The premiere annual VATUSA trifecta-crossfire event returns for iteration number nine. Come fly across the Great Lakes region with full staffing, lots of traffic, and oh those northern lights!

Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport (MSP)
Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport (DTW)
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)

Our 8th annual edition of Northern Crossings, hosted by Minneapolis, Chicago, and Cleveland ARTCCs, invite you to catch a glimpse of the northern lights. Full staffing across the upper-midwest means full service and plenty of crossfire traffic. We look forward to seeing you!

I Would Fly 4 U! (parody of I Would Die 4 U! by Prince and the Revolution)

You take the recip, I'll take the jet
Let's go flyin' in the upper-mid-west
You go to Minnie, I'll fly to ORD
Hit up Detroit and you'll never get bored, cuz

U! I would Fly 4 U!
Yeah! Darlin' if you want me to,
U! I would Fly 4 U!

I'm not your rookie, I'm not your noob
I've got vectors so you listen, stay tuned!
We're your controllers, you wanna try?
We have your clearance now it's time to go fly, cuz
U! I would. Fly 4. U!

You're just a pilot I am told,
Buttered landings in the cold,
Special clearance you might get,
Direct the airport, yah you bet!
Not a Boeing or a Bus,
Watch my airframe turn to rust
A-a-all I really need
Is pneumatic engine bleed!

2300-0300Z / 1800-2200 CDT

Featuring Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP)

Northern Migration - one of the OG's of live events on VATSIM (where controllers are working with each other in person) will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. Full staffing from Center on down. The busiest MSP gets every year (even busier than the real MSP ever gets)! Make the trek northbound and join us, won't you?

The Minnesota State Fair -- which sees over 2 million visitors across ten days -- is well underway! Come fly in to Minneapolis-St.Paul Int'l (MSP), St. Paul Downtown Airport (STP) and hitch a ride up to the fair. Pronto pups, cheese curds, Sweet Martha's Cookies, and hundreds of other foods (most of them on a stick) await hungry attendees, as do hundreds of exhibitors, displays, concerts, events, and of course the Mighty Midway full of rides and games.

Come check out the "Great Minnesota Get Together" and find your inner youbetcha! Minnesota Nice ATC staffing will guide you along the way.

Typically the coldest part of winter for the MSP area, vZMP has traditionally hosted "Operation Deep Freeze" to revel in the deep cold. Since El Nino has seemingly disrupted that (and among other reasons) our plans have slightly changed.

Join us in celebrating the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the 138-year legend of King Boreas struggle to keep winter fun going despite Vulcanus Rex's fight to keep warm weather around as long as he can!

Enjoy full staffing featuring MSP and STP, as well as ZMP's friendly, professional air traffic control services.

The annual return of Minneapolis Center's live ATC event. Controllers from around the country will gather in Minneapolis to provide high quality air traffic control services to the VATSIM network. With the closure of runways 12L/30L and 4/22 for reconstruction, there will be some strategic handling of traffic and the possibility of non-standard runway configurations. Trust us, it will be fun! "It's a rebuilding year"!

Fact: The Minnesota State Fair is the biggest and best in the country. Folks from the Lone Star State beg to differ, however. The reason why is that the Texas State Fair runs *longer* (nearly a month). However, the "Great Minnesota Get Together" breaks attendance records in just 10 days. This year the MN State Fair runs from Aug 24th-Sept 4. The TX State Fair runs Sept 29-Oct 22.

Fly into MSP or DFW. Or both! Let us know what you think. Don't forget to grab a Pronto Pup, Cheese Curds, or anything you can eat on a stick while you are at it!

SLC, MSP, and DTW used to be home, headquarters, and major hubs for other airlines with "red tail" liveries. Over the years, Widget Airlines, through mergers and acquisitions, has taken over these hubs. But are they really "hubs"? Are they "focus cities"? Have they been strictly relegated to "flyover country" status?

Well, the Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City ARTCCs would like to convince you they are indeed hub cities and more than capable of handling the traffic loads associated with such a title. Fly to, from, or between them and enjoy top-notch ATC, and perhaps catch a glimpse of some legacy carrier liveries that will remind you of days of Redtail Glory!