No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Human Factors
The three positions were all combined. It took me several minutes to take over the position since the controller I was reliving was having a tough time and considering 20/20 hindsight; I should have suggested to the supervisor that I open up one sector. I was on position 5 minutes [and] I was so far down the crapper it took 5 more minutes just to break even. Right after I sat down I noticed that the edges of my screen were a sea of flashing white hand off's as there are more than 6 routes into the Class B airport; and 7 into the Class D; and of course none of these are metered. We were running instrument approaches and when I went to turn an aircraft to join the Class B localize somebody checked in; then when I went to turn that aircraft again my transmission was blocked so I tried again and he said; 'was that for me'; so I had to restate his instruction a 3rd time and he got into AR1/2's airspace. Basically; I had 4-6 aircraft inbound to the Class D and 1-2 departures from the Class D; 1 inbound to a second nearby Class D and 3 departures from there and 7-10 arrivals to the Class B and 1 departure from the airport! There were too many aircraft; frequencies and airports for 1 Controller to safely work! All it takes is 1 missed communication and you're behind and that happened right away as I did not have enough room; airspace and altitudes for all of the aircraft. They tried to open up a new sector five or so minutes after I got so busy but it's hard to split off positions when you don't even have the time to brief the other controller. I can't really remember the last time I got this far behind. It's been years. If I would have 'strongly' recommended to the supervisor that I open up the new sector when the previous Controller was briefing me and if that had happened I probably would not be filling out this report now! But I didn't so I have myself first and foremost to blame. Besides what was said above; we have several 'perfect storms' brewing at the TRACON. We are no longer under a microscope for loss of separation. The new two thirds of required separation rule instead of the 90% PE rule or the 100% required before that has added to the apathy of 'following the rules'. We are thinly staffed yet we constantly have people on 'details'. People are fatigued from constantly working lots of traffic. Despite what I just stated above Controllers are our own worst enemies by complaining about being on a position that should be combined because it is slow. When traffic picks up it's always too late to open up another position! There seems to be an agency wide attitude because it doesn't matter if you're dealing with another facility or somebody across the room; once a plane is off frequency; and/or out of my airspace; then it's no longer my problem; even if you just crapped on the next Controller working that aircraft. We have several supervisors with 1 year of experience or less that seem to have the good old days syndrome of 'well I could have handled that push of aircraft'. That really isn't a 'safe' way to staff the TRACON when there are a lot of aircraft on the way! They do not adhere to the theory that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link; which totally applies to ATC!
TRACON Controller described an extremely busy and complex traffic period that resulted in an airspace infraction and loss of separation event; the reporter acknowledging he should have insisted on splitting the combined position during the relief briefing.