Ira,

I agree. I almost wonder if it would be worth while for VATUSA to open its own ATO. I know VATSTAR is out there, and they do a good job, but what if we had our own? Let the ARTCC's design a program, they know the airspace better than anybody. I tried to get ZOA setup with VATSTAR but it fell apart because we don't meet some of the requirements they've set for a few check rides. That's a shame because we offer some great airspace for learning. Our airports have advanced a little too far along the nextgen pipeline and decommissioned some of the legacy procedures they require, and I assume that is why I have not heard back.

Ryan,

I think you have a great idea of creating a in-house ATO at ZOA. Your absolutely right that your ARTCC's local knowledge of airspace, next gen procedures, would create a unique training environment. To be honest the training pilots would receive locally would trickle down to the rest of the ARTCCs. Most pilots don't only fly in one particular area, they might want to fly in or out of SFO as a example but they will touch other airports not in your ARTCC, this would be a win-win for everyone.

Shane,

Very interesting to watch this video thanks for posting...I actually slowed it to 0.5x to try and study it more. I actually noticed something that seems to happen almost EVERY major VATSIM event. Reference 1:30 onward...

I do not know what splits you had going on, but it looks like it goes from controller H (bottom SW corner) and sometimes they keep them but others go to S (assuming south final). After the 1:30 mark the controller started having some pilots that you can tell were having a hard time. The final controller was starting to get overwhelmed either through bad pilots, voice lag issues, or just to many airplanes. However the airplanes still keep flooding in from feeder, you can even see some pilots were taken way outside the final box to the south to get re-sequenced. This is why inter-facility communication is crucial, I know many of us have the "gotta complete the mission" type of mentality and want to get everyone on the ground as quickly/safely as possible. This is a common problem across the network that the feeder controllers don't communicate that much with the final controller and leads to problems arising such as this. Wouldn't you agree that even with localizer overhsoots, failed approaches and go arounds that it would be much easier if at some point they held the handoffs just for a few minutes to fix the problems?

I have never worked up in ZMP so again I don't know your airspace and I completely understand why airspace is designed a certain way. When I watch this video I see a whole bunch of "black" areas where no aircraft ever goes, why not utilize this space? I know it is most likely because it is Departure or Satellite airspace and you all want to follow the procedures for realism. I think in this situation if you just bent the rules a little and used that space to give your final approach controllers a little more room this could of all been avoided.

I am in no way telling you guys how to control your airspace, you know it not me. What I am merely trying to do is give you all a different perspective when it comes to events. All of us controllers strive for realism and sometimes I think we expect to much sometimes and don't realize were dealing with people flying complex airplanes, by themselves, aging from 13 to ?? all with different varying levels of knowledge. At the end of the day whether your a pilot or controller on the network it is to have fun! It sounds like you had fun from this event which is great! Just don't lose sight that there will always be new people, there will always be challenges, and at the end of the day this is all a hobby that we have all come to love so lets just have fun!

Congrats! Anything you need let me know!

Looking for ARTCC support for your group flight? Or for your Virtual Airline? We have a easy simple to use solution for you! Instead of trying to find ARTCC websites, staff emails, etc...Here at VATUSA we have a system that will make your job easier!

If you would like to get in contact with ARTCC staff the easiest/quickest way will be using the Support Ticket System on VATUSA.net

Here is a quick guide:

1. Go to VATUSA.net
2. Click on Support - Open New Ticket
3. From the pull down menu select ARTCC
4. Select EC from the staff menu
5. If no EC is in position select other staff or Unassigned to send to all staff
6. Write message

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] or reply to this thread.

Thank you!!

Congrats! Welcome aboard

Awesome post like always Derek!
Derek's sweatbox files are great!! And I see other ARTCC's do similar stuff which is great!

One big thing we tried one time on ZTL was we had Derek run a file at BHM and we had about 4 S3's in training join us in the room. We did more of a group session then a traditional 1 on 1 session, the feedback we got was excellent. Now I know this won't work for every situation as some 1 on 1 training is needed, but if ARTCC's started doing this more wouldn't it relieve a lot of resources off your training staff? It would be better to train 4 people at once at times thus increasing efficiency. Just something to think about, or maybe you are already doing it!

Thanks Robert for a excellent briefing!

For those who do not know about the PDC system here is a example of what you should expect from a ATL Controller. This will come in the form of a private message, you DO NOT REPLY TO THAT MESSAGE.

-PREDEPARTURE CLEARANCE START- Flight: DAL123 BEACON: 7102 - FLIGHT LEVEL: FL330 DEPT: KATL ARR: KRSW EQUIPMENT: B738 ROUTE:  BANNG2 LUCKK SZW TYNEE1 DEP FREQ INFO: 125.700 - EXPECT runway 27R FOR DEPARTURE, ATC MAY CHANGE AT ANYTIME. JETS MAINTAIN 10K. PROPS MAINTAIN 4K - PUSH AND START ARE AT PILOT'S DISCRETION - PRE DEPARTURE CLEARANCE END-

In bold are the important items to note such as beacon code (turn on your transponder before you call ground), the expected runway assignment, which preferred runway is 27R/09L going to RSW, and if your a Jet (most likely) your initial altitude is 10,000.

Also some alternate routes may be used if traffic becomes saturated, if this occurs ATL_DEL or ATL_GND will provide alternate routing, if you are able to accept it will expedite your departure off the ground. Here are 2 alternative routes to watch out for:

KATL GAIRY2 IRQ AMG SHFTY2 KRSW
KATL POUNC2 POUNC GRGIA ARNNY CEW J2 SZW TYNEE1 KRSW

The purpose of these routes will be to expedite you off the ground and limit ground departure delays to the same destination. If you can accept the route it will be sent over PDC to you as a new clearance.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing everyone later today!

Still on. Details to come this weekend/early next week.

Thank You!