What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!

Shane VanHoven

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Out of sheer boredom this weekend, I decided to see if I couldn't match RW KORD's AAR in Sweatbox, and run it all without splitting up the positions. I'm not sure if I even came close to hitting 120ish arrivals an hour, but I only made it like 15 minutes into the scenario before my fingers started cramping up.

I'm curious if any other facilities have stupid busy scenarios just for the fun of it! Share a screenshot! Here's when I decided I couldn't type fast enough to keep up. At least nobody died!

Shane VanHoven
Minneapolis ARTCC
Private pilot, Instrument, ASEL
FAA Air Traffic Control, ORD ATCT

Rick Rump

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2018, 07:03:20 AM »
Someone is a masochist ;)
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Sergio Lopez

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2018, 09:21:22 AM »
An FNO....nothing beats an FNO  ;D
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Shane VanHoven

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2018, 01:06:08 PM »
An FNO....nothing beats an FNO  ;D

I promise this scenario, if it went as long as an FNO, would beat the crap out of an FNO! ;P
Shane VanHoven
Minneapolis ARTCC
Private pilot, Instrument, ASEL
FAA Air Traffic Control, ORD ATCT

Toby Rice

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2018, 01:30:42 PM »
I've made a lot of intense sweatbox sessions in my day. Here's one of the moderately difficult HCF Approach sessions in progress...

Toby Rice
Jacksonville ARTCC
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Daniel Everman

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2018, 03:10:49 PM »
I've made a lot of intense sweatbox sessions in my day. Here's one of the moderately difficult HCF Approach sessions in progress...

Looks challenging! A bit too much scope clutter there for my tastes, though.
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ZMP FE #retired | Grill Enthusiast

Krikor Hajian

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2018, 03:56:12 PM »
Probably not the busiest file in the BVA arsenal, but a challenging one for sure. It's a little hard to pick up what's going on without the history trails (since this was taken while it was paused), the two turboprops (POE and NLA) are on right bases for the ILS 22L, as the JFUND STAR stream to the west enters a downwind. All the guys to the south and southeast are on the ROBUC or OOSHN STARS for the ILS runway 27. The departure stream off 22R is also visible (I think this file has one departure every minute or so). The ceiling of A90 is 14000, so all the deps climbing up have already been handed off to the en route sectors, while JBU2479 is staying at 12000 en route to EWR.

« Last Edit: April 23, 2018, 04:11:24 PM by Krikor Hajian »


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Toby Rice

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2018, 11:25:34 PM »
I've made a lot of intense sweatbox sessions in my day. Here's one of the moderately difficult HCF Approach sessions in progress...

Looks challenging! A bit too much scope clutter there for my tastes, though.

If you’re referring to those excessive video maps, it is cluttered! I was running the session for a student and had all that crud loaded up for quick reference in SweatBox. I can’t stand a clogged-up scope!

Toby Rice
Jacksonville ARTCC
ACE Team | Former HCF ATM | Former ATC Instructor

Brin Brody

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2018, 06:16:13 PM »
I've made a lot of intense sweatbox sessions in my day. Here's one of the moderately difficult HCF Approach sessions in progress...

Looks challenging! A bit too much scope clutter there for my tastes, though.

If you’re referring to those excessive video maps, it is cluttered! I was running the session for a student and had all that crud loaded up for quick reference in SweatBox. I can’t stand a clogged-up scope!

Ctrl+A... Delete  :o

I've never had the patience to build that many aircraft into a file.  20 or so and I get tired of setting them up!  ;D
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Toby Rice

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2018, 06:27:25 PM »

I've never had the patience to build that many aircraft into a file.  20 or so and I get tired of setting them up!  ;D

That's why I do them for you  ;D
Toby Rice
Jacksonville ARTCC
ACE Team | Former HCF ATM | Former ATC Instructor

Shane VanHoven

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2018, 02:12:48 AM »
Bringing back an old post cause I was messing around in the sim again tonight. Here's the death scenario for M98... Basically running finals to MSP at the max rate for about 25 minutes...combined. Normally we'd have final de-combined north and south, but for training purposes, and cause who doesn't like pain, we combined them. This scenario is basically ran at the very end of training just to see what the absolute breaking point of the student ends up being. I'm curious how other facilities in VATUSA progress students through radar training! Start them slow and work them up through busier problems? Break down each TRACON position one at a time? Let me know what you guys do!
Shane VanHoven
Minneapolis ARTCC
Private pilot, Instrument, ASEL
FAA Air Traffic Control, ORD ATCT

Matthew Kosmoski

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2018, 03:18:16 PM »
I'll make the argument that death files are not training tools here:  They're toys.  They're abused to make students do things they're likely not ready nor capable of.

Don't get me wrong, they're fun once you're comfortable and learn some tricks of the trade, but subjecting new students to them seems to do more harm than good.

Daniel Everman

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2018, 04:36:43 PM »
I'll make the argument that death files are not training tools here:  They're toys.  They're abused to make students do things they're likely not ready nor capable of.

Don't get me wrong, they're fun once you're comfortable and learn some tricks of the trade, but subjecting new students to them seems to do more harm than good.

With respect, I think you missed this part of Shane's post:

This scenario is basically ran at the very end of training just to see what the absolute breaking point of the student ends up being.
Daniel Everman
ZMP FE #retired | Grill Enthusiast

Dhruv Kalra

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2018, 07:00:41 PM »
Don't get me wrong, they're fun once you're comfortable and learn some tricks of the trade, but subjecting new students to them seems to do more harm than good.

Good thing then that we don't subject new students to this.
Dhruv Kalra
ZMP ATM | Instructor | Grumpy Old Man

Shane VanHoven

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Re: What's the busiest Sweatbox scenario you've ever seen/ran/built?!
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2018, 07:04:14 PM »
I'll make the argument that death files are not training tools here:  They're toys.  They're abused to make students do things they're likely not ready nor capable of.

Don't get me wrong, they're fun once you're comfortable and learn some tricks of the trade, but subjecting new students to them seems to do more harm than good.

They're abused? You're always welcome to shadow a training session at ZMP to see how we use these scenarios. Don't assume things without any knowledge of the reality.

Thanks for your input though. I will talk to my superiors at ZMP to make sure that we don't abuse sweatbox anymore.
Shane VanHoven
Minneapolis ARTCC
Private pilot, Instrument, ASEL
FAA Air Traffic Control, ORD ATCT