Friday April 14th, ATP Pilot Challenge heads to NYC!!

[Joe Caban 844086]

**This is not a VA event** Everyone is welcome.

 

A group of pilots will be flying under the Airtran callsign of CITRUS, and heading to the New York City region during this weeks TGIF. Every pilot has an individual schedule with p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]enger loads, gate [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ignments, and time slots, and all pilots will be going to Gate B8 at LGA or Gate A10 at EWR. When one pilot leaves another is scheduled to arrive. The schedules are all three legs and less than 5.5 hours online. The challenge is to have each pilot scheduled for an arrival and departure into LGA or EWR in succession without getting behind schedule. Only one Airtran aircraft will be on the Airtran gate at a time. If you land and the previous pilot is still on the gate, you have to wait until your gate is available.

 

Other airports included this week are BOS PHL PHF IND DAY CAK HPN RDU RIC CLT and the hub ATL. Also you can fly what ever aircraft you want as long as you set your aircraft type in squawkbox as a Boeing 717-200; and set the livery to Airtran Airways; and is a turbo jet capable of 250kias or greater up to FL350+ ...just be sure your wingspan doesn't exceed 130 feet for space at the gate.

 

There are a few last minute slots left for the schedules available. So far there are 8 pilots scheduled to LGA alone! If you are interested in participating, send me an email and I will get you on the schedule. Over thirty flights will be flown in the northeast alone in 5 hours. This will be an ongoing event for pilots who are interested.

 

Thanks

Joe [email protected]

[Chris Smith]

This is a pretty cool idea

 

Whats the website for this?

[Joe Caban 844086]

write me for details at [email protected]

[Ethan Klapper 884347]

write me for details at [email protected]

 

Why not post the details here? Is this cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ified information?

 

Perhaps if you gave more information here in the forums, you would get even more pilots than the good amount you already have!

 

Best of Luck With your Venture!!!

 

EK

[Joe Caban 844086]

the reason is the schedules take a long time to compile and have to be given out once. If I give them out in the forum, multiple pilots may try to fly them and that won't work. If you are interested in flying a route email so I can send you the route schedule. That is the only reason. They are not cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ified... It's all about fun and testing your skills! Come join us.

 

[email protected]

[Ethan Klapper 884347]

I see. Have you ever thought of formally organizing this into a Virtual Airline? If not, I do see your logic for keeping your business on the VATSIM forums as AirTran isn't fond of VAs.

 

Once again, Best of Luck!!

 

Ethan

[Joe Caban 844086]

are you flying tonight? You should join us so you can see what we are doingyurself. Maybe it could be implemented at your VA. If you would like to join us we have a slot available.

[Nicholas Bartolotta 912967]

are you flying tonight? You should join us so you can see what we are doingyurself. Maybe it could be implemented at your VA. If you would like to join us we have a slot available.

 

You guys better not clog up too much ramp space, I want to be able to pull into B7!

[Christopher Clemons 922738]

Okay, I am a wandering, parapatetic VA pilot (have no trouble joining them, but can't find one that I really want to stick with). I was flying for AvA on Thursday when Joe PM'd me and suggested this TGIF event. I had been looking for something to create some urgency and time pressure and this was exactly the thing. I thought it would be fun, and imminently possible to keep to the schedule, make the turns when I was supposed to and keep everything on time.

 

Early Friday, I received from Joe (operating in every way as a dispatcher) my flight line for the evening. It was originally ATL-BOS; BOS-PHL; PHL-ATL. Great line for a pilot. Get to start and end at home. He could have had me laying over in Dayton. . .

 

The next challenge was finding an airplane. I tend to like everything to fit together. If I am flying a 712 for Citrus, I want to be flying a 712 for Citrus. Finding the model is easy (JCA has something beautiful), but finding the proper panel with modern (or at least early EFIS) is darn near impossible. Why won't someone do a high fidelity 712? PMDG? LDS? PLEASE! Anyway, I finally settled on flying the MD-87, which does not have exactly the same specs as the 717-200, but is a shortened Mad-Dog, so I thought that was fine. I got the JCA Douglas Twinjet package and merged it with my LAGO MADDOG panel, so I had my avionics. It's close to reality too, because I think I read somewhere that Citrus used to fly MD-87s. Anyway, finding a livery for my MD-87 was taking forever, and it was getting close to departure time, so I figured I'd just use the Aeromexico livery, which I like for some reason.

 

I guess I spoke too soon about not laying over in Dayton, because shortly after beginning, Dispatch called with a different flight line, now we had to go ATL-LGA; LGA-ATL; ATL-DAY. Yup laying over in Dayton for the night.

 

Leg 1: No problem getting out of ATL; had the cost index set to 100, so we were moving along quite well. Scheduling put us about 15 minutes behind for LGA, which I have never flown into (it's intreresting how much airport familiarity matters. I live in Boston and fly out of Logan frequently and I nearly have all the STARs memorized). Doing this on TGIF is excellent. Airspace is finely divided (we spoke to three different app. controls on our way in). It's misty and maybe raining in NYC, but the descent takes us right over lower Manhattan, which had a bit of a wow cool! factor for me. We're ILS 22 for LGA this evening and I set down my 100000 pounds of virtual metal about 15 minutes behind schedule.

 

Now this is the part I underestimated: The turn. I was ready with my half sheet on which I write my routing, load, and balance, but did not anticipate unloading p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]engers (I used FsPax), going to the bathroom, and having to reprogram my FMC. We're supposed to turn in 35 minutes according to schedule, but we arrived at the gate 20 minutes behind schedule, so its a 15 minute turn. As hard as I worked, I could not get off the gate sooner than 25 minutes later. I am not having a ton of success, but the time pressure is exciting, Dispatch calls regularly to check in on our status (next time, we should have ACARS set up, so he will not have to ask), I want to make this happen, it feels real. I even feel slightly annoyed about having to work at LGA, with a ton of pilots some of whom are not as proficient with the language of ATC and require multiple readbacks. I almost want to tell Delivery (Screw the RJ! I need to get out of here!)

 

Leg 2: We're already 15 minutes late when we push and when we finally make it to holding short of Rwy 13 at LGA, server lag causes us to "collide" with the RJ that I was complaining about earlier, poetic justice I suppose, but the sim resets and puts me back in Atlanta. Great, it's another 10 minutes repositioning myself, another 10 with delivery and ground. We had to hold short for another RJ landing on 22 then finally we get off at LGA one solid hour behind schedule. The flight back to ATL was uneventful, but we did have the fun of hearing company going the opposite way. Unfortuantely, being late has consequences for flying on the East Coast, as it's approaching midnight and the controllers are dropping off or losing interest entirely. Atlanta Approach did not tell us to expect rwy 26R until he had turned us to intercept the localizer (I should have asked, but I figured on a clear night we'd get the visual). Thankfully, because of superior airmanship (yeah, right), I snatched the 26R localizer and landed firmly in ATL.

 

We landed late, and very tired. It was around 12:30 when I called dispatch and told him we needed a crew change. . .I wasn't going to Dayton tonight!

 

Overall, I had a great time, but for our next try:

 

- More pilots. We need a bunch to make this really hum. We could even try to simulate bag drags, etc.

- Different airline. Again, I am a snob around what I'll fly, or maybe im not that good of a pilot, but I would have loved being able to fly my 73G or even my Wilco 737cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ic. Maybe a regional carrier would be ideal because you'd be flying a ton, within one ARTCC. Can anyone say "Eagle Flight?"

 

 

If my virutal flying experience was always like this, I know I'd be hooked. Joe, let's start a VA with this structure. I think it would be cool. The ops/disptach person would be very busy and pilots would enjoy the real time environment. Could it work only flying on Fridays? We could calculate 'revenue' based on our on-time performance, fuel burns, seat-mile general operating costs, and based on how the company is "doing" we could expand our route structure, add more planes, and hire more pilots.

 

Okay, that paragraph was written completely in dork, but wouldn't it be cool?

[Chris Smith]

I'm totally about this idea - lets take this hobbie to the next level. This sounds much more challenging then just cramming as much metal into an airport!

[Steve Ogrodowski 876322]

Uh oh, watch out when Chris gets excited about something.

 

[Joe Caban 844086]

yeah it was alot of fun! It was actually funner than I thought it would be even with only four pilots participating. The four of us were all late getting in and out of LGA back to back. I really felt tested when the night was over. I have a newfound respect for real world aircrews and what they go through every day.

 

My scheduled flights were :

 

645P-750P ATL-DAY FLT 700

808P-914P DAY-ATL FLT 169

947P-1132P ATL-LGA FLT 372

1207A-156A LGA-ATL FLT 357

 

My actual times were:

 

703P-807P ATL-DAY (offline)

833P-939P DAY-ATL

1022P-1225A ATL-LGA

I couldn't finish my last flight. I was beat and so was my FS.

 

It was definitely a challenge. I would say the difference from this and my usual online exerience would be comparable to driving home from work or a NASCAR driver hitting his line every lap.

 

I want to thank all the pilots who participated and everyone who helped or contributed. I also want to thank ZNY for a job well done. GOOD JOB ZNY. GOOD JOB TO ALL THE PILOTS! (we were late... but we'll get it right next time)

[Joe Caban 844086]

I'm totally about this idea - lets take this hobbie to the next level. This sounds much more challenging then just cramming as much metal into an airport!

Chris Smith, if you're really interested in this you will need to email me. My email is above.

Edited April 16, 2006 at 02:19 PM by Guest

[Joe Caban 844086]

Uh oh, watch out when Chris gets excited about something.

 

 

Which Chris do you mean???

 

Make sure you're there when we do this again!

[Jeffery Williams 849847]

Isn't operating a bunch of flights in and out of EWR and LGA on time taking the realism out of things? The northeast just isn't the same without a 3 hour ground stop and a half hour of holding.

[Joe Caban 844086]

did you say on time??

 

We were all late. I was over an hour late by the end of the night... Realistic?

 

The schedules have a 25 minutes delay timed into them for LGA and EWR. Join us and see if you like it.

[Tom Meyer 944876]

Somehow or another I have a feeling Jeff gets enough delays in real life.

[Joe Caban 844086]

yeah... looks like he was still circling when he wrote that!