April Fools! FAA/VATUSA Partnership

Ryan Geckler · « **Reply #15 on:** April 01, 2013, 05:06:21 PM »

@Jeffery:

http://i.imgur.com/YwgbT16.gif

Zach Spitler · « **Reply #16 on:** April 01, 2013, 05:27:58 PM »

Very funny

Don Desfosse · « **Reply #17 on:** April 01, 2013, 05:31:59 PM »

OK, it looks like most of you got it.... But a couple of you clearly didn't, and may still be actively believing that we're getting ready for some high-falutin' collaboration with the FAA... and there may be a couple in the "undecided" camp, so I'll let you all off the hook....

[size=]Happy April Fool's Day!![/size]

Kenneth Haught · « **Reply #18 on:** April 01, 2013, 05:37:28 PM »

Haha. How much had you consumed prior to posting this Don? Of course I always thought I was better than most of the FAA guys I hear on LiveATC (they always mess things up!).

(Yes, I was typing this as you put your last FYI)

Tim Farrell · « **Reply #19 on:** April 01, 2013, 05:50:33 PM »

All I can say is, Brilliant!

Kenneth Bambach · « **Reply #20 on:** April 01, 2013, 05:58:38 PM »

I actually did get an email a few weeks ago from an FAA Safety Inspector who was investigating an incident on a UAL flight betwee TIST and KPHL where the pilot declared limited fuel. The pilot claimed in his irregularity report with the FAA that a controller told him his dispatch route that was filed and subsequently flown was illegal. This Safety Inspector from the Houston FSDO was on the Certificate team for UAL and he wanted to know if the filed route was indeed valid with us. After checking the guy out with an FAA domain email adr, he was indeed legit and thought he was sending an email to the r/w ZMA ATM. I did check the route for the guy and sent him an email back that it was indeed valid (at least with us) with all the requisite vZMA disclaimer info, along with the link to our website. I honestly thought that would be the last I heard from the guy after he realized his mistake. However, he then sent back a nice email thanking me for taking the time to research the matter.

Either the Safety Inspector still had no idea who he was communicating with, or else he did and quickly attempted to cover the "boo boo" with a polite reply back. In any event, nothing surprises me anymore.......

Dylan Lundberg · « **Reply #21 on:** April 01, 2013, 08:24:22 PM »

I hope we can all enjoy a few beers while we train these real controllers.....and I wonder how those controllers feel being trained by "Controllers".

John Cierpial · « **Reply #22 on:** April 01, 2013, 08:24:29 PM »

FYI for anyone interested, Len Romke is a reference to one of VATSIM's founders Ron Lemke That was my immediate tipoff when I first read it (and hence my reply )

Don Desfosse · « **Reply #23 on:** April 01, 2013, 10:47:15 PM »

Someone asked me how many "tells" there were that this was an April Fool's Day joke.

Other than the obvious two --- 1. It's crazy to think anything like this would ever happen, and 2. It was published on April Fool's Day, here are a few others (there may be more....). Some are more "believable" than others....

3. MITRE, though it's had a connection to VATSIM, doesn't have a connection (that I'm aware of) to ATC training and evaluation...
4. The FAA just plain doesn't do top-down...
5. The FAA doesn't usually do non-accident related press releases on a Sunday night, particularly Easter Sunday...
6. Len Romke. ATMs and DATMs may now look in the ATM/DATM thread on this topic for Ron's thoughts, and the twisting that was done in this press release (consider that an "Easter Egg" for ATMs and DATMs only )... No disrespect meant to Ron; the twisting was just a fun way to take his input and twist it for this ruse.
7. "We've been looking for an opportunity to take over these fields for a long time"... Holy takeover, Batman!
8. S4...
9. VATUSA signing a contract with the FAA? Not likely, at least not without the VATUSA lawyer we don't have.....
10. Loose performance requirements of the "contract"
11. As was mentioned in one of the posts, "gamers" "teaching" controllers? Yeah, that'd look great on the front page of the New York Times...
12. MIT_OBS and RAY_OBS for non-members (could happen, but not likely)
13. "...to help make this the reality that it is today." -- Lack of reality, due to the day (date, really) that is today

I got a few really concerned, upset, fuming emails, asking me if I had any idea what kind of liability I was assuming on behalf of individual members and on behalf of VATSIM. I did have to clue those folks in, early. And, I was, of course, "caught red-handed", just 15 minutes into the ruse (see above). I had to hide that post temporarily so the fun didn't die that fast.

But hopefully I didn't get anyone's blood pressure up enough to cause permanent damage, and I hope you had as much fun with this as I did. For the record, I hadn't had a drop -- I'm naturally that mischievous!! See ya next year!

Don Desfosse · « **Reply #24 on:** April 03, 2013, 09:44:57 PM »

Oh, yeah! I forgot one....

14. The FAA's Office Of Public Safety (OOPS!)