[June 10th] ZLA Presents California Screamin' XII

[Bryan Wollenberg 810243]

 

Pilots, get ready for some of the best flying in California, heck the entire West Coast! Were staffing up to the hilt to make your flight as 'real-as-it-gets.' Rather than creating large traffic flows into one or two fields, CalScream seeks to fill the skies with traffic going in many directions at once, and landing/departing at many different airports.

 

To help plan your flights, the developer of SimRoutes has created a site where you can signup knowing who's flying from different airports at different times, based on the real world flights. Push back from the gate at the same time as your real world counterpart, and enjoy the amazing scenery and ATC that the west coast has to offer.

 

In the past, this very event routinely smashed VATSIM all-time connections records, and brought the servers to their knees. Two days into the posting of the event, there are already almost 25 ZLA controllers signed-up, with some incredible staffing also coming from our neighbors to the north, ZOA.

 

 

Visit the official CalScream Flight Board <--link (sponsored by SimRoutes.com) for real world flights and flight briefings, or make up your own and join the fun!

 

www.laartcc.org for further details

[Bryan Wollenberg 810243]

Less than 12 hours away. 25+ ZLA controllers, and a ton of ZOA controllers...come make us work!

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

For those of you who don't know what CalScream is.. this is the 12'th time the event has been held since 2001. Here is a little description that Jeff Clark wrote about it way back:

 

WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN'?

 

Besides being online simulation's largest fly-in event, CalScream is unique because during the event, pilots and controllers re-enact the most accurate duplication of real-world flying seen. Rather than the unrealistic sight of having 300 planes in a single-file line going to one airport, where you follow one guy in front of you that you may not even see, we encourage a greater mix and spread of traffic. At CalScream, pilots fly from many medium to large airports in a smaller area, to other airports in the same area. When you fly, not only are there planes in front of you, but planes crossing right to left, above and below you - and traffic coming opposite direction. ATC will have to move you several times in your flight to miss other traffic, creating a far more realistic experience.

 

The best part of CalScream though is that for the four-hours of the flyin, we replicate virtually every flight that originates and ends in our airspace, with REALISTIC CALLSIGNS, and REALISTIC ROUTES, and realistic departure times. And we've taken all of YOUR hard work out of it - all you do is decide which of the 300 or so flights you'd like to fly, and you click on our route and download all the charts you need. So on the day of the event, with charts in hand, you'll be calling to pushback at the same exact time as a real-world pilot calling for his... You'll be departing at the same time as your real-world counterpart, and seeing the same traffic out the window as a real airline pilot would see. This is truly AS REAL AS IT GETS!

 

WHO'S COMING?

At California Screamin, we dependably get 300+ pilots who pre-book their flights and show up, and many hundreds more who just show up on the spur of the moment. While we have many VA's sign up for our events, don't feel like you have to belong to a particular VA to fly the routes of that airline - all flights are open to all comers.

 

HOW DO I CHOOSE A FLIGHT?

Go to the California Screamin' Website at http://www.SimRoutes.com/calscream . On the Cal'Scream page you can see a list of the flights avaialable, including those which are still 'available' and which need pilots to fly them. We'd prefer that you take these flights first as we will be providing ATC for all of those airports and routes at the flyin.

 

HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR A FLIGHT "LAST-MINUTE"

If you decide not to sign up for a flight now, you can sign-up for a flight at any time, even just 'minutes' from your flight's scheduled departure time. For example, if you finish your flight from San Francisco to LAX, and want to come back for more, go back to the flight board, which is continually updated. Find the next available flight, and start preparing for it.

 

WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO FLY ON ONE OF THE ROUTES YOU HAVE, BUT INSTEAD WANT TO FLY TO CALIFORNIA FROM XXX?

Well, sure, you can, but you probably won't have as much fun on the first part of your flight, as we can't promise staffing for that. Additionally, most of our work and attention will be spent on the fly-in flights going to and from the participating fields, so there may be a small delay if you want to do something out of the ordinary. We'll do our best to handle you though as we would in the real world, of course, but you'll have a more enjoyable experience if you don't. We're trying to create a great experience for you, where there will be lots of planes off to your right, off to your left, above and below you... If you would rather spend 8 hours flying over an empty ocean, well, that's ok too. Now, the only other thing for you to do is show up!!!!

 

See you there!!!

[Dylan Kay 974936]

10 hours.......countdown....

 

i just hope u guys down at ZLA take all the traffic lol

[Jeff Turner]

I love that logo.... GREAT job...

[Paul Byrne]

Yeah,

 

That's what happens to a ZLA controller when he comes to ZBW for the day.....

 

Before

and after...

 

Cheers!

Paul.

[Bryan Wollenberg 810243]

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everybody who flew the event today. It was awesome! Great bunch of pilots today, and VERY good too, no doubt.

 

Also wanted to thank ZOA for coming out in full force. You guys rocked up there!

 

Very glad to hear everyone enjoyed the event. If you enjoyed it, didn't enjoy it, have suggestions, we would love to hear from you.

[Dylan Kay 974936]

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everybody who flew the event today. It was awesome! Great bunch of pilots today, and VERY good too, no doubt.

 

Also wanted to thank ZOA for coming out in full force. You guys rocked up there!

 

Very glad to hear everyone enjoyed the event. If you enjoyed it, didn't enjoy it, have suggestions, we would love to hear from you.

 

One thing I have....from being a controller at ZOA. I wish you would have gotton ZOA more involved in the event. What I mean is that you guys didn't include many routes to sign up for for NORCAL, and if there were any, they were to SOCAL. The "CAL" in SO"CAL" is also part of NOR"CAL" (---"CAL"Scream). And I know the higher ups at ZOA have talked to you guys about it, but hey I just wanted to put my 2 cents in about it. I was pretty dissapointed to see that most of the sign-ups for the pilots were mostly SOCAL. I just wanted to add that. We can get it next time though......its not the end of the world.They were just simple miskakes i guess.

In the end it was a great event, and we still got loads of traffic. We need to do this again. I guess you can say we're a good team(our ARTCCs) when it comes to an event

Edited June 11, 2007 at 06:48 AM by Guest

[Brett Susnitzky 920596]

It was awesome! I flew out as Delta 1185 to PHOG, ground experience at LAX was amazing! Cant wait till next time,

Brett Susnitzky DAL1185

[Anthony Atkielski 985811]

Great flying for me yesterday. I managed several VFR and IFR flights in SoCal, with good weather and tons of traffic. I actually saw multiple aircraft out the window at times, and many of the airports were just as busy as they would be in real life. Oddly enough, with so many controllers online, you don't hear as much traffic on each frequency (compared to the usual VATSIM traffic when only one controller is doing everything), and yet the airspace is busier. It was the most realistic event I've been to thus far on VATSIM. I wish every weekend were like that!

 

I even had some delays getting off the ground on a few occasions—again, just like real life, when the airspace is crowded. It's nice to look around out the window and see aircraft parked in almost every direction.

 

Is this just a yearly event, or how often does it occur?

[Anthony Atkielski 985811]

One other thing I should mention: I saw that both NorCal and SoCal were staffed, but since the event was only five hours and it takes a long time to fix up a fly plan and fly a route, I didn't want to spend too much time on trips of longer duration (as KLAX-KSFO would be, in a Baron). I wanted to get as much terminal activity in as I could; I can fly for hours in a straight line any time, even without ATC, but landing and taking off is most fun when all positions are staffed.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Great flying for me yesterday. I managed several VFR and IFR flights in SoCal, with good weather and tons of traffic. I actually saw multiple aircraft out the window at times, and many of the airports were just as busy as they would be in real life. Oddly enough, with so many controllers online, you don't hear as much traffic on each frequency (compared to the usual VATSIM traffic when only one controller is doing everything), and yet the airspace is busier. It was the most realistic event I've been to thus far on VATSIM. I wish every weekend were like that!

 

I even had some delays getting off the ground on a few occasions—again, just like real life, when the airspace is crowded. It's nice to look around out the window and see aircraft parked in almost every direction.

 

Is this just a yearly event, or how often does it occur?

 

Good question.

 

We've tried making this an annual event, but there have just been times when everyone wants it, so it happens. So 7 years, 12 Calscreams! We may have even made this a bi-annual event. But it tends to happen around this time of the year, with another event following it up towards the end of summer. I'm more than sure that one will be as good as this one always is.

 

BL.

[Keith Smith]

We've been a little relaxed about doing events at ZLA in the past 18 months or so, but I think the ball is about to start rolling again. Anthony, you'll be pleased to know that the next event is likely to focus entirely on TEC routes within ZLA.

 

You're correct in that unless you see INSANE traffic levels, the density of radio traffic is not the same as a busy ZLA night with just CTR and a few TWR's staffed. The good news, though, is that ppl don't get frustrated waiting for 7 mins just to make a radio transmission

 

Keith

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

Cal Scream was great and really did justice to the original intention of simulating a day of criss crossing traffic all over California that was originally dreamed up by Jeff Clark back in 2001.

 

Here's a post that a pilot made after the first Cal Scream event, dug up from the old old old old old ZLA forum that Ernie Alston used to host (and pay) for ZLA. Thought it was fitting:

 

 

Posted by Werner Hauser on May 16, 2001 at 21:23:14:

 

All the leaves are brown , the leaves are brown

and the skies are grey, skies are grey

I've got to get to Saaaaan Francisco

for a better day, far from L.A.

 

Vectors to San Marcos, 80 miles away , away from L.A.

California Screamin, Cal Screamin, now onto Morro Bay, Morro Bay.

Now on to Morro Bay.

 

Watching traffic flow, watch them go ... it's a beautiful day.

California Screamin, Cal Screamin ... I'm finally on my wayyyyyyyy.

 

Far from San Francisco, on approach to the bay .. to the bay

I've got to get down to 10, o thousand or get vectored away .. vectored away.

California Screamin, Cal Screamin, enroute to the bay ... to the bay.

 

California Screamin, Cal Screaming, I'm finally on my wayyyyyyy.