[2nd April 2022] Cross the Pond Westbound - Discussion Thread

[Nick Marinov]

Hi all! Our staff teams have gathered to put the finishing touches to make sure everything goes flawlessly tomorrow. As we finish our preparations, we thought it would be nice to share some of our top tips on how to prepare best in the hours remaining to the big day!

Below are some of the things we recommend being used to, to ensure you have a smooth and enjoyable experience tomorrow:
- Make sure you connect enough time before your slot to allow sufficient time for setup, pushback and taxi. Estimate times for this can be found in the pilot briefs on your pilot dashboard. Please be ready to push (tug connected) when you ask ATC for pushback clearance. Remember - your slot is your take off time
- Make sure your aircraft is capable of and you are familiar on how to:
   * Fly the entire routing, this includes the oceanic track system.
   * Give estimated times on waypoints along your route.
   * Fly a constant Mach number.
   * Setup and fly a hold.
   * Does not have an auto-step climb feature enabled.
- Once you have connected and are flying do not use time acceleration and pausing, this will disrupt our planned timings for each route.
- Be patient with all our ATC, especially during the oceanic segment!
- Make sure you have charts for your departure and arrival airports. You can find charts for free by logging in with your VATSIM account at https://chartfox.org/
- We also recommend you have the latest AIRAC (2203). If not, please advise controllers at your departure airport and your arrival sector in a timely manner and they will do their best to accommodate the differences.

Finally! Make sure you enjoy yourself this is a special event and we cannot wait to see you all tomorrow.

Stay up to date throughout the event on our Discord: https://ctp.vatsim.net/discord Twitter: @VATSIMCTP and https://fb.me/vatsimctp

Interact with us using the hashtag #CTP22W (edited)
 

[Jeffry Babb]

HI,

I have some friendly feedback.  I won the lottery this time and selected a slot.  However, I failed to return in time to confirm the slot.  Would you please consider sending an email notice reminder when the confirmation time opens in the future?  Because I did not confirm, I fear I won't make a future lotttery either.

Thank you.

[Kieran Hardern]

4 minutes ago, Jeffry Babb said:

HI,

I have some friendly feedback.  I won the lottery this time and selected a slot.  However, I failed to return in time to confirm the slot.  Would you please consider sending an email notice reminder when the confirmation time opens in the future?  Because I did not confirm, I fear I won't make a future lotttery either.

Thank you.

We actually did send out a reminder email at 48 hours before the end of the confirmation window. Of course mass emails are never 100% successful at getting to everyone, but that is something we did for fear of people forgetting.

[Kieran Hardern]

A reminder to everyone, we politely request that you don't fly across the ocean during the event hours tomorrow (roughly 1100-1900 UTC). This year we managed to increase the number of slots and so there were some left that people had dropped in the days leading up to the event. We therefore hope/assume that everyone who wants to participate was able to.

The reason we ask you not to fly is the sheer amount of work it takes to facilitate the event and the added workload on top of trying to fit unplanned traffic in. If fewer people tried to fly non-event each year, we would be able to offer more slots and airport combinations.

However, if you choose to ignore this request, please be aware of the following:

Flying Eastbound

If you fly eastbound from North America during those times, here are 2 tracks you can fly to to stay out of the way of the westbound traffic. Be aware that we may pass you to unicom as you enter the ocean.

Track X2: IRLOK 56N055W 58N050W 59N040W 59N030W 59N020W 59N015W ADODO

Track X3: RELIC 46N050W 48N040W 49N030W 49N020W BEDRA

You may well be subject to a delay on the ground depending on where you are trying to get out of. They will require you to re-route to these 2 tracks, so please plan for them from the start.

Flying Westbound

For this, you will be subject to delays as we have to meter traffic to prevent massive holding. If you load up with a route on the ground, the flow control team will slot you in and will definitely re-route you to fit in with our oceanic track structure. Therefore expect a delay (measured in hours) and expect a new route that you can then plan with whilst you wait.

Again, we request you don't fly.

[Jeffry Babb]

1 hour ago, Kieran Hardern said:

We actually did send out a reminder email at 48 hours before the end of the confirmation window. Of course mass emails are never 100% successful at getting to everyone, but that is something we did for fear of people forgetting.

Thanks, I guess it missed me.  Any last-minute slots left? 🙂

[Angel Medina López]

Ok, thank you Nick.

Have a good flight everyone

[Brent Conklin]

I confirmed my slot for LOWW-KPHL and did not receive routing and the link to view booking is broken. I fear a glitch has resulted in me loosing my slot. Can someone have a look? 1449682

[Nick Marinov]

13 minutes ago, Brent Conklin said:

I confirmed my slot for LOWW-KPHL and did not receive routing and the link to view booking is broken. I fear a glitch has resulted in me loosing my slot. Can someone have a look? 1449682

Our logs show that you released your booking at 2022-04-01 7:08:32 AM (zulu)

[Brent Conklin]

17 minutes ago, Nick Marinov said:

Our logs show that you released your booking at 2022-04-01 7:08:32 AM (zulu)

I think the website glitched out and dumped it 😞

[Kieran Hardern]

We are coming to the close of another Cross the Pond event. On behalf of the Planning & Event Team, I’d like to thank everyone for their participation. We hope you’ve all managed to enjoy the day.

In 2019 the network achieved 3111 connections during Cross the Pond. At this time it may be fair to describe the event as ‘organised’ but ‘overloaded’, with peaks of traffic leading to very pressured ATC frequencies. For those that remember the ‘old’ CTP, I hope you have seen a transition in the last 2-3 years. This event we offered more than 1300 slots to pilots - more than ever before. Because of our planning and requesting that you don’t fly without a slot, we are able to offer more event slots and have over 2500 simultaneous member connections to the network. Our aim is very much to optimise the airspace we have available to interact with as many of you as possible.

The organisation required behind the scenes for this event is colossal. In the weeks leading up to the event it’s not uncommon for facility staff and planners asking ourselves “Why do we do this?”. In the week before the event, I’m often buried so deep in spreadsheets, diagrams, and programs that I can’t answer that myself. I’m reminded when I look at the ocean on the day of the event. Thousands of people around the world connect to fly in unison from one side of the pond to the other, or to facilitate the flights of dozens of total strangers. That’s such an unusual event for an online simulation/gaming organisation to have thousands working together. No matter where we are in the world, or what is happening in the world we join together as members of VATSIM. There are few moments in the year where this happens and our team is proud to bring this event to completion every time.

Our thanks go to the facility staff, route planners, flow coordinators, software developers, Supervisors, controllers, marketing teams, document writers, server engineers, content experts, graphic designers, controllers and dedicated pilots that make this event what it is.

Please take the time to fill our our pilot or controller feedback forms if you joined us today:

Pilot: https://forms.gle/Mb95bFZXk7V49poF8
Controller: https://forms.gle/SEQ2HfttTPJTkFSd8