We celebrate 50 Years of Making Christmas Wishes Come True for Children in Foster Care!

50 years! To think that this organization has been helping children for that long is amazing! Now for those that don't know what I'm talking about, each year the Child and Family services of Michigan hosts it's annual "Operation Good Cheer" event!

This year continues the 50 year celebrations, where thousands of volunteers gather to help with this HUGE event! It starts with those packing and wrapping presents, to the many truckers sending them over to be eventually flown out of Oakland-Pontiac, flying to various local airports around Michigan. At each airport, agency volunteers then gather gifts to deliver to children and youth currently in foster care. This gives thousands of kids gifts, some who may have not received anything at all!

Thanks to the 76 foster care agencies that participated, they were able to fulfill Christmas wishes for 7,159 foster children across Michigan last year. Their biggest year ever!

So come and join us on Sunday, December 5th as we staff up KPTK, KMKG, KAZO, KGRR, KLAN, and possibly more!!!

Also I strongly encourage you to learn more about this event, and help them out!

https://www.cfsm.org/operation-good-cheer
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/december/09/its-all-for-the-kids

Note:  This event is NOT affiliated with the REAL operation good cheer, and is only meant to bring awareness to their amazing efforts to help children in need.

Calling all Classic Craft! Bring your favorite GA plane to our first ever GA Dream Cruise! Roughly following the Woodward Dream Cruise route, and featuring KDET (Coleman A. Young), KPTK (Oakland County), and KFNT (Flint Bishop), we invite you to join us for a General Aviation event like no other!

The event is on August 22, 2021, and will run from 1-4pm EDT (1700-2000z). All VFR are highly encouraged!!! We hope to see you all there!!!

We are 1 week away from the event!! I've updated the original post to include preferred routings for those wishing to fly in the event! Hope to see you all there!!! Have a good weekend everyone!

'Twas the night before Cross the Pond, and all through the air, jets going to cruise, turboprops clear to land!!! By popular demand, Northern Crossings IV is here, ready for all the traffic you can bring! This event will bring you Chicago O-Hare International, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport! We'll be providing 4 hours of full ATC services, so bring your jets and turboprops for fun regional flights! We'll be providing preferred routing as we get closer to the event, so be on the lookout for that! Can you land at all 3? See you all there!

Here are the preferred routings for those planning to fly for the event:

KMSP -> KDTW   
WLSTN7 GRB HOOTA RKCTY2 (RNAV)
WLSTN7 GRB VIO SVM (non-RNAV)

KMSP -> KORD   
RST1 RST ZZIPR FYTTE6 (RNAV)
RST1 RST JVL JVL9 (non-RNAV)

KORD -> KDTW   
DUFEE ELX HOSSA VCTRZ2 (RNAV)
GIJ FWA CRL (non-RNAV)

KORD -> KMSP   
PMPKN NEATO DLLAN RONIC KAMMA KKILR3 (RNAV)
MYKIE MONNY MNOSO BLUEM3 (RNAV)
BAE EAU9 (non-RNAV)
PLL ALO KASPR7 (non-RNAV)

KDTW -> KMSP   
MIGGY2 SLLAP Q440 IDIOM MUSCL3 (RNAV)
FNT GRB EAU9 (non-RNAV)

KDTW -> KORD   
KAYLN2 SMUUV WYNDE1 (RNAV)
METRO3 HARWL ELX V100 DEERE (non-RNAV)

Tomorrow's the day!!!! For the event, we have a few things:

First off, ZAU has put together a really nice pilot briefing for those of you flying in/out of KORD/KMDW:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gWrLp52qaNb5WQuxrTsY-fPNSqFQRvYx/view

this briefing also goes over preferred routings to and from the Chicago airspace.



For all of us here at ZOB, we strongly advise you check the ATIS prior to initial contact when on the ground at DTW. You can expect a PDC clearance if able, but preferred routings for ZOB are as follows:

RNAV:

DTW -> ORD: KAYLN2 SMUUV WYNDE2
DTW-> MDW: CCOBB2 ZEGBI LEROY BAGEL PANGG3
DTW-> CVG: LIDDS2 GRIVY APE TIGRR3

Non-RNAV:

DTW -> ORD: METRO3 HARWL ELX V100 DEERE
DTW -> MDW: METRO2 HARWL LFD GSH7
DTW -> CVG:  METRO3 MAARS APE CINCE9

And for those Departing CVG/ZID, the routings are as follows:

RNAV:

CVG-> ORD:  JBNCH5 MIE BONNT VEECK5
CVG-> MDW:  JBNCH5 JBNCH OKK FISSK4
CVG -> DTW:  HAGOL4 DQN TORRR HANBL3

Non-RNAV:

CVG-> ORD: CVG5 MIE FWA OXI8
CVG-> MDW: CVG5 MIE FWA GSH7
CVG-> DTW: CVG5 DQN DTW

We are excited for the event tomorrow and hope all of you are as well!!! If you have any questions just let us know! And hope to see you all tomorrow!!!!!!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Soon the bells will start
And the thing that'll make 'em ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart."

Every year the world celebrates a season of thanks, and a season of giving. Friends and family spread joy and cheer all over! But for some it isn't so easy. And it's easy to forget those that don't have fortunes that a lot of us do. It's why each year the Child and Family services of Michigan hosts it's annual "Operation Good Cheer" event! This year marks the 50th year, where thousands of volunteers gather to help with this HUGE event! It starts with those packing and wrapping presents, to the many truckers sending them over to be eventually flown out of Oakland-Pontiac, flying to various local airports around Michigan. At each airport, agency volunteers then gather gifts to deliver to children and youth currently in foster care. This gives thousands of kids gifts, some who may have not received anything at all!

So come and join us on Saturday, December 5th (The actual day of the fly-out and delivery) as we staff up KPTK! We will be staffing from 1700z to 2100z.

I highly encourage everyone to try and fly to other satellites (and AZO) even though we are only featuring KPTK, as the real event has pilots flying to many different local airfields.

Also here is some information about the actual "good cheer" program:

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/december/09/its-all-for-the-kids

https://www.cfsm.org/operation-good-cheer?fbclid=IwAR0aSuy6Dmz8enj51NepHB9TRx44XaDV9fNeHdq-E1BYvbZuGtRUstYxLUI

Hope to see you all there!!!!

The time is nearing!!! Here are the preferred routings for the event:

MSP -> ORD

RST1 RST ZZIPR FYTTE5

RST1 RST JVL JVL9 (non-RNAV)


MSP -> DTW

WLSTN7 GRB HOOTA RKCTY1

WLSTN7 GRB VIO SVM (non-RNAV)


ORD -> MSP

PMPKN NEATO DLLAN RONIC KAMMA KKILR3
MYKIE MONNY MNOSO BLUEM3

BAE EAU9 (non-RNAV)
PLL ALO KASPR7 (non-RNAV)


ORD -> DTW

DUFEE ELX HOSSA HAYLL3/VCTRZ2

GIJ FWA CRL (non-RNAV)


DTW -> MSP

MIGGY2 SLLAP Q440 IDIOM MUSCL3

FNT GRB EAU9 (non-RNAV)


DTW -> ORD

KAYLN2 SMUUV WYNDE1

METRO2 HARWL ELX V100 DEERE (non-RNAV)

Can't wait to see you all there!!

I don't know if I'll be able to staff up Lakefront, but feel free to fly into and out of BKL!!! We've done other events at Lakefront so keep checking as I will eventually be doing another Lakefront event! But it's in the cleveland tracon so there will be plenty of controllers on for you!!!


Also for everyone here are the preferred routings for the event:

CLE-MCO CAVVS4 APE J83 SPA J85 TWINS  JEFOI  OTK PIGLT6
CLE-MCO KKIDS1 NUSMM  EMNEM Q103 PUPYY  OMN CWRLD4

MCO-CLE    JAG6 MATEO SHRKS Q77 TEUFL Q77 WIGVO IRQ J85 HVQ JANYS ROLLN2
MCO-CLE    MCOY2 GUANO FEMON Q87 JROSS FLO TUBAS LYH FINKS ESL LEJOY UPPRR TRYBE4

Also, if traffic from/to MCO is busy, Jacksonville will have staffing at JAX (though it may not be to the same level as MCO). Here is the perferred routing if you choose to fly there instead:

JAX-CLE ARNEY2 BAXLY IRQ J53 SPA J85 HVQ JANYS ROLLN2
CLE-JAX CAVVS4 APE J83 SPAYD J83 SPA J85 IRQ FINNE OHDEA1