Date: 201306
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: ZAB.ARTCC, NM
Aircraft: A320
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Cruise
Airspace: Class A ZAB
ATC / advisory: Center ZAB
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Other / Unknown; Situational Awareness
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Procedure
Primary problem: Procedure

Narrative: I was working Sectors 91/65 combined. We were 15 miles in trail to LAX; we had MIT to LAX all day shift. I had an A320 on a vector for traffic; and then turned back to PKE for flow. I took a handoff on a CRJ off TUS to LAX. I turned them to the right to go behind the A320 since the CRJ was never going to stay in front. Right about the time I started nudging them back to the west to stay clear of GLADDEN; Sector 42 yelled across the room and said he had another guy off PHX to LAX; right under both of the other two [aircraft] I had. It was another CRJ; can't recall the call sign; I forgot to print the strips up because I was fuming. The FLM called TMU to see if they could buy off on 10 MIT; there was no one on the north flow to compete with; they said yes. I APREQed the A320 direct TNP to stay out in front with ZLA39; which they approved. I slowed the first CRJ to M71; and the second to M70 once I got them from Sector 42 who had initiated a vector. At the same time; I had a C550 landing HII (Lake Havasu); who was going to need to get down and was stacked on top of this LAX mess. I vector them out to the left to get them down because I had other traffic that needed to descend for LOA restrictions. At the same time; I had the B737 direct IPL that I nearly missed a point out to ZLA60 all because I was so busy with the LAX spacing. And the releases been properly timed; I never would have missed the point out on the B737. So; we were 15 MIT in LAX; but I had three of them with three miles front to back; with limited space and only about 60 miles to get the extra 27 miles. First; the ZAB TMU uses ACM (which isn't pushed to our scopes) as a means of scheduling releases off the various airports for departures to LAX. TUS and PHX are fairly close to the ZLA boundary; so the ACM function to the controllers doesn't work because of the freeze horizon. The problem with scheduling these times is that it doesn't really take into account the miles in trail since it is time based metering and miles in trail is a mutually exclusive function (you can't do in trail and hit times; doesn't make sense). The TMU should be giving times based on the miles in trail rather than based on the times into ZLA's airspace. We are constantly having to vector airplanes because of the TMU problems here; especially with LAX spacing. Second; a concerted effort should be started to figure out how to overcome the bad design of the freeze horizon with hub airports. It doesn't make sense to impose miles in trail when time based metering might mitigate some of the vectors.




Synopsis: ZAB Controller described an unsafe condition during extensive flow control limitations for LAX; the reporter noted the variances of several flow measures and the pitfalls of each effort.