Medium Large Transport
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 5
Confusion; Distraction; Workload; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Airspace Structure; Weather; Human Factors; Procedure
The events take place on four sectors that were open; two were combined.  47/90 were combined; sector 46 works the departures out of PHX and 91 climbs the aircraft above 46 and hands the aircraft off to 90 who either flashes the aircraft to 80 or holds onto it because of traffic.  This procedure has been in effect in some form or another since I began working at ZAB and well before I was there.  Sectors 80 and 90 have always sequenced the PHX arrivals from the east and handed them off to 46 to then give to PHX.  91 is now involved in the arrival sequence through a flash through.On this day there was weather; enough to necessitate deviations.  The Military area's Outlaw and Jackal (Outjack)  MOA's and SUA's were also being used.  It was [not too long] after the implementation of the new RNAV SID's and STARS into PHX.  The new SID and STAR involved are the KATMN and PINNG [respectively].  There is also a legacy arrival that can be involved call the SUNSS6 or 7 and that now runs almost head on with the KATMN arrival.  I was working sector 80 with Outjack active below my sector; weather along the departure north of ITEMM intersection and weather just west of DRRVR way point.  This was forcing the departures to deviate and they wanted to go north; the arrivals wanted to deviate north around weather around DRRVR.  I had worked some earlier arrivals in and descended them early to get them out of the way.  Then I got Aircraft X who was at FL400.  This is when the departures started coming out of PHX.  I got busy with some overflight traffic and deviations and left Aircraft X high for too long.  When I could start the aircraft down I realized I also had Aircraft Y in the way.  This aircraft was en route to HNL and its course paralleled the arrival course.  So I vectored Aircraft X north to start a descent.  Aircraft Y needed to deviate now for the same weather that the arrivals were deviating for.  I was now taking the hand offs on the departures from sector 90 and they were climbing well.  Aircraft Z and Aircraft A were two that I worked and when they checked in they both asked for deviations.  The first being Aircraft Z if I recall correctly asked to deviate left and I approved it before remembering that Outjack was active below my stratum so I immediately corrected the aircraft to turn right but then I remembered that there were arrivals that were already in 90's airspace that I might be turning them into.  90 and 80 had mutual weather deviations.  I was penned in pretty well with what I could allow these aircraft to do and if I denied the pilots they could always take matters into their own hands and deviate into active military areas with military fighters or deviate into other airliners descending for PHX on their own.  This made the sector very complex; stressful and unnecessarily unsafe.  The thing is this was only one arrival and a very few departures with minor weather and only two military areas active.  The new arrival and departure procedure makes the eastern sectors very difficult to work now and they were always challenging.  This example to does not include an arrival on the SUNSS which is almost head on with the KATMN and theses aircraft will need to get down to FL200.  This legacy arrival will mostly be used by PHX satellite arrivals like SDL; DVT; P19; IWA; GYR; CHD but many of these aircraft are private jets and like to fly at FL430; FL450 and many times are on top of the PHX arrival stream.  These arrivals will have to be descended to FL200 by ITEMM on the arrival.  This means that when we are busy we will have to weave these arrivals through overflights; the other PHX arrivals (which we already had to do) but now through the departures which are almost head on.  The KATMN and SUNSS are not separated from each other.  With weather this becomes very complicated; especially if all three sectors 47; 90 and 80 are involved.  My technique in this situation may have been incorrect but the inherentflaws In the STAR's and SID  are what are really the problem.  They set a controller up for situation that may end in the loss of separation and maybe more.  The complexities and amount of coordination can make the situation or sector unmanageable.
ZAB Controller describes a session where aircraft were deviating due to weather. This made the workload more complex; while involving SUA; and bad routes.