Keith Smith Posted September 6, 2007 at 11:31 PM Posted September 6, 2007 at 11:31 PM I'm eager to see the how the new format pans out. Regardless of whether it's a success or failure, there are now 3 extra Friday night slots that have opened up for ARTCC's to host an event of any format they like, be it a conga-line-give-the-final-approach-controller-a-coronary type of event, or a multi destination feature. As has been mentioned, 3 ARTCC's jumped in and filled the void right away. VATUSA is giving the new event, AND the ARTCC-organized events equal billing on the calendar and pushing hard to get ppl to refer to the calendar as THE place to go to find out what's happening. This is a good thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Ridderhoff 873800 Posted September 6, 2007 at 11:55 PM Posted September 6, 2007 at 11:55 PM I'm eager to see the how the new format pans out. Keith, Gotta agree with you there... been out of the loop on the VATSIM world a bit, and as I read more about this new ATC Corridor event, I think it's a very interesting approach. I've never been a big fan of the unrealistic m[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ively-single-point events that have nearly been the de facto standard around these parts for awhile... even real-world controllers I've heard from seem to think that some of those focused traffic levels are a bit insane, at least for this venue where technology/skill limitations make ultra-precise air traffic flow nearly impossible. The simple fact is that if there's an event on the network even nearby your ARTCC, you'll see an organic traffic boost. Tomorrow night, for example: ZLC isn't featured in the ATC Corridor event, but I can betcha that ZLC (being close to ZDV) will pick up a lot more traffic due to the nearby activity with this new format -- ESPECIALLY if ZLC is staffed. I won't feel in the slightest like I'm detracting from event-related traffic by staffing up a neighboring ARTCC; on the contrary, I'm going to feel like I'm contributing to it by encouraging more folks to fly *from* my airports to those in the event corridor. So... I see it as an opportunity to increase my traffic (even though my airspace isn't specifically featured in the event) as well as the featured airspaces' traffic. I feel even better about this after last Friday's ZLA event. Far as I know, ZLC wasn't explicitly a part of that event, but because ZLC was online in a supporting role, there was plenty of traffic -- not only overflights into ZLA, but departures out of ZLC into ZLA and even intra-ARTCC traffic -- because of us being online. On top of that, it was a heck of a lot of fun! It's nice seeing steady (read: not nervewracking, but solid & steady) traffic in ZLC. All of that was organic traffic because we were online supporting another ARTCC's event. Sooo... just my thoughts. Oh, and to all those "if you staff it, they will come" doubters: I've been with ZLC for 4 years now. Events have always rewarded us with a nice bump in traffic for a few days after, maybe a couple weeks. And that's it. A few days/weeks p[Mod - Happy Thoughts], and traffic is back down to normal lackluster levels. However, the times when we've regularly and consistently had ZLC staffed up have been some of the most fun times I can remember in my VATSIM career because we had real, organic steady traffic levels for sustained periods of time, and we didn't have to "pay" for it by throwing a big party. I know that there will always be folks who say the only way to build traffic is to throw events, and I guess I'm just a stubborn opponent of that theory because all the evidence & experience I've seen says it just ain't so. There ya go: bonus thoughts at no extra charge. See ya on the scopes! /s/ Josh Ridderhoff ZLC Senior Controller Fly ZLC! | ZLC Pilot & Controller Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Doubleday Posted September 7, 2007 at 12:31 AM Posted September 7, 2007 at 12:31 AM I have no doubt that certain select FNO events will be more successful than others... (EX: ZLA, ZOA, ZAB - reason being all are highly popular and right next to each other). I think that Kevin's intent in posting this was to state this here - choose facilities next to each other for the event - it involves much greater use of LOAs and coordination between facilities than having them sprawled our across the nation. Having them far away from each other makes thing more difficult coordination-wise and more conga-line-like. We shall see what happens... but I would just ask VATUSA to consider this with regards to arrangement of future events. Thanks, Andrew James Doubleday | Twitch Stream: Ground_Point_Niner University of North Dakota | FAA Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) Graduate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Williams Posted September 8, 2007 at 07:47 AM Posted September 8, 2007 at 07:47 AM Lance Williams and I put together the very first TGIF event for VCAIR exclusively. It remained that way for a few months before other VA's joined in on it... TGIF became FNO. There you have it, straight from the source. TGIF, Friday Night Flying Circus, FNO, Yada Yada Yada... I've been watching these FNO threads with some interest since we did indeed begin TGIF when I was manning the helm at VCA. As you can see from the history of it, I let it get to my head and I eventually became an arrogant $#@!$#@, which led to its downfall. During my year away from VATSIM, I realized how childish, immature and just plain idiotic I truly was and to everyone reading this now who had to deal with me then, I offer you my sincerest apologies. Thankfully, Craig at AvA continued the Friday night events by creating the Friday Night Flying Circus. If memory serves, this is what really became the VATUSA FNO weekly event. Anyway, to make a long story longer (sorry, just getting up with coffee in hand), TGIF was eventually ended by the current staff at VCA. I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume this was done because it just didn't make since to run it in conjunction with FNO and they were probably better served partnering with VATUSA and FNO. Well, that's my "recollection" of the Friday night events, now on to the latest incarnation: Before I went to bed last night, I thought ServInfo looked fantastic! There was heavy amounts of traffic in Denver, Kansas City and Atlanta. Memphis wasn't doing so bad either and they should be thanked for coming on as they should have been officially invited in the first place by VATUSA. As a VATSIM pilot, I am looking forward to the future Friday Evening "ATC" events held by VATUSA. I think with some minor tweaking they will be as enjoyable as the previous FNO's were. Thank you, Lance W. Hundreds of Real-World Airlines and Routes for you to fly at www.ndbair.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Carlson Posted September 8, 2007 at 09:34 AM Posted September 8, 2007 at 09:34 AM Yeah, the traffic looked great when I checked servinfo around 10:30 eastern. A nice mix of traffic throughout several ARTCCs. I was unable to attend, but I'm looking forward to the next one. Welcome back to the forums, Lance. Developer: vPilot, VRC, vSTARS, vERAM, VAT-Spy Senior Controller, Boston Virtual ARTCC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Whitley 952478 Posted September 8, 2007 at 11:02 PM Posted September 8, 2007 at 11:02 PM I haven't seen any official numbers, but the new Air Traffic Corridor Event sure looked good to me. As far as I know, the servers held up, maybe due to the spread out traffic but it wasn't because the lack of traffic. From what we have seen, and the compliments we have received, looks like we may be on the road to something great every month. A special thanks to all who participated, and a very special thanks to the VATUSA staff for putting all of this together and making all of this happen. Don't forget to keep a close eye out on the new VATUSA Events page http://fno.vatusa.org/ for the tally of Frequent Flyer Points that were earned last night. The results should post automatically 24 hours after the event, somewhere around 0400 Saturday night. Once again, thanks to all Dennis WWW.VATUSA.NET Previous Management New ATC Click Here http://flightsimx.cyclops.amnesia.com.au/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Johnston 890281 Posted September 9, 2007 at 12:18 AM Posted September 9, 2007 at 12:18 AM I'm curious to see the numbers too. I was monitoring servinfo, and to me it looked like the numbers were really improportionate between ARTCC's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Ridderhoff 873800 Posted September 9, 2007 at 12:49 AM Posted September 9, 2007 at 12:49 AM Thought I'd throw in my impression as a neighboring ARTCC to all the fun last night. In short, looks like things went very well! I know I heard from a few controllers from involved ARTCCs who said they received less traffic at their particular facilities than on an actual "old FNO"-style event where a single facility was featured, but what I did notice is that there seemed to be a LOT of traffic spread out over the entire heartland. So, instead of having insane (for VATSIM) levels of traffic at one facility, there was heavy, solid traffic spread across multiple facilities (and a good half of the CONUS) for the entire evening. Even out here in ZLC we saw a significant bunch of traffic early in the evening through mid-evening. Had a pretty sluggish lull right around 9 o'clock Mountain Time for an hour or so, but I know I logged at least 2 hours on TRACON and almost 5 on CTR after that, and we definitely had some good traffic operations out here. Looks like lots of other non-featured facilities did, too. All in all, I'd have to say I'm darned impressed with the way things turned out: was a lot of fun, and I'd say that IMHO, the bulk of VATUSA benefitted from this event in some way or another. Good show! /s/ Josh Ridderhoff ZLC Senior Controller Fly ZLC! | ZLC Pilot & Controller Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Grchan 925585 Posted September 9, 2007 at 03:39 AM Posted September 9, 2007 at 03:39 AM I know I heard from a few controllers from involved ARTCCs who said they received less traffic at their particular facilities than on an actual "old FNO"-style event where a single facility was featured, but what I did notice is that there seemed to be a LOT of traffic spread out over the entire heartland. So basicly its like the USA without a FNO...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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