Could we get a vote??

[Alex Bailey 969331]

A survey was already conducted, do a search. Karen posted it for all to see somewhere, it was also emailed.

 

RJ may want to keep an eye on this one also.

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

Alex its freedom of speech

[Luke Kolin]

Alex its freedom of speech

 

VATSIM is a private entity.

 

Luke

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

whats up with your signature??

[Ross Carlson]

whats up with your signature??

 

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to ask about Luke's sig ...

[Andrew Doubleday]

I noticed it the other day... also do not understand it.

 

 

AD

[Wayne Conrad 989233]

... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to interrupt and kill.

This is a Unix programmer joke. When a Unix program causes another process to run, it "spawns a child." A daemon process is one unattached to its parent or to a terminal (a "background process," in Windows terms). "Interrupt" and "Kill" are signals one can send a Unix process. Yes, programmers talk funny.

[Brad Littlejohn]

... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to interrupt and kill.

This is a Unix programmer joke. When a Unix program causes another process to run, it "spawns a child." A daemon process is one unattached to its parent or to a terminal (a "background process," in Windows terms). "Interrupt" and "Kill" are signals one can send a Unix process. Yes, programmers talk funny.

 

But unfortunately some of our children turn into zombies. Then unless you have a good buffy, outside of bouncing the box, they can't be killed.

 

BL.

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

hmm i was thinking of a trojan virus

[John Moore 861191]

As a Virtual Pilot for over 7 years and have flown in many FNO's I can understand your pain with loosing the FNO every week. I have been a Controller for over 2 years and am currently the Events Coordinator for Indianapolis ARTCC. I have only helt that position for a few months and have already had a minimum of 8 Evnets, some of which have been sponsored by different Virtual Airlines. But, I have had 2 major ARTCC Events and have seen our Regional night grow from only a dozen or so planes to nearly 100. I have found that the secret to a successfull Regional night is to highlight a Facility, or multible ones and give it a purpose and advertise it on the Vatusa calendar. For example, I used my first regional night as EC as a Memorial Fly-in to Lexington Kentuckey in honor of those who parished in Comair Flight 5191. It was a huge success. We held a ARTCC Event called OSU Kickoff, a fly in to Port Columbus and KOSU, my first major event as EC. It was targeted to Ohio State Fans but drew pilots from all over just becvause it looked like a cool event to fly in. The point I am trying to make is give the ARTCC's a chance. What Karen is trying to implement is a great idea. It will just take some time to evolve. I plan on having at least 2 ARTCC events a month in Indianapolis airspace. Keep checking the calendar for our next big joint event with Atlanta this month, to be posted soon. Thanks all for giving me tthe opertunity to express MY opinion.

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

Excellent in explaining it too

[John Moore 861191]

Thanks Ryan!!!

[Aaron Barclay 878822]

ZAU's doing it's part for FNO. We have an FNO style event on November 16th. Gonna be big, fully staffed and great ATC. Starts at 2300Z and goes till we can't take no more! ALL PILOTS WELCOME!!! Hope to see you there.....and the real FNO brouht back

 

Would the real FNO, please stand up!

[Andrew Doubleday]

I'm still not entirely impressed with what I've seen thus far with this new event.

 

I've participated in one, [Mod - Happy Thoughts]isting for ZAB at the P50 TRACON during the ZAB/ZOA/ZLA trio. ZLA, of course, saw the brunt of the traffic. I can recall working maybe 10-15 aircraft total that night (4 hour session give or take) - hardly worth the time for a controller.

 

The one last weekend looked alright (ZDC/ZNY/ZBW) again, three facilities fairly close to each other, makes it more concentrated. I wasn't [Mod - Happy Thoughts]isting anyone this month, but worked Chicago Center for the evening and had a fair amount of departures to the region. I can't speak for the rest of those who controlled out there this past week, but I understand the late posting of airports created a bit of a problem and some facilities didn't see much traffic at all.

 

I'm weary of the one involving us, ZAU, next month... ZFW/ZHU/ZAU trio... I can't see this one being too successful. I could understand better if it were potentially ZAU/ZID/ZOB, or something more concentrated on the region, but ZAU is kind of out in the middle of nowhere for this coming month - all I'm expecting is a conga line traffic flow from IAH/DFW to ORD on the Bradford 5 arrival (BDF5)... and potentially some departures to the south over RBS VOR (again - conga line style - which I thought was what we were supposed to be eliminating). We'll see how it turns out when the time comes, but I'm not to confident thats going to be very enjoyable for us at ZAU.

 

My thoughts on this new event - concentrate it more on a specific region (not all across the country) - maybe even try holding it between just two facilities instead of three focus facilities. To me, I just don't see it being very enjoyable from a controller standpoint thus far. Others I've talked with who have worked these events have expressed their same feelings/concerns.

 

I miss the FNO style events now and then. Hence the reason ZAU is hosting an event next Friday (The Turkey Trot) which is FNO style into ORD/MDW, but I have no idea yet if it will draw the traffic numbers. For all we know, another facility could already be planning a major event that same night which will divide the traffic and make it a traffic battle - I do not care for this free-for-all events scheduling ordeal - I'll be honest with that.

 

I'll also admit I'm a traffic chaser - I like to be insanely busy on frequency with a ton to focus on - maybe the majority of controllers don't like this much (which is part of the reason why the ATC event is divided over three facilities). To me its a rush sequencing a final approach course at ORD when you've got hundreds of inbounds. Closing the gaps and compressing the final - Thats what I live for... that rush I experience when I'm able to do that successfully. With the current setup - those numbers FNO brought to facilities just doesn't seem to exist anymore. I miss that for us at Chicago at times... I understand the pilots prefer a mix of long and short haul flights, but ZAU/ZHU/ZFW - just seems like it could have been better selected than this. Thats my two cents.

 

 

Regards,

 

AJ

[Matthew Bartels]

Let's get the official Turkey Trot Banner up in here!

[Matthew Jordan 919403]

I agree with you Andrew. I'm the same way. But you also gotta think, you guys get traffic on a daily basis. The same with new york and zla, but down here in zhu, traffic gets sp[Mod - Happy Thoughts] at moments and for me, that traffic that the events bring is good. Like said before, I wish it was more of a concentrated region. Yes i know we have regional nights, but those events are starting to go down the drain. A route like IAH- ORD- DFW is too widespread. For most i think, people like to fly the shorter legs. So it seems like ORD would just be out of the picture.

 

So with that being said here's my recomendations....

 

keep with the once a month ordeal but "FNO" style routings, like the other night.

 

Just my $.02USD

 

Matt Jordan

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

How about one ARTCC? and only one? Like some of us said earlier....we would rather have one airport staffed than 3 ARTCC's all spread out... Alot of the people that oppose the idea think that we complain too much and the pilots need to send in FNO requests....I can tell you that there is a BIG GIANT difference when a pilot reqeust's ATC and VATUSA telling the ARTCC that its there turn to host FNO.. To all the Staff at a ARTCC currently (i understand that you guys plan the event and request to be the host of FNO)

 

Just my .000000000000001 USDA Cents

PS: that coin dosnt exist

[Bryan Wollenberg 810243]

Hmmmmmmm...you guys and your official banners. I'm jealous.

 

ZLA is also holding another FNO-style fly-in into LAS on November 30. No official banner yet, but plenty of controllers, and plenty of traffic.

[Rey Lopez 883899]

I can think of a good one here...Some pilots will do better with less traffic. You know controllers hate the noobs that are more than sporadic during these events and some pilots could use less traffic due to comp specs what not.

[Ryan Gardner 930755]

Bryan,

 

Make sure you let us know at ZLC the times and such so we can staff accordingly as well. Sounds like it will be fun.

 

Ryan Gardner

ZLC

http://forum.slcartcc.org/

www.slcartcc.net

[Bryan Wollenberg 810243]

Sure thing Ryan. It's over on the main VATUSA calendar (with the times), but I'll certainly shoot you guys an e-mail very soon as well. Looking forward to it!