It's that time of the year again! Prepare yourself for one the larger events on the VATSIM calendar and you are invited to join in the fun!
WorldFlight 2017This year, WorldFlight will be celebrating its 17th year of operations. WorldFlight will start in Sydney (YSSY) on 04 November and will finish 8 days later on 11 November.
WorldFlight is a virtual round the world flight that raises money for selected charities around the world. There will be a number of fixed based simulators participating in the event. Full ATC coverage from both local and international controllers will be provided throughout the event as it makes its way around the world.
Join the WorldFlight this year by participating in the event as it makes its way through your region, by flying one of the 49 designated flights or by controlling. Pilots are welcome to start your journey anywhere along the event; expect congested airspace and challenging approaches into a number of locations around the world.
As always, we are looking for all ARTCCs that will be seeing WF arrivals, departures and/or overflights to staff up appropriately for an event of this size, even -- as best you can -- even during the school/work day and in the middle of the night. Overflight Centers should plan on 1-3 CTR controllers. Arrival/Departure airports should plan on needing 1-2 CTR, 2-3 APP, 1 DEP, and a full cab, including TWR, GND and DEL! Matt Bartels has already started a staffing thread in the Event Coordination forum; ECs and facility staff should be using that is primary guidance.
For more information, including route details, flight plans, suggested scenery links and updates throughout the event, please visit:
www.worldflight.com.au go to the OPERATIONS|DOWNLOADS to get the files.
Controlling WorldFlight, and cooperating with WorldFlight ControllersReminder that WorldFlight controllers are authorized to control any USA airspace where VATUSA controllers are not present, or not present in sufficient volume to ensure an efficient, effective turnaround/event. Most will defer if a VATUSA controller comes online, but are not required to. WF controllers can and will also come on and assist in cases where the home facility does not bring enough controllers to make it an effective, efficient process for the WF flights. Best bet for good relations is if a WF controller is online and you'd like to staff, come on as an OBS, identify yourself as a home ARTCC controller, and offer to either relieve the WF controller if they wish, or ask where you can be most useful. Or if you're controlling and a WF controller offers to help, take them up on the help -- they are probably asking politely because they already see an efficiency/effectiveness problem, or see one coming! The idea here is to stay friendly, keep up good relations, and make it a great experience for everyone. Whatever you do, DO NOT argue with a WF controller. Yes, they put their pants on just like the rest of us, but are highly trained and experienced to provide a good ATC service for WF across the globe, and may just see something brewing that you do not.
All affected ARTCCs should treat this as an event, and should solicit and staff appropriately. If unable to staff per the guidelines above, seek ACE team help. If there still isn't enough staffing, do the best you can to staff the best you can, but let your controllers know that WF controllers are there to help and they should be accepted into the event with all the warmth/friendliness/cooperation that another home controller would receive.
Everyone should note/remember that WF is a significant VATSIM event, and is a great workout for our affected ARTCCs. Each leg generally has 40-120 aircraft all shooting for the same arrival and departure times, so the best strategy is to staff up for a 2-4 hour event ensuring at a minimum CTR, TRACON, TWR and GND (and DEL if possible) are staffed as outlined above. Like CTP, PDCs should be in use at fields/facilities where PDCs are normally used (and I don't mind you using them just for the event at fields where they are normally not used) -- it makes a HUGE difference in terms of efficiency! I don’t think most ARTCCs have always understood the level of traffic, commitment and staffing needed to run a good, if not flawless, WF event. And some of it is during the school/workday, some of it is in the middle of the night, so it’s really important that the ARTCCs, if they do it right (which I want them to), take it seriously, advertise, guarantee staffing, get help when needed, etc. It’s truly a wonderful opportunity, particularly for facilities that don't normally see as much large volume, global traffic like we see during the other major VATSIM global event, Cross The Pond. And this is even better/crazier, as we're slamming a huge number of arrivals AND departures into the same airport! With the extreme traffic density, all controllers should remember to do whatever they can to be as accommodating as possible. There may be some "normal" rules for "normal ops" that need to be bent in order to work the extraordinary amount of traffic. I assure you, continued review of statistics on the WorldFlight events over the years affirms that the fatality/injury/accident rate from parking aircraft in strange places, bending wake turbulence separation rules, etc. still falls in the acceptable range.
Please remember that, in addition to the fun of flying and controlling with WorldFlight, these are great charities to donate to. For more information on the USA WorldFlight team and the USA team's chosen charities, go to
http://www.worldflightusa.com It's especially poignant this year, as the hurricanes and associated storms that hit the Southern USA a couple of months ago destroyed the WorldFlight USA Team's B737 simulator. One of the challenges for the WorldFlight USA team will be to completely rebuild the simulator the week before WorldFlight, so they can fly the simulator during WorldFlight 2017. But they need our help financially to help make that a reality.
