Learjet 35
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Human Factors
This was the beginning of my mid shift. I was working the TRACON all combined at one Departure scope and we had just switched to a night noise operation. I had several aircraft on my frequency. I had a FLC (Flight Check) requesting to do operations to an opposite direction runway and when advised unable he had an alternate request that I was unfamiliar with; I was also controlling aircraft departing and arriving satellite airports as well as our Air Carrier airport. I was also coordinating with an adjacent facility. I cleared a LJ45 for a visual approach approximately 12 miles out and issued the traffic on a C208 he was following and assigned a speed of 165. I slowed a CRJ to 150 KTS. A few moments later I reissued the traffic but the LJ45 still did not have the C208 insight. So I cancelled his approach clearance assigned an altitude of 030 and a heading of 360. I continued working my other aircraft clearing the CRJ for the visual then came back to the LJ45 and assigned him a heading of 270. I then continued the LJ45's turn to a 230 heading for the downwind all the while he was still descending to 030. It appeared that my downwind turn for the LJ45 may have been to close to the final and so I turned him out to the right 10 degrees and issued the traffic on the CRJ. But separation had apparently already been lost. Don't be too quick to combine positions and have more than one person working the mid.
TRACON Controller working all positions combined on a mid shift experienced a loss of separation event; noting the quick combination of positions in this case was not a good idea.