Superbowl PHX 2008 - Feedback

[Nicholas Bartolotta 912967]

Well...I've flown in the last three Superbowl events, and this has to be by far the best coordinated one! The entire trip from Denver to Phoenix seemed smooth. I was vectored all over the rockies, put in a hold before Phoenix, and spent about 15 minutes taxiing to the ramp at Phoenix, but even with all that, this event seemed to be as normal as a Monday night, the controllers were calm, collected, and kicking some serious [Mod - Happy Thoughts]! Every controller did an AMAZING job, it was quite spectacular.

[Ross Carlson]

I flew the same route as Nick (including the long taxi route at PHX!) and had a similar experience. The event was as smooth as could be. The controllers were obviously prepared for the traffic, and they made it look easy. Nicely done, ZAB!

[Ross Carlson]

Some screenshots of Nick, myself, and another flight in the hold:

 

http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?t=27584

[Garry Morris 920567]

hehe...that was ground when it was fairly tame.

 

I just wanted to thank all of the pilots who flew into/out of PHX this evening. Ya'll were great on ground, very patient, and followed instructions better than I have *ever* seen, even through controlling a few TGIFs and Friday Night Ops. (It probably helped that I spent the last few weeks listening to JFK ground *best of* feed recordings). When possible I was even sending some of you across to the other side of the airport for your real world terminals, and while that's normally a dicey proposition with folks, we had an incredibly high success rate!

 

Brilliant job pilots, I had so much fun dancing you all around each other on the ground. Wonderful work - everyone from the controllers to the pilots should feel proud of their participation in this event.

 

A special thanks goes to Collin for getting Delivery off of my hands. We definitely had a lot more departures than expected and he definitely made it possible for everything to run as well as it did at PHX.

[Harold Rutila 974112]

Nick, what was your callsign? I may have controlled you.

[Francisco Obregon 1004310]

sounds like it was fun, can't believe I missed it because of dumb Vista and all of the security features

[Nicholas Bartolotta 912967]

Nick, what was your callsign? I may have controlled you.

 

Amtran 6102 (AMT6102). It was funny, I was taking off from Denver as Ross (N722AC) was calling for taxi, and yet somehow, I ended up following HIM on the visual approach for 26 into Phoenix!

[Andreas Fuchs]

Did our famous VFR-pilot turn up?

[Garry Morris 920567]

hehe, if he did, he wasn't VFR.

 

I'll admit, I had a VFR pilot call up right after the end of the event (while the TFR was still in effect) that was yelling at me that I couldn't deny him VFR - I did check his name, not the person I thought it was. hehe

[Andreas Fuchs]

[Aggrey Ellis 964561]

I would have gone had I not foolishly decided to watch a video which required alot of decoding on my PC. Would have been a nice haul EGLL-KPHX. I got clearance from London Control ( which took like 15 mins) , PC Crashed, I got clearance again (after 10 mins), and departed an hour late. Then there was a CTD 6 hrs later

Edited February 3, 2008 at 05:09 PM by Guest

[Edward McCoy 904185]

hehe, if he did, he wasn't VFR.

 

I'll admit, I had a VFR pilot call up right after the end of the event (while the TFR was still in effect) that was yelling at me that I couldn't deny him VFR - I did check his name, not the person I thought it was. hehe

 

I have a feeling this is the same person that arrived in like a C172 while 4 a/c were lined up on the final he was to join! Also departed like CHD later to go straight in to PHX. Did it out of spite!

[Roger Curtiss]

I worked the event as a CTR controller and the advance planning, docomeentation and coordination that preceded it was a key to the success. All controllers knew what was expected of them so kudos to the ZAB team (Nate in particular) for putting the briefing material together.

 

My only suggestion for future events would be that a 5+ hour event is a long time to be dealing with high traffic levels. In events of over 4 hour planned duration if staffing levels allow it would be good to have shifts for many of the positions. In a CTR spot I had some slow times but it appeared the APP positions were under constant bombardment.

[Kyle Ramsey 810181]

 

My only suggestion for future events would be that a 5+ hour event is a long time to be dealing with high traffic levels. In events of over 4 hour planned duration if staffing levels allow it would be good to have shifts for many of the positions. In a CTR spot I had some slow times but it appeared the APP positions were under constant bombardment.

 

Sounds like one for the union steward.

[Rey Lopez 883899]

They get a lot of rest between controlling periods, look for some more ATC in zab in about mid-april.

[Michael Benson]

Hello,

 

Excellent event.

 

Controllers whom knew what they were doing and did it in a cool, laid back and calculated way.

 

Good job and thank you from BAW289.

[Alex Henni 974549]

It was a fantastic event! Hats off to all of the controllers.

[Camilo Bernal 893284]

I had the chance to fly from Tampa Last night to take a piece of the action. I'm glad the hours spend developing and coordinating all the details for this event delivered excellent results for you guys at Albuquerque.

 

Bravo Zulu gentlemen!

[Robert Fersch]

I flew as COA1243 from Newark arriving around 2110 MST. I was vectored North then West of Gallup as Denver did a great job sequencing us for the trip down the arrival which went smooth as silk with no delay.

 

I fly with aircraft labels turned off which came back to bite when handed off to the final controller. Mesmerized by the constant ATC chatter, I did a poor job preparing for the descent. I managed to fly the profile okay and was at 9K and 250 when handed off. A turn to 190, speed 170 and down to 6000 followed quickly with further to 3000.

 

"COA1243, traffiic an RJ 12 o'clock and 6 miles. Report in sight."

"COA1243 is looking." Yikes where is that traffic?

 

Then it got real messy! Still descending, trying to slow down, looking for traffic. I hear:

 

"COA1243, do you have that traffic?" "Negative, COA1243"

 

"Okay, COA1243 turn right heading 240." followed by a pointout of the airport. I see the airport but I'm still looking for the traffic and before I can report the field "Join the localizer." Uh, oohh! You mean the ILS that I should have tuned and the course I should have set 30 miles ago. Yeah that's the one. I'm now in a world of hurt, way behind the airplane and hoping nobody will notice.

 

Before I can enjoy that feeling, I hear:

 

"COA1243, turn right 260 you've flown through the localizer. Do you have the traffic?" Damn, he's still asking me about that TRAFFIC. So I look outside again. Nothing. Meanwhile I've failed to slow down, get the flaps out let alone lower the gear. I finally report the field in sight and am put out of my misery with a clearance for the visual 25L which is miraculously now right in front of my airplane.

 

Probably glad to be rid of me, the controller hands me to tower. Ah, the worst is over. Not so fast, you incompetent one. There's still more fallout from the pathetic lack of preparation. I'm about 6-8 miles out. Who really knows because I never did get the ILS tuned. Needl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] to say, I also had not tuned the standby freq to tower so as I fumble to tune Com1 a seeming endless stream of aircraft BEHIND ME start calling in. And these guys are good, not stepping on any transmissions but ready to key the mike as soon as comms are complete. Before I could get a transmission in, there were at least 3 aircraft behind me for 25L and 1 or 2 for 26 that had talked to tower.

 

Aviate, navigate, communicate went out the door. At this point it was: Communicate, communicate, I just want to communicate and I blurted out:

 

"COA1243 2 mile final for 25L." No response. Then a brief, truncated transmission from Tower, "Contine....ah, um..." I had the distinct impression Tower was saying to himself, Who the heck is this and where did he come from? Another airplane checks in and I'm now wobbling towards the runway. I'm not avaiating I'm focused on communicating. I try again not wanting to land without clearance. "COA1243 half mile final, 25L." Again, "COA1243, short final 25L" At last the blessed words I had been hoping to hear for the last few miserable minutes, "COA1243, winds 250@6, cleared to land 25L" Woo Hoo! I did it, I did it like a big boy!

 

By now I'm over the threshold at 50' lined up and looking good but the VASI had gone all red twice on the approach so now I'm going up riding a nice vertical oscillation from overcorrection. I cut the power, stall the aircraft and with the horn blaring DROP the airplane nicely onto 25L from about 30 feet. A couple of bounces later I have things well on hand on the rollout. Smooth!

 

Wow. What a mess I made of this arrival. I apologize to any controllers or pilots that were inconvenienced or upset by my performance. I know better. The preflight briefing by Nate even mentioned to expect the visual but prepare for the ILS. I didn't get it done. However, the Controller kept me and everyone else safe with barely a ripple in the flow as far as I could tell.

 

ALL the controllers including the supporting centers did one amazing job. Unlike me, they were well prepared and it paid off for us aviators. Thanks for a fun event and all your hard work.

 

While being vectored last night, I happened to look out the left window to see an aircraft glide by me. It was COA1408, I think, which I had been following. He had been turned back towards Gallup and was 2000 below and about 2 miles. I could just see his port navigation light. Beautiful and very real. I ferevently hope the technical team will someday be able to enhance the visual recognition of aircraft beyond it's present limits of 2 miles or so. This would enable us to spot aircraft without those labels thus increasing the immersion tremendously.

 

If only I could have spotted that traffic..... I would have nailed that approach!

[Roger Curtiss]

"They get a lot of rest between controlling periods, look for some more ATC in zab in about mid-april"

 

I was thinking not about ZAB specifically but as a general guideline for any large events.