Robert Shearman Jr Posted June 6, 2017 at 02:25 PM Posted June 6, 2017 at 02:25 PM Hi all -- VATSTAR is turning two! Come join us and our friends at ZMP (Minneapolis ARTCC) for our annual birthday flight to celebrate another successful year for VATSTAR. Last year was for the jets, so this year we are showing love for General Aviation. Minneapolis is hosting an event that evening from 2100z to 0300z. We are going to piggyback on this event (since it will more-or-less guarantee us ATC coverage) and fly a GA VFR route from KCMX to 4R5, following the coastline of Lake Superior. The flight is 116nm and should take about an hour and a half or so. Event time will be 2330z with an anticipated "wheels-up" time of 0000z. Should the weather not cooperate, we do a have an IFR backup plan of KCMX to KASX via V148 IWD V413 ERIYI V217 GR[Mod - Happy Thoughts] -- and if things get REALLY messy out there, we'll divert to Duluth (KDLH) which has nice wide runways and ILSs-a-plenty. But obviously we are hoping for blue skies and tailwinds! If you're planning on attending, please register at vatstar.com/index.php/about-us/2nd-anniversary-flight to let us know, so we can give ZMP a heads-up as to how many to expect (you have to be logged into the VATSTAR site to do so -- if you want to fly with us but aren't yet a member, you can sign up at vatstar.com/index.php/homepage/start-here first -- you don't have to enroll in a Pilot Rating program necessarily, if you don't want to, although we encourage that too!). If you have any questions, hit me up at [email protected]. We hope to see you there! Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shearman Jr Posted June 24, 2017 at 09:25 PM Author Posted June 24, 2017 at 09:25 PM Hello again -- A couple things have changed since originally proposing VATSTAR's Anniversary flight for tonight. First, the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating with what I had hoped would be mostly a VFR event. Ceilings at KCMX are supposed to be between 600-1000ft around the time we're trying to depart. Not that we can't just simulate clear blue skies, but, I know that a lot of us like to stick to realism as closely as we can, and in the real world you can't fly VFR when the weather doesn't cooperate. Secondly, the response from people wanting to participate with us has been overwhelming and what I originally optimistically hoped would be about a dozen pilots might be as many as thirty of us! While I'm elated for the support, I don't think that 20-30 pilots departing in succession IFR from a non-towered field is going to make for a very fun event as most of the event will be spent waiting for our IFR releases. Procedurally, it might be interesting and challenging -- but for what's to be at least partially a social flying event, it might not be much fun. So, I'm calling an audible. Our new plan is KDLH DLH V430 IWD V148 CMX KCMX. The CMX VOR feeds nicely into the ILS 31 at KCMX with a wonderful procedure turn, so this will be a great chance to practice some of those P4 rating skills. A full briefing for the flight appears at http://www.vatstar.com under our Forum, and can also be found on our Facebook page. Preflight starts at 2330 and first pilots should be going wheels-up at 0000. We hope to see you there! Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shearman Jr Posted June 25, 2017 at 03:44 AM Author Posted June 25, 2017 at 03:44 AM A huge THANK YOU to everyone who made it out to our 2nd Anniversary event! I think it's safe to say that we all got a lesson, or at least a refresher, on how adverse weather affects the Air Traffic Control system, especially when it comes to operations at non-towered fields! I highly appreciated all of the pilots who came and flew with us, and offer a GIGANTIC tip of the hat to the ATC staff at Minneapolis Center (http://minniecenter.org) for slugging through it out there with us. It was an exhausting, but fun, night to be remembered! Despite the adversity, I believe the consensus all around was that we should organize some more of these -- so, as soon as we rest, recover, and dry out from this one, we'll start working on the next one! Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shearman Jr Posted June 30, 2017 at 06:10 AM Author Posted June 30, 2017 at 06:10 AM Check out this highlight video from VATSTAR's Second Anniversary Flight on June 24th, 2017. Thanks to all of the pilots who participated and to the AWESOME staff at ZMP for their support! Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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