Large Transport
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 24
Workload; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Procedure; Human Factors; Chart Or Publication
I was training at R34.  At approximately XA:24Z my trainee descended Aircraft X via the OAKES1 west transition.  The pilot asked to verify west transition.  A minute later he asked us to verify transition he thought we said west; we verified west transition.  Another minute later he asked if west was a waypoint he didn't see it on the chart. My trainee patiently asked if he was looking at the chart and told him to look at the 'arrival route description'  and told him where to look in that part.  There are going to be numerous times when we don't have time to answer questions like this and it could lead to multiple errors.  The number and type of questions seems to be getting worse and when we start doing this to SFO with 5 times the planes it probably will get much worse.  I don't know if it is automation in the planes; or pilots are having lots of issues and trying to be extra careful; but this needs to improve.We need a different arrival name for every transition.  That means 3 different arrivals into OAK.
An Oakland Center (ZOA) Controller reports of confusion from pilots on the transition names of the STARs. The Controller would like a different arrival name for every transition.