Date: 201807
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: ZOA.ARTCC, CA
Aircraft: Small Transport
Operator: Corporate
Operating under: Part 91
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Climb
Airspace: Class A ZOA
ATC / advisory: Center ZOA
Second aircraft: UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Confusion
Second reporter function: Instructor; Enroute
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Contributing factors: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Procedure; Human Factors
Primary problem: Procedure

Narrative: I was working the R-side at Sector XX. I climbed Aircraft X and had a J-ring on Aircraft Y. At the time when I climbed Aircraft X I thought I had enough room to climb him with no problem. Aircraft Y was headed in a different direction. I got busy descending aircraft for ZZZ and ZZZ1. Training was going on at the D-side position and the trainee was having a hard time keeping up so I was doing a lot of the entries and telling the trainee what to do. I feel like if I had a CPC D side or someone more experienced helping it would have been easier to track everything. Aircraft Y was in a area of high traffic volume and density. Possibly traffic with ZZZ2 arrivals and departures and overflights in that area. Also with him maneuvering there in the future I will use vertical separation and assign a heading to Aircraft Y. My comfort level with Aircraft Y is low and thought he would be able to turn faster.


Second narrative: I was an instructor training on the Radar Associate (D-side) position of the sector. The R-side had been making some unusual and not very effective moves which made his workload much harder than it already was. There was weather deviations; and slow performing aircraft mixed in with his traffic. Aircraft Y was flying much of the middle portion of the sector at FL260. Aircraft X was climbing eastbound from the western part of the sector. The R-side had traffic for Aircraft X at FL250 and asked the pilot if he was able to climb to FL270; in which the pilot concurred. My trainee and I were discussing a lot of different things since there was much going on in the sector; and my trainee may have been doing landline coordination when the R-side gave the clearance to climb Aircraft X. Aircraft Y had been orbiting the sector for some time; and the R-side did not recognize Aircraft Y making the maneuver and turned into Aircraft X as it climbed. Conflict alert activated which prompted the R-side to execute turns; but I believe the two aircraft still lost proper enroute separation. With the advances in technology and having ERAM and DATACOMM; maybe we should be able to be given the option to change data block colors to distinguish it more from others; or maybe at least the new characters that surround the data block for datacomm (IE point outs; VCI; etc.). Most of what happened was strictly the R-side's own doing; but maybe it would've helped him more if the slow orbiting Aircraft Y in the middle of his sector stood out all the time from the rest of his data blocks.


Synopsis: ZOA Center Controllers reported a loss of separation between a UAV and a Small Transport.