[December 18th 1800Z] Fly and See Santa 2011

[Kilian Thornton]

 

It that time of year again!

 

VATEUD and VATSIM Scandinavia are once again proud to announce it's annual Fly And See Santa Event. Starting at 1800 UTC we will staff EFRO, ESPA & ENTC including enroute sectors to guide you to the northern part of the globe. This year we have five partner departure airports. These airports will be fully staffed around Europe for this event for pilots travelling to the north to See Santa! The departure partner airports are:

 

Dublin (EIDW)- Airport Info

London Heathrow (EGLL)- Airport Info

Strasbourg (LFST)- Airport Info

Berlin-Tegel (EDDT)- Airport Info

Warsaw (EPWA)- Airport Info

 

Last year we had an astonishing amount of aircraft and this year we are preparing for even more traffic, so bring along plenty of holding fuel and your best Christmas wine as we celebrate this year's Christmas with VATSIM's biggest Christmas event!

 

We strongly recommend that you go to our website http://santa.vateud.net and read through the information there to make your journey as easy and enjoyable as it can be. If you have any questions feel free to use the contact form there and we will be happy to help you out.

 

Visit the north for an event you don't want to miss!

[Thomas George 827476]

This is a signature event of the division and so Europe Region warmly invites members from across the globe to come and enjoy the festive season with us.

[Phillip Speer]

Can you confirm the date please. The website says Saturday 18th but the 18th this year is a Sunday.

 

Phillip

[Thomas George 827476]

Ah that should have been corrected but it hasn't. It's the Sunday as far as I know.

[Thomas George 827476]

This was an incredibly well-subscribed event, according to the German statistics system I have 111 arrivals between 1500Z on 17th December and 0100Z on 18th December so thanks for your support! I'd like to give particular thanks to Magnus, Santeri and Apostolos for the great stamina and endurance shown, the event got very hectic in the holds around EFRO and they were running out of space.

 

As far as next year goes, from an ATC perspective we need to improve communications with earlier controllers in Scandinavia, enforcing enroute holding and offering the alternate airports much earlier on. Any controllers would have struggled with the sheer volume of traffic last night, coordination support is what was needed and will be in place next year.

 

Once again, thanks to all of the pilots who turned up for this signature event, thanks to the controllers who supported it, Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate it) and a Happy New Year to all.

 

Regards,

[Martin Loxbo]

As far as next year goes, from an ATC perspective we need to improve communications with earlier controllers in Scandinavia, enforcing enroute holding and offering the alternate airports much earlier on. Any controllers would have struggled with the sheer volume of traffic last night, coordination support is what was needed and will be in place next year.

Totally agree. As I'm sure you know we have a very well run operation in Sweden, with many controllers who are very active and experienced. We usually have no problems sorting out the traffic, as long as we are told what the conditions are. Can the next sector accept more traffic? Will he accept with a certain spacing? There is a bit of a clash when Finland is manned on a more or less ad-hoc basis, with people who only control there once every year. Last year we actually ran some Sweatbox simulations with the would-be EFRO controllers, and I believe that avoided some of the shock of the traffic amount on the event day itself. It is a crazy event in the sense that we receive many times the number of flights that the actual airports in northern Finland can take in real life, given airspace structure, taxiways, parkings etc - so we shouldn't expect perfection. Still, planning and practice will make it better. I don't think it's any pilot's idea of fun to be holding for an hour or even more, without any information on how long the waiting will be.

 

You mention that "coordination support ... will be in place next year". Could you elaborate? One key point that's missing here is that VATEUD kind of drops this event in VACCSCA's knee and we are left to sort it out, whether it suits us or not (it used to be VACC Finland dropping it in our knee before). It's imperative that this and similar events are planned together, not just on VATEUD or VACC level.

 

As for the numbers, while it looked hectic, it's only about half of the traffic we've had previous years if I remember correctly. Now I wouldn't have wished for double the traffic given this year's planning, but getting the date right in all advertising is of course crucial. This thread even says the 18th, still! (No there is no event tonight although Sweden will actually be well staffed. )

 

After all that it might sound like I had a horrible night last night, but it was actually quite enjoyable. It's nice to see so much traffic in northern Sweden, and getting the chance to open up some rarely needed sectors (and now they are really needed!). Also the vast majority of the pilots are very good, handling improvised holding instructions and patiently sitting in the hold until we tell them they can leave.

[Thomas George 827476]

Thanks Martin. I can't elaborate other than to say I think we need someone there specifically to coordinate the event and its traffic, someone who isn't focused on one sector but looking at the overall traffic flows and density, communicating with the relevant people and making calls where necessary.

 

You're right with Sweden, you guys did what was asked for, the trouble is that when it got hectic the needs of some controllers weren't communicated so well. I stepped in to help out in some areas and the first thing I did in EFES was say "Sweden, no more traffic please, we're full" and you guys did it.

 

Anyway, it was a great night, if anyone has any feedback for next year then CC me on any emails and we'll try to be even better-prepared next year.

 

Oh and Martin, next year's will be 16th or 22nd, Martin B and I are just deciding. There'll be plenty of notice

 

Regards,

[Florian Harms]

Just a short feedback after reading the different forums:

 

First of all: each and everyone who is on the battle stations for an event like this: kudos. you all have worked beyond limit and that shows how good the training of every days ATC life can be. So: well done indeed.

Some statements i would like to run into the creation of those major events like EFRO:

 

EFRO is built for med sized traffic. I am not sure what the number of flights in EFRO is, but this weekends list of departures of real EFRO (according to the airports website) reports 13 departures today... Our number is really a bit higher - and this is where we should rethink a few of the setups. On the last 2 or so hours, i've had approx. 40 aircrafts in the making. And i suggest IT WAS CALM if you compare it with the numbers you guys must have had. Since airspace handling in real world is laid out for real world traffic and not for our traffic, we have to create our own setup for an event like this:

 

Create EFES_6 and if necessary EFES_16 CTR (i know that one is not really there, but real world would create more stations if needed)

Mann a 2nd APP area (if there is no one in the original setup, create it.)

Now you have the chance to split the sector along with the runway heading... North will take traffic from ESOS, South will take Finish traffic.

Thomas, your job as coordinator in the peak times really work. EDGG is working with coordinators on high traffic flyins. it really works (like in real world).

Holdings: the holy cow. Holdings JUST WORK when you can see that the enormous amount of traffic calms down in time. And on an event like this it is NOT the case... You are simply delaying the flights without any success. Holding IS an APP thing... CTR just can inform the pilots to prepare for a holding, the rest is up to low level controllers.

Pilots who don't respond: They have to be diverted. ESPA as solution was a real good idea from the SCA guys. I saw a good number of traffic divert.

 

Last, but not least: Think of rotating positions... It won't work to sit as controller on one position for xxx hours. You simply will become traffic blind.

 

But finally: THANK YOU ALL for a great event. I know how hot beloved the Santa Flyin is. It means alot to our pilots.

 

Flo

[Thomas George 827476]

Hi Flo,

 

Entirely agree, these are the same recommendations that I have sent privately this morning.

 

Thanks again to all!

 

TG

[Martin Loxbo]

Flo,

 

Regarding ATC procedures, there was a guide published on the VACCSCA forums. It includes some of the things you mentioned, like opening up extra sectors. I'm not sure if it made it to all controllers, which again shows we need to plan and coordinate the staffing beforehand. We can't just have people showing up on the day.

 

About holding, I don't understand why you say it's an APP thing. It's quite simple really: If APP cannot take more traffic, the traffic has to be held in the previous sector. If that sector becomes full, there needs to be holdings set up in the sector before that. It works quite smoothly if everyone is trained in dealing with large amounts of traffic holding, and especially if everyone is clear with their needs (i.e. "I cannot accept more traffic" or "I can accept traffic from point XYZ with X miles spacing"). There's only so much traffic that can fit on a single runway, and only so much to fit in TMA holdings, so for an event like this enroute holding is essential (either that or slot times, but we can't enforce departure slots).

 

Rotating positions is a good idea, but requires some spare capacity, or changing positions will just be a mess. I don't think it would have been possible last night with the number of available controllers. We did do this very successfully for the ESSA Real Time event, which went on for 10 hours. The controllers got a chance to try a variety of positions and some even had time to do a flight inbetween. Of course this only works if everyone is very familiar with all the positions and their procedures. Unfortunately that's not the case in Finland these days, where most of the controllers are only there one day every year.

 

Thomas,

 

The idea of a coordinator is good, but this too needs to be planned. It cannot just be any guy - it has to be someone intimately familiar with the traffic flows, the various sectors and so on. One possibility is to have a coordinator which is more like a supervisor (in the real ATC sense, not the VATSIM sense), who will keep an eye on the activity in all the sectors, and decide on whether to split sectors or hold traffic.

 

Another possibility is to have one coordinator for each sector, or at least for the busiest sectors: As you know, in real life controllers normally work in teams of two, one executive controller (giving instructions to the pilots and monitoring the traffic), and one coordinating or planning controller (doing all the phone coordination and planning the traffic). I'm not sure if it's been done on VATSIM (maybe this is what Flo talks about in EDGG?), but this setup is actually possible in ES, where the planning controller can connect to the executive via the ES proxy.

 

It's also crucial that more VATSIM controllers start understanding how vital proper coordination is (regardless of whether or not you have a dedicated coordinator to do it). It's just as important as talking to the pilots, or sometimes even more important, since after all ATC is a team effort, and ignored or mishandled coordination can create big problems in several sectors. It would help if more controllers became accustomed to voice coordination, preferably with the new program GVCCS, which works like a charm, and is also very realistic. No more time consuming text chats when you're busy.

 

Finally about the dates, please just make sure you select one of them!

[Thomas George 827476]

Hi Martin,

 

All well-received, I'm actually hoping that there'll be a "big events" meeting in January during which we will discuss all key events affecting EUD particularly, this will include discussions about Cross Africa which is coming back to Europe in Spring and many others.

 

Coordinator, well ideally it does need to be someone like that you're right, but frankly it needs to be someone with eyes and VATSpy who can look and say "lots of aeroplanes over X, we'd better talk to the relevant controllers about them." The bits that went wrong weren't rocket science, it wasn't really controller skill in terms of vectoring, etc, it boiled down to biting off more than we could chew in some areas.

 

Holding certainly isn't an APP thing alone with these volumes, we needed to be holding people enroute in Southern Sweden frankly to get the spacing right. It starts with APP though, APP tells TMA that he's too full, TMA then has to p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] that message onto other adjacent sectors to make sure that they know.

 

Anyway, if anyone wants to take part in "Santa Lite" so to speak, VATFrance have an event going out of Strasbourg on Friday.

[Martin Loxbo]

Anyway, if anyone wants to take part in "Santa Lite" so to speak, VATFrance have an event going out of Strasbourg on Friday.

Are you sure that wasn't yesterday? There were plenty of flights out of LFST, and total movements at EFRO according to vataware was 84 (compared with 111 on Saturday).

[Thomas George 827476]

I noticed the high presence at LFST, but Cathy has written on the Swiss Facebook page that it's 23rd.

 

It tastes good, Santa Claus: he set up his village on the Arctic Circle in the heart of trees, landscapes unconventional nature boreal between dream and reality. And then the sounds specific to the Far North, padded or magnified by snow as in a strange studio.

 

On Friday, 23th December, 19h30 zulu, from Strasbourg (LFST) French capital of Christmas and arrival Romaviemi (EFRO) to lend a hand to Santa Claus!

 

Allow about 3 hours of flight, mulled wine on arrival!

 

Flight Plan: GTQ UN852 UN853 DIK ARCKY UT853 IBES NOR T853 UM170 UM852 LBE UP615 EKERN ALASA ALS Z731 M852 M852 RASEN BAK GOTEX N873 M82 MISMO UM607 LEKRA

[Thomas George 827476]

Killian thinks it was the other day too, well never mind, we don't need an excuse to cover EFRO. Grab yourself a mince pie and a gl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] of mulled wine/gluhwein* and get into the Xmas spirit flying/controlling at EFRO.

 

*Subject to personal limitations. Pilots/Controllers are not advised to drink to the point of rendering themselves unable to comply with the CoC, COR and any other local rules!

[Martin Loxbo]

Mince pie? Hmm I'm not so sure. Mulled wine? Perhaps, but glögg is better! In Finland you should probably ask for glögi.

[Thomas George 827476]

Sounds like it might be similar to gluhwein... Actually when I was at university I worked in a supermarket and they made a mistake on some of the advertising. "Mice" pies did not sell so well....

[Martin Bergin 931070]

Anyway, if anyone wants to take part in "Santa Lite" so to speak, VATFrance have an event going out of Strasbourg on Friday.

Are you sure that wasn't yesterday? There were plenty of flights out of LFST, and total movements at EFRO according to vataware was 84 (compared with 111 on Saturday).

 

With figures like that perhaps next years should be a two day event

[Martin Loxbo]

A two-day event is what we've had for many years, in part because many pilots also want to fly the return leg. It's just difficult to staff for two days without a good level of activity in Finland (and no, coming to Finland once a year to control for one or two days doesn't count).

 

Thomas,

 

Glögg is a bit like glühwein, just better!

[Magnus Gustafsson]

Hello!

As you obviously know, but for those that do not remember I was on EFRO_APP on this eventful evening!

 

I just had a good chat over Teamspeak with Aposolos regarding the event and we came to the same conclutions as earlier in this thread are mentioned.

 

From the APP view of things:

- The eficiency of the airspace was not used to it´s maximum under many times of the evening, this is due to excessive vector in the TMA with many aircrafts, that made the eficiency not the ideal, the same impression had final DIR and TWR. But long time during the event I had nice time with good amount of traffic on the freq. with separation in every way and form.

- Closest sector EFES_6 where overwhelmed by traffic to the degree that traffic was not put in hold at TMA border intersection as mentioned in breefing docomeent done for Santa Flyin 2010, atleast 15-20 aircrafts was on hold above STAR final fix (just above right base leg). This meant that those traffic clutered my scope and when handoff was done for decend in my airspace, excessive vectoring and level separation was done, due fact that I had to take them down in oposit direction against the main flow traffic on downwind.

- calculating with same amout of traffic next year, It´s my opinion that the staffing in EFRO TMA do not need any more controllers.

- To use the eficiency of the APP airspace, the right way is to use only the planed and published entrypoints towards the TMA. In this case due the fact EFES_6 was overwhelmed by traffic, I also recived traffic from every direction, on the way in to the airspace and even on the way out of the airspace.

 

Proposals that earlier been mentioned, but as I also like to take forward:

- Minimum 3 CTR sectors online in Finland

- Breefing with intended controllers before the Event. Where positions are decided and guidelines regarding witch horisontal separation between the sectors is set. Eatch sector should have decided diviating enroute holdingpoints(1 or 2), away from the main flow (not much, but enought). So when not when separation is not achived, controller would take a bold decition to use enroute holding to release the traffic from holding at suitable time. If this is done from the south border of Finland, the chanse for the final sector to be overwhelmed is much lower due proactive separation. This practise could even bee started in BALT_CTR area.

- Earlier years, I do remember "SANTA" beeing online during hole of event. SANTA was the godfather of the hole event and knew it by hart and certainly was proactive regarding overviewing the event and what should be done during the event, regarding moving staff and enforcing enroute holdnings and so one.. Some one have to take charge of that "overview" and every controller knows his duties, he is still SANTA .

- If Finland next year still is Open Sky area, VATEUD/VATSIM-Scandinavia should apoint much earlier responsible for staffing in Finland.

 

With these proposals, I think it will be much more managable than this year, caotic it may be anyhow!

I felt for controller on sector 6, who became victim of the situation due low staffing at enroute sectors in Finland, uknown airspace and huge amout of traffic. In these surcomstensions it was an excellent peace of work! And he even had to deal with an stubborn APP that did not accepted al traffic, in many ocations I rejected handoff, as I am thought as an controller I can´t accept traffic that I am not able to handle, or else I was to be overwhelmed, sorry! I was able to uphold separation rather good, but I used al tricks that I had been thought and for a long time to handle traffic as fast/safe and eficiently as possible, but not good enought this evening during these surcomstanses!

 

No hard feelings, let´s do it again next year, but better!

Merry Christmas!

 

Magnus

[Thomas George 827476]

Well put Magnus, I'd tend to agree, thanks for providing your input!

 

Regards,

[Martin Tornberg]

A two-day event is what we've had for many years, in part because many pilots also want to fly the return leg. It's just difficult to staff for two days without a good level of activity in Finland (and no, coming to Finland once a year to control for one or two days doesn't count).

 

Thomas,

 

Glögg is a bit like glühwein, just better!

I actually think it's possibly to arrange a two day event, if the staff is arranged earlier than this year. If the event is 48 hours you've the possibility to switch position and you can have a break between each shift. And if you got a two day event it's much more likely that more people can attend, 'cause you can choose between two different days.

 

Regards

Martin Tornberg