Eastbound 2018 Reviews

[Domminick Cohn-Belmont 135]

This was the worst ever thing I have flown with on Vatsim, all the things that happen makes me want not to fly ever again on the network. The first thing was that I took off 50 minutes behind schedule from my booked slot. Then more into the ride almost all oceanic controllers ignored me and I contacted them by Text, Voice, and PM and got almost not a single response from any of those controllers. Some of the BOS controllers thought I was voice capable when I specifically files (TEXT ONLY) They did not even try to use text to see if I am still there. I had to PM one of them to ask them why I never got a handoff. Then I got walloped by a controller. Three of the SUP online that day were useless when I asked them help. Then I was not allowed to land, Apparently I was not allowed to land until ATC was ready for me, there was just 3 other aircrafts lined up with EGCC at the time, do not see why I could not land. So I just disconnected. I believe it was one of the worst events I have ever done on Vatsim, and because of this it pushed me away from Vatsim, now I plan on not flying on the network again. Unless someone can convince me otherwise to continue flying. Comment down below how it was for you.

Edited October 28, 2018 at 03:44 AM by Guest

[Andreas Fuchs]

It was challenging. Cheers from Gander Radio, Gander Clearance Delivery and Shanwick Radio.

 

I am looking forward to normal evenings where I can dedicate my time to a few pilots who actually do what they are supposed to do...

 

On the other hand this very event, Cross The Pond, is made to stretch everyone to the limit. If you have been there before you know that you do not expect a perfect event, but chaos

 

See you on a normal evening, you'll enjoy the regular service then.

[Gunnar Lindahl]

Sorry you had a bad experience. The event always run sufficiently close to the cliff edge in terms of controller workload that some pilots will 'fall through the cracks' - this has always been the case. Will it always be the case? We hope not, but who knows.

 

What is clear is that more pilots flew for this CTP than ever before - a great thing for VATSIM in theory, but something we weren't really expecting.

 

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped organise, and to everyone who participated.

[Camden Bruno]

now I plan on not flying on the network again. Unless someone can convince me otherwise to continue flying.

[Joshua Black]

Firstly, delays are expected with any major event, but Cross the Pond especially. If real world airports dealt with the same amount of traffic as CTP airports receive, you’d receive delays real world too. Believe me.

 

As far as the rest of your post, I think the answer you seek ties into the first half of my post... PATIENCE! Besides, I’m sure there’s more to the story than just being “ignored” by controllers.

 

Not going to sit here and try to convince you to continue flying on VATSIM. If THIS is the thing that upsets you enough to the point of wanting to quit VATSIM entirely... well.... bye...

[Trevor Larsen 1199649]

The controllers did the best they could with that amount of traffic. With so many aircraft it's very easy to get backlogged, especially when you're in oceanic having to make the position reports. I personally thought it was an amazing event. I feel like every controller I talked to knew what they were doing and had a reason behind it.

[Domminick Cohn-Belmont 135]

Not going to sit here and try to convince you to continue flying on VATSIM. If THIS is the thing that upsets you enough to the point of wanting to quit VATSIM entirely... well.... bye...

 

It does not really upset me te fact that I am delayed only by minutes but when it is a delay for an Hour or two and I am departing 50 minutes behind for what I booked it is not cool, I whent through all the hazel to book something that would not even do very much to me, as the departure was not on scheduled when It should of been and the fact that the When I needed help from some of the SUP they were useless. There is nothing wrong with asking for help when you do not know something, I changed my mind and want to stay on te network but I made this topic so others could comment how it was. My idea is that I will give it a one more try for the next cross the pond, because it might be different. To others in the replies were very inspiring to me, and made me see it as a give it another try it might change your mind

[Andreas Fuchs]

....useless SUPs....useless controllers....ignored you....

 

The main mistake that you are making is that you seem to take it personal. I can [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ure you that dozens of pilots got "ignored". Not because ATCOs were impolite, but because there's more to position reports than just copying and reading them back: we actually have to use the data and check for conflicts with other pilots on your level and this is not done within 2 seconds. We regularly had pilots with different weather (winds!) settings, resulting in the number 1 pilot reporting M0.87 with a groundspeed of 510 knots, while the next pilot behind him reported M0.84 but his GS was 570 knots. Go figure! Other pilots were not even able to use their FMC, because they did not know how to insert waypoints like "50N040W" (correct format for the FMS is 5020N). During such an event there's no time to explain this. As an ATCO is [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume this to be basic pilot-knowledge for candidates who want to cross the North Atlantic. Some pilots had Oceanic Clearance for a certain track, made the appropriate readback, and then flew directly from their Ocean Entry Fix to the Ocean Exit Fix on the other side of the Pond. How are we supposed to work properly when this happens?

 

Text pilots: why did you file text? I had a great pilot on my frequency who is obviously impaired and has a hard time speaking fast/clearly, but he still used VOICE and his requests and readbacks were flawless, they just took a few more seconds and where harder to understand. Take an example of him. For me text-pilots come second during such an event, because it is much quicker to talk to voice pilots who know their stuff. Maybe you are not aware of this, but while you report your position we actually need to fill in your data into a program for coordination. If I now have to make text-readback, a lot of time goes to waste and I have to type everything twice. Not great.

 

So, please stop calling us useless and rather accept the delay and be happy there are masochistic controllers who take up all this stuff, although you sometimes want to bang your head onto your desk. CTP has never been a realistic event, this was never claimed by anyone of the team. CTP stretches every airport and sector to and beyond its limits and as a pilot and controller you need to accept this fact with all its implications. Apparently this was your first CTP so you got surprised. Now you know that CTP is what it is: tons of fun (if you give in to all the issues and delays) and frustration (if you are no patient and insist on all rules, slots and regulations). It's your choice which path you go down.

 

The ATC team surely had a lot of fun again! For the next CTP we should only allow pilots to register and request a slot who have completed a small multiple choice test that covers the basics of oceanic navigation procedures. This may bring the level of knowledge even more.

[Don Desfosse]

All good points made here, but Andreas makes one that I'd like to underscore. The challenge (and fun) to us all, the whole system, is the chaos! Embrace it! Love it for what it is! We simulate flooding the oceanic tracks far more than they are flooded in the real world, and we have far, far fewer controllers to handle the flood. We simulate launching far more oceanic departures off of these airports than the real world guys do. And it's chaos. The challenge from the controlling end is to work as efficiently and flawlessly as possible to do it better than the real world guys, and that's really tough for a bunch of people that do this as a hobby. But we try. And it's chaos. We just try to make it organized chaos, accept and meet the challenge. Similarly, from a pilot perspective, it's chaos. You need to be at the absolute top of your game to ensure your small contribution to the overall system, the overall event, is as perfect and efficient as possible. Is it going to be perfect? Heck, no! I worked a couple hundred departures from one of the event airports yesterday. And thanks to the intensive planning done by the CTP team, and then by the ATC team at the facility, and some darned good controlling by many people, it was flawless for most people. A very efficient flow, often with shortcuts given. But each time one person screwed up by not flying the departure procedure correctly, turning toward other aircraft that were, climbing past the Top Altitude printed right on the chart and interfering with both departures and arrivals, then OTHER people got vectored off their route, inconvenienced, etc., just to accommodate the people that couldn't fly their own airplane....

 

CTP is an extreme overload of a fragile system. When else do you get to fly on VATSIM and see literally several dozen aircraft around you? We work every time to rise up to the very high bar that is set, we work hard to learn lessons from every event, and we work hard to seek absolute efficiency and perfection in a very imperfect event and system. And the chaos that ensues? We love it! My advice: Rise to the challenge, and not only be patient with the chaos, but Embrace it, Love it!

[Dace Nicmane]

CTP has never been a realistic event, this was never claimed by anyone of the team. CTP stretches every airport and sector to and beyond its limits and as a pilot and controller you need to accept this fact with all its implications. Apparently this was your first CTP so you got surprised. Now you know that CTP is what it is: tons of fun (if you give in to all the issues and delays) and frustration (if you are no patient and insist on all rules, slots and regulations).

I wasn't around by the first CTP but I doubt this was so by design. It was probably normal in the beginning and as more pilots joined in, it became chaos. This is the reason I stopped participating, not because I'm impatient but because I like it at least semi-realistic. On non-event days, the airspace is usually too empty and ATC is not guaranteed. Here's an idea, why don't oceanic controllers organize regular events of being online like every other FIR/vACC/ARTCC without the departure and arrival airports, that way it could be more normal for pilots who want to experience oceanic ATC without chaos.

[Torben Andersen]

I do not seem to be able to post my review here - I get a server error

I've written it in Word and tried to copy it.

 

Strange - Torben

[Torben Andersen]

Evaluation of the CTP 2018 event as seen from the cockpit - by Torben Andersen (CID#861112)

 

I participated on the Cross the Pond 2018 event and flew from Washington Dulles International (KIAD) to Manchester, England (EGCC) as Jettime1027 (JTG1027) in a Boeing 737-800.

Initially I discovered that the available slots were nil - taken in a very short time. But a couple of days before the event a free slot emerged departing KIAD at 1157z. After booking it I read through the docomeents for the 2 airports, KIAD and EGCC. Very nice and comprehensive material. Also the docomeents for the Oceanic crossing were printed, especially the Transatlantic Radio Operations Checksheet.

In the morning of the event I received the flight data for my flight. I was [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned NAT X and the route was:

WOOLY1 SWANN DCT BROSS J42 LLUND DCT BAYYS DCT LARIE DCT KANNI N253A JOOPY NATX GISTI DCT LIFFY UL975 MALUD MIRSI2B.

NATX: JOOPY 4950N 5240N 53330N 5320N MALOT GISTI

Having found a free stand (D10) at KIAD using the excellent tool provided by https://vzdc.org/iadgates.php I logged in at 1100z. Not long hereafter I received a PDC from delivery with the clearance for my route, likely runway for departure (Rwy 30) and Squawk code. The procedure followed very closely the procedure described. Upon contacting the ramp controller a small deviation from the clearance emerged as the [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned rwy for departure was changed from rwy30 to rwy01R. As this would give me a little bit extra work on the FMC I asked for rwy30. While this was accepted, it ended up with a departure from rwy01C due to traffic. I pushed back at 1145z, but due to the high amount of traffic my departure time was 1209z. The delay of 12 minutes was to be expected in an event like this. The very high standard of the controllers at KIAD and enroute made the flight out of KIAD and along the east coast of USA a nice experience.

The Canadian controllers also had their hands full. And I must stress that we, the pilots, do have a responsibility to pay attention to the radio and follow radio communication procedure. At times the controllers had to repeat their message several times - either because the receiving pilots weren’t paying attention, or the transmission was interrupted by other pilot. However, the lag in the system naturally means that interruptions can’t totally be avoided, when so many pilots need to contact the controller. Especially the last Moncton controller before Gander Oceanic had a high workload as pilots asked to leave the frequency to get their oceanic clearance from the Oceanic Clearance Delivery and again, when the pilots reported back on the frequency. There was some confusion on which oceanic controller to contact in order to get the clearance. I think it could have been written more clearly in a docomeent, just as the information for the airports. As I only have a very small section of the vpilot window visible, I can see only the top most controllers and not the delivery controllers in the bottom of the list. I could hear from other pilots, that they tried to contact the track controller for obtaining oceanic clearance, adding to the radio congestion. While the organization as such were structured excellently (CZQX_X_DEL being the track X clearance delivery, and CZQX_X_CTR being the track controller) the information didn’t come through to all the pilots. In the end the domestic controller handed pilots with an oceanic clearance somewhat early to the oceanic controller to be able to handle the amount of traffic on the last part of the domestic airspace.

Up to this point I was very impressed with the controllers and their ability to handle the huge amount of traffic in a professional and courteous manner. Unfortunately, I did not get the same impression of the oceanic controller. This may be caused by the procedure used by the oceanic controller, so I’ll try to explain, how I experienced it from the pilot seat.

P[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ing the first oceanic waypoint (JOOPY) I contacted the oceanic track controller by radio using the phrase: “Gander Oceanic, Jettime1027 with a position report”. I expected to hear a return like “Jettime1027, Gander Oceanic, go ahead”, but was met by “Jettime1027, please check the controller information for the correct procedure”.

Now, in my experience I did use the correct procedure and phraseology, but apparently a different approach has been used either by the present controller or by the event organizers on the Canadian side. Reading the controller info I was asked to contact the controller on the chat to tell him, I had a position report. While this might be a good move to reduce the radio traffic, it did nothing good in my experience.

In vpilots chat I wrote: pos rep and pressed send and in my vpilot client it wrote “JTG1027: pos rep”.

All should be good and I expected a call from the controller to give him the position report. IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!! I p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed 3 oceanic waypoints with out ever been contacted by the controller!!

Other pilots experience the same problem - some came through, but had perhaps 2 position reports to do (and off cause only transmitted the last one). This was really a big deroute for my experience with the controllers in the event. After a controller change I finally got through to the CZQX_X controller - I really had to talk with BIG LETTERS, but delivered my first AND ONLY position report to Gander Oceanic approximate 60nm BEFORE 53N030W - midpoint where I were to contact Shanwick Oceanic.

I would like to say that using a procedure like this, is NOT an option in my opinion - or it should as a minimum be presented much more clearly to the pilots. The majority of the reports I could hear be given by pilots to the controller were outdated and of no use for controlling purposes. In effect they could have been omitted entirely. But this compromise the nature of such an event. I didn’t check the controller info for the other track controllers, and I do not know, how it worked on the other tracks. But for me it was a disaster.

I think there are 2 possible solutions to these problems: You can either use a CPDLC (like given by Hoppie - http://www.hoppie.nl/acars/prg/atc/) or you can have multiple controllers on a track controlling eg. FL310-FL350 and another controlling FL360-FL410). But the last necessitates naturally more frequencies.

Or you can use the normal procedure, which is to contact the controller by radio ?? When p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ing 53N030W I contacted Shanwich Oceanic without much delay and handed my position reports to him without problems.

(BTW - two problems occurred during the crossing. Shortly after p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ing 49N050W an American Airlines plane p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed within 1nm in front of me at the same FL from south to north. Not traffic should cross NAT tracks at my flight level FL370. How he ended up in front of me is a good question. An other problem was heard on the radio - an Air Portugal not flying on a NAT track was not received any service from Shanwick Oceanic when he was in Shanwick Oceanic Airspace. The organization of having a controller controlling only the tracks means that other legitimate traffic could not get ATC service. As Shanwick and Gander Oceanic also has to deal with traffic on random routes, eg. traffic from the US to Scandinavia, which do not use NATs, I found this to be a situation to be dealt with in the future).

The rest of the flight through Shanwick OCA, Ireland and the UK went completely by the book. I’m really impressed by the controllers at EGCC, who handled the traffic admirably and gave good guidance to entering the holdings at EGCC.

However, overall the event was a good experience - I only had one disconnection from the server, so I think the VATSIM organization is able to handle such big events now and in the future.

 

Regards - Torben Andersen (861112)

[Len Vasilev]

There have been issues over Gander,so I can understand after 4-5 hours of flight you see it all breaking down and start to get upset .On the other hand its a very big event (the traffic volume over the Atlantic must be like 30-40x times the "normal" weekend volume here ; and I somehow feel for the controllers who are human beings too, I suppose ,and do want a good event in the end,just like everybody else.

 

Dulles Dep was great ,no delays (in fact a little delay on my part bec of audio problems).everything brilliant until Moncton ,when it looked like there was only one (very good btw) controller for too many pilots at once. Well in that case,when its all too clear that there are technical issues or just lack of personnel Id go for make the best of it,like do not complain or try to "sort it out" on the frequency.In the end I had no oceanic clearance yet the X-Nat Controller has been so kind to check my pos-reps anyway...like in real life we started to improvise,and it was good.

 

As we approached Ireland and Shannon things got even better. VATSIM announced its simultaneous connections record and the ATC seemed more and more stable. Shannon,London West,Brest,Paris,Reims how much better can it get ??? Well Swiss Radar provided us-the Zurich bounds - with almost two hours of extra arrival service,really appreciate their neat and smooth from holding- > down to the gate ATC .

 

So in the end and overall I am very satisfied and grateful for You ,the VATSIM Controllers and Pilots participating made it possible.I had taken part in a CTP West (ESSA-KBOS) and this was a nice eastbound version. Thank you, merci und danke !

[Simon Kelsey]

Firstly -

 

Domminick -- it sounds to me as though you haven't participated in CTP before . The reality is that the slot bookings are at best a very vague "I'm going to be logging on about this time" and not really any more than that -- the actual times are almost totally meaningless, but it does at least vaguely spread the load across the day rather than having 400 people all logging on at JFK at 10am, for example.

 

Whilst everybody would like to get everyone airborne within a few minutes of calling up, the reality is that JFK had around 90+ aircraft on the ground at any one time for several hours and even if you depart each one a minute apart (roughly 'wheels up' separation, i.e. clear the next one as soon as the preceding aircraft's wheels leave the ground) -- well, you can do the maths, and the reality is that sustaining anything like that departure rate on VATSIM with variable pilot skills and the laggy, fuzzy voice system is utterly impossible, not to mention the fact that there's no point launching 120 aircraft an hour if the enroute sectors can't cope.

 

Real world taxi times at JFK are often easily in the region of 60 minutes so if you got airborne after 50 minutes I'd say you were doing fairly well!

 

As for the arrival -- as a pilot it's very difficult to see the full picture of what ATC are dealing with. Again, nobody wants to hold aircraft for any longer than they have to but again past experience from CTP suggests that it is quite normal to expect up to an hour of holding inbound -- again, if there's hundreds of aircraft arriving, plus other traffic that's not participating in the event it doesn't take much to work out the maximum possible landing rate (as a guide -- real world Heathrow manages between 30 and 45 landings an hour with highly trained crews and a zero-lag voice system -- on VATSIM I think you'd be lucky to sustain 20, and at an airport where departures have to use/cross the landing runway you could be looking at half that).

 

Like Dace, I personally don't take part -- for me it just goes way too far from "busy and challenging" in to the "total chaos" zone. Yes, it's nice to have other aircraft around and all the rest of it, but if all you're doing for eight plus hours is battling to get a word in edgeways on a way overloaded frequency with a controller who's not actually controlling anything because they've just got too many aircraft, to me that doesn't really sound like much fun (and if you're 'falling through a crack' through whole sectors, several times in a row then it's not really full ATC coverage either).

 

I did fly the other way and enjoyed a nice departure out of Heathrow with ATC all the way to the Shanwick border -- as Torben says, nobody (understandably) was interested in speaking to me on Oceanic which suited me fine but for future events I do think some sort of provision should be made for opposite direction traffic, even if it's just officially "you're on your own, stay out of the way and monitor Unicom" -- I wasn't at all bothered personally as I made sure I was routing well out of the way of the event tracks, through I did have to cross the northernmost track at 20W and about the best I could do was offset and make a couple of blind position reports. It would have been nice as well for there to be a little more information on the site for how non-participating traffic (like my flight) could best avoid getting in the way, and there seemed to be a bit of confusion around handoffs -- I had already spoken to an Oceanic controller and established that essentially I was on my own westbound, but then after mentioning the situation to Scottish they then sent me back to the same frequency, with the same controller who still had far too much on his plate coming the other way to deal with me. Shannon then gave me another frequency, which I again couldn't get a word in edgeways on and when I made a blind text position report I was instructed to contact the original frequency again.

 

As I say, not a problem for me at all -- all I was concerned about was that I didn't want to get in anyone's way, and once I was clear of the track I just tuned 122.8 and left it at that.

 

For those who are particularly masochistic I imagine it's good fun but not for me, thanks!

[Domminick Cohn-Belmont 135]

Firstly -

 

Domminick -- it sounds to me as though you haven't participated in CTP before .

 

Exactly finally, that's what I have been trying to say, I have never participated in it. I really did expect lots of traffic, I was one of those pilots who fell through the cracks, because of the overload.

[Dave Catalani]

Here we go again. Complaints from pilots. Human nature I suppose. I had a great time, even with the Oceanic issues. CYYZ-LSZH, Nat Tango. I thought controllers performed flawlessly. I thought pilots were the underachievers. Wrong phraseology, missing transmissions from controllers, stepping on others like impatient babies because they just p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed a reporting point in Oceanic airspace are just a few bad pilot behaviors observed. To the pilot above mad because he wanted text...are you kidding...an event like this expecting text sends you to the bottom of the queue. Heck, the young man with a speech impairment was able to communicate....btw, controllers, thank you for embracing Northwest 99....I hear him often flying in the States and you guys treat him with respect all the time.

 

 

Pilots...READ the docomeentation. Use the links provided in the FAQ, especially the Oceanic and Gander info. Use the links from Gander that provide Oceanic and Position Report generators. It was clear to me pilots did not. I heard 100 different ways to make reports and request clearance...all wrong. When that happens, the system slows to a crawl because ATC is expecting it ONE way, but get jammed with incorrect confusing transmissions.

 

 

Thanks to all the volunteers. Great ATC at CYYZ all the way to LSZH. Yes, I missed a few position reports, endured a few disconnects with v-pilot, and a sim freeze. Embrace the chaos! Shout out to LSZH controllers who stayed on late to accommodate all of us holding.

 

Ciao

UAL1639

[Domminick Cohn-Belmont 135]

Here we go again. Complaints from pilots. Human nature I suppose. I had a great time, even with the Oceanic issues. CYYZ-LSZH, Nat Tango. I thought controllers performed flawlessly. I thought pilots were the underachievers. Wrong phraseology, missing transmissions from controllers, stepping on others like impatient babies because they just p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed a reporting point in Oceanic airspace are just a few bad pilot behaviors observed. To the pilot above mad because he wanted text...are you kidding...an event like this expecting text sends you to the bottom of the queue. Heck, the young man with a speech impairment was able to communicate....btw, controllers, thank you for embracing Northwest 99....I hear him often flying in the States and you guys treat him with respect all the time.

 

 

Pilots...READ the docomeentation. Use the links provided in the FAQ, especially the Oceanic and Gander info. Use the links from Gander that provide Oceanic and Position Report generators. It was clear to me pilots did not. I heard 100 different ways to make reports and request clearance...all wrong. When that happens, the system slows to a crawl because ATC is expecting it ONE way, but get jammed with incorrect confusing transmissions.

 

 

Thanks to all the volunteers. Great ATC at CYYZ all the way to LSZH. Yes, I missed a few position reports, endured a few disconnects with v-pilot, and a sim freeze. Embrace the chaos! Shout out to LSZH controllers who stayed on late to accommodate all of us holding.

 

Ciao

UAL1639

 

Hey, you can't say you never had a complaint before (yes it is human nature, and you probably have complained about something on Vatsim in the past before or in life), we are all here expressing how it was too. Your gonna see other pilots complain too not just me in this event. If you were in my shoes the CTP event you probably would not be talking the way you are right now. Two peoples already compared me to another person with a speech problem, well guess what I do not have that, but just because someone has problems does not always mean they need to be praised all the time because they were able to do it. At least you did express how it was for you. The reason I used text for most of the flight was that I could bearly get a transmission in by voice, as other were sometimes talking over each other.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi Dom,

 

I am sure we all had reasons to complain before. It is just that CTP is not really a place to complain too much about the handling of unrealistic amounts of traffic. It simply is not possible. Yes, you may criticize the new website and the presentation of data or whatever, but I do not agree with complaining about the handling of traffic by Moncton and Oceanic. I am sure they guys there did their best to their abilities, but at some point it was not possible to handle all those calls anymore.

 

One thing that we will take away for sure are the visibility centers/radio ranges for Oceanic Delivery controllers, they could not be reached early enough.

[Domminick Cohn-Belmont 135]

Hi Dom,

 

I am sure we all had reasons to complain before. It is just that CTP is not really a place to complain too much about the handling of unrealistic amounts of traffic. It simply is not possible. Yes, you may criticize the new website and the presentation of data or whatever, but I do not agree with complaining about the handling of traffic by Moncton and Oceanic. I am sure they guys there did their best to their abilities, but at some point it was not possible to handle all those calls anymore.

 

One thing that we will take away for sure are the visibility centers/radio ranges for Oceanic Delivery controllers, they could not be reached early enough.

 

Andreas you do have a point, and I now I agree with you, you made me happier now

[Richard Quigley]

The plain vanilla fact is that this event is simply too big for the human resources available to manage it. I apologize to Boston for having been the first to bail from Moncton but in my defense it was 0100 in the morning my time, I had a headache that 4 aspirin couldn't handle and it has been 50 years since I last saw my 28th birthday.

 

In the course of compiling 3900 scope hours this was my fourth (and last) CTP. It never gets any better despite all the protestations of VATSIM. What I've noted is the increase in pilot numbers and the decrease of participating controllers. Or maybe it's the pilot/controller ratio keeps getting worse (for the controllers). I can't blame the controllers. Four hours of handling a completely unrealistic an unreasonable traffic load is patently ridiculous. 80% of the traffic is reasonable. But it is the 20% that creates the kind of work load that impedes in the provision service to that 80%. That's the 20% which don't bother to monitor the frequency except when they want something; keep disconnecting/reconnecting; pops up in the middle of traffic to join in; deviates from their planned track and altitude or can't manage a speed change; and the ones who HAVE to deviate from their track due to weather that no one else seems to see! I won't even mention the text only stupidity.

 

Somebody up thread said that controllers aren't really controlling and they were 100% correct. If we aren't able to simulate some level of control, why do we bother being on line? An increasing number of controllers with far more intelligence that I have demonstrated have clearly voted with their microphones to stay away.

 

A sane CTP would require fewer aircraft and more controllers. Of course if you LIKE chaos, carry on. Remember the MS's The Zone?

 

End of Rant.

[Andreas Fuchs]

We should try to get more (also "special visiting"!) controllers up for Moncton and Gander. We need to separate VERTICALLY to make sure the load gets manageable. But for this we will need to recruit another 20 controllers.

[Joaquin Blanco]

All went well for me during KDEN-EGCC despite some minor issues switching from Montreal to the correct Moncton frequencies for Oceanic clearance, but Controllers did their best and finally got sorted , the real disappointment for me was that on final approach at EGCC the aircraft ahead of me didn't vacate the runway quickly enough and had to do a Go Around, but my PC decided to give up the ghost after 9.5 hours and frankly I thought it best not to reconnect, just too tired. Seems this event may well have been the most attended ever. Thanks to all involved in making this possible.

[Don Desfosse]

Here's one thought I'd offer up for the Oceanic guys. Plan and execute a very methodical "three-ish months before CTP" (i.e. July and early January, right after the holidays) recruiting, multiple cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]room training (e.g. get 10-15 students in a cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]room at the same time) and certification event for Oceanic, with the expectation that those folks would work CTP. You never know who you might get from where. For example, there are 90+ C1-and-above active rated controllers in the USA (and several hundred inactive that might appreciate the invitation to do something unique, even if they are not all that active these days). Twenty-five to thirty or so of those are required to man ATC stations in the USA. But what about extending a special invitation to the controllers from facilities that don't often host CTP (e.g. western and southern US, many of the other divisions/regions in the world) to train, certify, and work CTP. I can't imagine that in the hundreds of such controllers and instructors across the globe, we could not get another 10-20 to work Oceanic (and maybe also something similar for Moncton). Just a thought.

[Martijn Rammeloo]

- Is a C1 rating REALLY necessary to man Oceanic positions?

- Why not user more automation? I.e. instead of voice position reports, let the pilots do it via a web based form, directly into the VNAS tool. Thus, the controller Will have time to actually control...

 

As the amount of unbooked traffic seems to grow with every edition, at some point this event will become unsustainable

 

Martijn

[Andreas Fuchs]

We probably have to approach this event the way that we execute Worldflight™: bring in people from all over the world, bring down all formal barriers of regions, divisions and vARTCCs/vACCs. Forget the certifications, just do some training.