Narrative:

I was providing r-side OJT during this session. We had around 5-6 aircraft inbound to iad on the BARIN1 arrival. One needed to be sequenced into the flow which departed from orf. I asked my trainee where he was going to put the aircraft into the flow. He turned the aircraft to brv VORTAC without first assessing the situation and traffic flow; and hence projecting out. But that was not the problem. A VFR king air was performing photo operations near the brv VORTAC/falko way point on a north/south line pattern. First he was at 10;500. He then descended to 10;000; I presume to stay in VFR conditions. Either altitude is dangerous because our crossing restriction to pct for iad arrivals is falko at 10;000. I had to seize the frequency because the trainee fell behind and was not making the sequence work. I don't descend aircraft through known traffic; even if they are VFR. All our iad arrivals were high coming into pct airspace. During this time; the pct controller was yelling at me to get these iad arrivals pushed down and switched to him. He was also telling me to get the VFR aircraft down to 9;000 and switch the aircraft to him as well; because he couldn't get his iad arrivals down fast enough. So all the while; the controller was yelling at me to do these things; I had to vector 4 iad arrivals because the trainee fell behind the power curve on the sequence; and I knew he didn't have the experience or talent level to get himself out. Since all my iad arrivals were high; it necessitated a point out to another pct sector; fluky. Since I knew this VFR was just basically in the way; I asked the controller at fluky to take a blanket point out; or non-radar block at 11;000; for all these iad arrivals that were high on their restriction. The controller approved; so not only did I have the barin controller yelling at me; I also have my supervisor yelling at me that there are no such things as a blanket point out. Meanwhile I'm vectoring iad arrivals to get at least standard separation of 5 miles; plus trying to explain to my trainee why he fell behind and I had to take over; etc. It became unsafe; when I was trying to provide the safe; orderly; and expeditious flow of air traffic; and I had a controller on the shout line yelling at me; my supervisor yelling at me; all the while I'm was just trying to listen to aircraft read backs. Also; the VFR aircraft had information about his route; but it was in the hands of pct folks. They had to fax over the sheet to ZDC.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZDC Controller described an unsafe condition when providing OJT that was complicated by a photo mission aircraft.

Narrative: I was providing R-Side OJT during this session. We had around 5-6 aircraft inbound to IAD on the BARIN1 arrival. One needed to be sequenced into the flow which departed from ORF. I asked my trainee where he was going to put the aircraft into the flow. He turned the aircraft to BRV VORTAC without first assessing the situation and traffic flow; and hence projecting out. But that was not the problem. A VFR King Air was performing photo operations near the BRV VORTAC/FALKO way point on a north/south line pattern. First he was at 10;500. He then descended to 10;000; I presume to stay in VFR conditions. Either altitude is dangerous because our crossing restriction to PCT for IAD arrivals is FALKO at 10;000. I had to seize the frequency because the trainee fell behind and was not making the sequence work. I don't descend aircraft through known traffic; even if they are VFR. All our IAD arrivals were high coming into PCT airspace. During this time; the PCT Controller was yelling at me to get these IAD arrivals pushed down and switched to him. He was also telling me to get the VFR aircraft down to 9;000 and switch the aircraft to him as well; because he couldn't get his IAD arrivals down fast enough. So all the while; the Controller was yelling at me to do these things; I had to vector 4 IAD arrivals because the trainee fell behind the power curve on the sequence; and I knew he didn't have the experience or talent level to get himself out. Since all my IAD arrivals were high; it necessitated a point out to another PCT sector; FLUKY. Since I knew this VFR was just basically in the way; I asked the Controller at FLUKY to take a blanket point out; or Non-RADAR block at 11;000; for all these IAD arrivals that were high on their restriction. The Controller approved; so not only did I have the BARIN Controller yelling at me; I also have my Supervisor yelling at me that there are no such things as a blanket point out. Meanwhile I'm vectoring IAD arrivals to get at least standard separation of 5 miles; plus trying to explain to my trainee why he fell behind and I had to take over; etc. It became unsafe; when I was trying to provide the safe; orderly; and expeditious flow of air traffic; and I had a Controller on the shout line yelling at me; my Supervisor yelling at me; all the while I'm was just trying to listen to aircraft read backs. Also; the VFR aircraft had information about his route; but it was in the hands of PCT folks. They had to fax over the sheet to ZDC.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.