Board of Governors Don Desfosse Posted October 28, 2016 at 08:55 AM Board of Governors Posted October 28, 2016 at 08:55 AM WorldFlight in the USA is getting closer and closer! Is everyone fully staffed? Ready to go? If you're short a controller or two, have you reached out to your visitors, adjacent ARTCCs, Ace Team, etc. for help? Let's do this! ------------------------------- https://www.vatusa.net/forums/index.php?topic=5549 ------------------------------- From my post (a month ago!) in the VATUSA forums: 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 2016 This year, WorldFlight will be celebrating its 16th year of operations. WorldFlight will start in Sydney (YSSY) on 06 November and will finish 6 days later on 12 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 45 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 1-2 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! For more information, including route details, flight plans, suggested scenery links and updates throughout the event, please visit: http://www.worldflight.com.au go to the OPERATIONS|DOWNLOADS to get the files. VATUSA Schedule Highlights (Note: All dates/times are in Zulu time) Flight From To Sched Departure Sched ArrivalWF1604 Apia Kailua Kona 11/06/2016 10:50 11/06/2016 16:20 WF1605 Kailua Kona Seattle 11/06/2016 17:10 11/06/2016 22:55 WF1606 Seattle Juneau 11/06/2016 23:45 11/07/2016 02:05 WF1607 Juneau Cold Lake 11/07/2016 02:55 11/07/2016 05:35 WF1608 Cold Lake Duluth 11/07/2016 07:05 11/07/2016 09:30 WF1609 Duluth Toronto Pearson 11/07/2016 10:20 11/07/2016 13:35 WF1610 Toronto Pearson New York La Guardia 11/07/2016 14:25 11/07/2016 15:50 WF1611 New York La Guardia Charleston 11/07/2016 16:40 11/07/2016 19:30 WF1612 Charleston Sarasota 11/07/2016 20:20 11/07/2016 22:00 WF1613 Sarasota Miami 11/07/2016 22:50 11/07/2016 23:45 WF1614 Miami Santo Domingo 11/08/2016 00:35 11/08/2016 02:45 Full schedule here: http://www.worldflight.com.au/operations/schedule ________________________________________________________ Controlling WorldFlight, and cooperating with WorldFlight Controllers Reminder 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 [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ist 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 40-80 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! 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 charity, All Children's Hospital, go to http://www.worldflightusa.com Don Desfosse Vice President, Operations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Kato Posted October 30, 2016 at 02:00 AM Posted October 30, 2016 at 02:00 AM Hi everyone, My name is Kyle Kato, and I am a controller with ZNY on VATSIM. Recently, there has been talk throughout the ARTCC about the WorldFlight that will be arriving at LGA on the 7th of next month. One issue that we tend to have is that default FSX scenery doesn't match the scopes for controllers. Taxiway B curves inward towards the terminal in FSX default scenery, but on our scopes and in real life, it is straight. I will be working to fix that issue and put out an AFCAD hopefully within a few days notice of the event. I'm not sure how I will get it to pilots, whether I just put a link in this thread, or I have one of the big guys here at ZNY handle the distribution. Anyhow, I'll try to get this updated AFCAD out as soon as possible. Thanks, Kyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board of Governors Don Desfosse Posted October 31, 2016 at 10:53 AM Author Board of Governors Posted October 31, 2016 at 10:53 AM A note/reminder from the Worldflight team (cross-posted): We are looking forward to a bumper number of participants this year. The interest has been phenomenal. The list of controllers who have applied to support the event throughout the week has grown exponentially. In particular we expect the last few legs in Australia to be close to unmanageable which leads me to remind everyone about the spirit of WorldFlight. WorldFlight is unique in many ways but probably the one thing that stands out is the way controllers and pilots come together to handle the very unrealistic objective of getting a large volume of traffic in and out of an airfield more or less at the same time. Then we do it again and again some 40+ times. It is entirely intentional that there are no flight booking slots and the vast majority of feedback that we receive each year from VATSIM divisions around the globe centers around the enjoyment they get from "blurring" their usual airspace procedures to accommodate what has affectionately become known as "The WorldFlight Swarm". Have some fun during this one folks, the official sim teams certainly do, and remember...."it is not always realistic to be realistic during WorldFlight". Reported virtual fatalities over the years from operating with "reduced separation" have been at acceptable levels On behalf of the entire WorldFlight Team, we look forward to seeing you for all or part of WorldFlight 2016 for a week of fun raising important funds for some very worthy charitable causes around the world. Cheers, Tracy WorldFlight Australia Don Desfosse Vice President, Operations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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