First time doing Cross the Land/Pond, tips and tricks...

[Thomas Michael]

Hello fellow good people of VATSIM,

I'm a regular user of VATSIM, but participating in Cross The Land event is first timer.

I was wondering, if there are some tips and tricks, advice, do's and don'ts...

Thanks

[Nestor Perez]

Rule #1: Enjoy and have fun. If you don't, then you're doing something wrong 🙂

Other than that, I think the rest is pretty straightforward: Make sure you know how to follow headings, altitude and speed restrictions, make sure you know how to fly holdings with your aircraft, ASK if you do not understand an instruction or if you are not too sure about it and AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE (this is VERY important with text pilots, but applies to everyone).

To be fair, I think that's about it in my opinion 🙃

[Suprojit Paul]

Be sure to read the pilot briefing and enjoy!

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Biggest thing with an event like this is to be ready to deviate from what you put into your FMC when asked to.  The route you program is the ideal route, laterally and vertically, but it may or may not end up being the one you fly.

• If you're asked to shortcut to a point later on in your planned route, know how to do that.
• If you're asked to start descending before your calculated TOD, know how to do that.
• If you're given a vector for traffic or for spacing or for weather and then need to re-join the route, know how to do both of those things.
• Note that you often won't be given your arrival runway until handed from Center to Approach (at least, not in the US), or at the very earliest, as you're nearing the Top of Descent.  If it's not the one you programmed into your FMC originally, know how to change it (or, know how to "leave it blank" and fill that part in once you're assigned it).
• Know where the "published holds" are along your route, and/or if instructed to enter a hold at one of those or somewhere else, know how to do it.

Those would be the biggies in my book.  I'm sure there are others with varying degrees of importance, but, those are the top five in my opinion.

Edited June 15, 2020 at 03:01 AM by Robert Shearman Jr

[Thomas Michael]

On 6/12/2020 at 3:03 PM, Nestor Perez said:

Rule #1: Enjoy and have fun. If you don't, then you're doing something wrong 🙂

Other than that, I think the rest is pretty straightforward: Make sure you know how to follow headings, altitude and speed restrictions, make sure you know how to fly holdings with your aircraft, ASK if you do not understand an instruction or if you are not too sure about it and AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE (this is VERY important with text pilots, but applies to everyone).

To be fair, I think that's about it in my opinion 🙃

Thanks and I did have fun! I even encountered an engine failure and was able to fix it.

On 6/12/2020 at 7:16 PM, Suprojit Paul said:

Be sure to read the pilot briefing and enjoy!

That was pretty damn important, thanks for that!

4 hours ago, Robert Shearman Jr said:

Biggest thing with an event like this is to be ready to deviate from what you put into your FMC when asked to.  The route you program is the ideal route, laterally and vertically, but it may or may not end up being the one you fly.

• If you're asked to shortcut to a point later on in your planned route, know how to do that.
• If you're asked to start descending before your calculated TOD, know how to do that.
• If you're given a vector for traffic or for spacing or for weather and then need to re-join the route, know how to do both of those things.
• Note that you often won't be given your arrival runway until handed from Center to Approach (at least, not in the US), or at the very earliest, as you're nearing the Top of Descent.  If it's not the one you programmed into your FMC originally, know how to change it (or, know how to "leave it blank" and fill that part in once you're assigned it).
• Know where the "published holds" are along your route, and/or if instructed to enter a hold at one of those or somewhere else, know how to do it.

Those would be the biggies in my book.  I'm sure there are others with varying degrees of importance, but, those are the top five in my opinion.

You couldn't be wrong, the amount of times I was instructed to DCT, climb/descend and hold is a lot. The FMC is quite a powerful weapon. Thanks for the tips 🙂

 

See you next year fellas

[Chriss Klosowski]

On 6/15/2020 at 12:53 PM, Thomas Michael said:

Thanks and I did have fun! I even encountered an engine failure and was able to fix it.

That was pretty damn important, thanks for that!

You couldn't be wrong, the amount of times I was instructed to DCT, climb/descend and hold is a lot. The FMC is quite a powerful weapon. Thanks for the tips 🙂

 

See you next year fellas

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for flying in from the planning team!