TeamUSA,
Last night I had the great opportunity to participate in a multi-VA fly-in where American (joinava) turned one of its Monday/Thursday group flights into a huge, FNO-level, multi-VA fly-in. JoinAVA invited Delta Virtual and Southwest to join in. I'd like to point out a few observations I made and make some suggestions.
Bottom Line: The event was amazing from where I sat. Absolutely amazing. And, like most things, there are ways to make it even better.
The plan was for American to depart 3 different airports (KCVG, TXKF and CYUL, for Delta to depart KATL, and SWA to depart KMDW, though anyone could depart from whereever (and there were several that came from other airports as well) and all converge on KBOS in roughly the same timeframe. The net result was that KBOS saw over 100 arrivals in a 4 hour period, with the vast majority centered within the center 90 minutes (think normal distribution).
The feedback that I heard from pilots and controllers alike was fantastic (a few clips below). The extra-nice thing is that it added a TON of traffic to the network, much of it within VATUSA, on a night where nothing was on the VATUSA calendar. Nearly 100% of the pilots I worked last night (I worked over 60) performed flawlessly. That's not a light compliment, and was well-earned. It also means a lot when you're getting 25 aircraft an hour from uncontrolled airspace, with the average separation being 14 miles, coming from three different streams that you need to somehow merge into a string of 10 MIT pearls. Most actually called when entering controlled airspace with a valid position report, enabling me to verify their position, flight level, squawk and simply say "radar contact" instead of having to go through the dance of trying to get the aircraft on my frequency followed by the radar identification dance, taking up time that I didn't have. JoinAVA invited me into their TS after the majority had landed and showered me with praise for the VATUSA controllers that participated, vigorously praising the excellent service received by all of VATUSA. Nothing makes me prouder and happier.
JoinAVA CEO Tim Both said last night that he plans to make this a monthly event. What does that mean? A lot of great opportunity for pilots and controllers alike to enjoy top-notch pilots and controllers on their game.
So, in the interest of making a really good thing even better, what were my thoughts on how the event could be improved?
Thoughts for the VAs:
1. More advance notice. This amazing event was pulled off with JoinAVA only contacting the US ARTCCs 2 days before. More advance notice can often garner additional controllers.
2. Contact the ARTCC Event Coordinators and ATMs for every ARTCC that will be flown through. Getting enroute ATC involved helps tremendously, especially to avoid overworked Center controllers from having to "find" aircraft entering their sector that aren't calling and doing the radar identification dance.
3. Post instructions on what to do if coming from uncontrolled to controlled airspace, to include:
- 1. Call ATC BEFORE you hit their airspace border (10-30 miles seems to work best)
- 2. On initial call-up, report your position (from a VOR or well-known airport) and altitude (e.g., "Good evening, Center, World Airways 123 35 miles west of Zinger VOR, Flight Level 350)
Thoughts for the ARTCCs:
1. Advertise on the VATUSA calendar. Several pilots commented that they didn't know there was a major event going on, and would have participated also. So if the model (come from multiple airports and flood one) continues, the receiving/host ARTCC would be smart to put something up on the VATUSA calendar and treat it like an event. Many pilots look to the calendar first to make their flying plans, then look to see where ATC is. Advertising will hook more pilots in.
Again, this was a fantastic event, one that I hope will continue. What a great way to infuse FNO-like traffic into a few ARTCCs in the USA on a regular basis, in ADDITION to FNOs. Events are fun, for pilots and controllers alike. Anything that can add controlled, planned, fun events within the Division is a win for VATUSA and for VATSIM.
ARTCC staff, though I'd like to believe all ARTCC staff, and even all VATUSA members, read the VATUSA forums daily, I'm not that naive. Please pass the word on to your folks to come take a look at this post (and the other wonderful things on the VATUSA forums).
Thanks, everyone!
Feedback snippets:
The VATUSA controllers were just phenomenal tonight. We usually get great service in the USA Division, but this was amazing.
Actually, this is for the whole team that was online on Thursday. We were talking about the ATC for about 30 minutes after we landed--this was one of the most amazing demonstrations of ATC excellence I have ever seen. Our experience with the USA has always been good, but tonight was something else.
You guys were landing us on two crossing runways, with never a problem--you were just showing off. We landed, parked, and stayed connected just to watch the show.
Awesome job with very heavy traffic.
It felt like the real thing!
I haven't been this impressed in quite some time. What a fantastic job everyone did with our event tonight.
They had a huge amount of traffic and it did not slow them down a bit, GREAT JOB ALL !!!!!!
