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FNO – VATUSA – Justin Lawrence


Dan Everette
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Dan Everette
Posted
Posted

The title of this post is all that needs to be said.

 

Over the past 15 years on this network, I’ve seen a lot of cool things. From highly choreographed events like the Boston Tea Party to Cross The Pond, the ability of the community to come together has often left me in awe. However, tonight that has elevated to leaving me speechless…

 

This evening’s FNO was “scheduled” until 0359z. I flew into PHX with a saturated center, and then did an uneventful turn out of PHX to ATL. On my way out of ABQ airspace, the event ended at 0359z. With over 60 aircraft still inbound (most coming from ZLA) to PHX, Justin Lawrence stepped up to the plate and [Mod - Happy Thoughts]umed the watch. He took over ALL of ABQ center, and PHX approach.

 

Things were rocky at first because of the sudden change as well as the m[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ive amount of responsibility that Mr. Lawrence just took on. He was absolutely phenomenal and worked the aircraft still looking to get into PHX with the utmost professionalism. After a while, pilots began to understand that this was an abnormal situation and things got tighter on frequency.

 

Given that his facility, Albuquerque, left him out to dry, Justin pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat, and managed a facility that needed over a dozen controllers, all by himself.

 

BRAVO ZULU!

 

And to Albuquerque Center…. Shame on you for leaving one of your controllers out to dry like that. If you’re unable to provide staffing on the fringe edges of the published times of an FNO, you have no business hosting an FNO. I hope you realize the credit that Justin Lawrence single handedly brought to your facility this evening.

-Dan Everette

CFI, CFII, MEI

Having the runway in sight just at TDZE + 100 is like Mom, Warm cookies and milk, and Christmas morning, all wrapped into one.

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Richard Jenkins
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Posted

Way to go, Justin!! Thanks for saving the night.

RJ

 

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  • Board of Governors
Don Desfosse
Posted
Posted

Justin Lawrence did an absolutely phenomenal job tonight, handling the several dozen aircraft he did. My hat is off to him for stepping up and accommodating the several dozen members that he did, [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uming multiple center and multiple TRACON sectors. Phenomenal! Outstanding! Many thanks also to Local, Justin Berendsen, and Ground, Chris Priest, for staying on as long as they did and handling the tremendous number of pilots that were still in the airspace and on the ground. Thank you so much for helping and serving so well the multitudes of VATSIM members!

Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations

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Romano Lara
Posted
Posted

BZ!

 

I flew in from DEN.

 

Props to Justin for handling everyone professionally, maintaining separation, and remaining cool all throughout!

Romano Lara
vACC Philippines, Manager - Training & Standards
04819c_4181f294a6c34b5aa4d8a82c0fb448c5~mv2.webp

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Alex Bresnick
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Posted (edited)

.

Edited by Alex Bresnick
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Andreas Fuchs
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Posted

What's the reason to control? To have lots of pilots populating your airspace. If you are the end of your ATC-booking or at the end of the official event ending time, will you just leave? Sure, some may have appointments, but everyone?

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  • 5 weeks later...
Alexandra Robison
Posted
Posted (edited)
Dan Everette 856101 said:
The title of this post is all that needs to be said.

 

Over the past 15 years on this network, I’ve seen a lot of cool things. From highly choreographed events like the Boston Tea Party to Cross The Pond, the ability of the community to come together has often left me in awe. However, tonight that has elevated to leaving me speechless…

 

This evening’s FNO was “scheduled” until 0359z. I flew into PHX with a saturated center, and then did an uneventful turn out of PHX to ATL. On my way out of ABQ airspace, the event ended at 0359z. With over 60 aircraft still inbound (most coming from ZLA) to PHX, Justin Lawrence stepped up to the plate and [Mod - Happy Thoughts]umed the watch. He took over ALL of ABQ center, and PHX approach.

 

Things were rocky at first because of the sudden change as well as the m[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ive amount of responsibility that Mr. Lawrence just took on. He was absolutely phenomenal and worked the aircraft still looking to get into PHX with the utmost professionalism. After a while, pilots began to understand that this was an abnormal situation and things got tighter on frequency.

 

Given that his facility, Albuquerque, left him out to dry, Justin pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat, and managed a facility that needed over a dozen controllers, all by himself.

 

BRAVO ZULU!

 

And to Albuquerque Center…. Shame on you for leaving one of your controllers out to dry like that. If you’re unable to provide staffing on the fringe edges of the published times of an FNO, you have no business hosting an FNO. I hope you realize the credit that Justin Lawrence single handedly brought to your facility this evening.

I rarely check the VATSIM forums, so this is the first I am seeing this.

 

First off, I thank you for the positive feedback for Mr. Lawrence. He is truly one of my best controllers.

 

That being said, I am quite appalled that you would choose to call out my entire ARTCC in public like this, not knowing any of what happened behind the scenes. It does not faze me to be given constructive criticism - quite the opposite, I welcome it, but this just feels really inappropriate to shame an entire ARTCC in a public forum without one bit of constructive feedback. If you would like to discuss this further, my inbox is always open ([email protected]).

 

Thank you again for your positive feedback for Justin.

 

Alex Bresnick 949351 said:
I wasn't there for that but I just also want to say Justin is amazing anytime he is online and deserves all the credit he gets.

 

That said, what is the point of publishing scheduled event times if people are going to crucify controllers, who are volunteering their time, when they leave at the scheduled time? If you're getting mad at a volunteer for not being on longer than the four hours they promised, does anything make you happy?

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

-Allie

Edited by Alexandra Robison
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