoring departures through weather; the reporter noting the facilities dissemination of needed information is very poor.