Cross the Desert 2016

October 22nd marked the annual “Cross the Pond” event for thousands of VATSIM users anxious to participate in one of the most popular events hosted for virtual flight sim pilots.  October simulates “eastbound” trips across the Atlantic and this year’s departure airports included Miami, Dallas Fort-Worth, Boston, and JFK with European arrivals into Heathrow, Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Zurich.  If you’re new to the event, the booking date and time is announced and thousands of computer pilots hover over their computers, repeatedly pushing the “F5” or refresh keys on their keyboards hoping to pick their favorite departure and arrival airports.  I was one of those wannabe pilots, chatting it up with fellow Nutters on Teamspeak as the system crashed.  Unfortunately, problems plagued the booking system which prevented me from booking a slot.  The CTP planners announced a new booking date the following day but real world work commitments came into play and alas, they were all gone by the time I got home.  Fortunately, “Plan B” was discussed and this year, a few of us would participate in our event dubbed “Cross the Desert.”  Or for some, Cross the Dessert :-)

One Nutter was able to book a slot out of JFK with an arrival into Zurich, Switzerland and a few of us would depart Dubai with an arrival into Zurich.  In true Nutter fashion, the “what time is it where you are” started across Teamspeak but I wouldn’t expect anything less.  Yes, it was early but not too bad this year.  I awoke at 0530 local for the west coast of the U.S. and some were just completing a warm-up flight from Gatwick, U.K. into Valencia, Spain.   The Easy Jet pilots landed, and quickly re-configured their respective 777’s at Dubai.  Emirates and Swiss Air 777’s occupied a few gates and the chaos was already in full swing at the U.S. departure airfields.  Delays over an hour were common at the respective fields and we jokingly said that everything was nice and quiet on 122.800 at Dubai.  The departure briefing went nicely and before we knew it, members from VATSIM Middle East began to fill the ATC positions at Dubai.  We had ground up to departure for the beginning of our trip across the desert, heading north to Zurich.  

  

Twitch was live with multiple streams showing the lines of aircraft waiting to depart for Europe and Facebook was also filling up with screenshots of the airfields and VATSPY.  Zoom-in too close at JFK with VATSPY and you were greeted with a .net error and VATSPY would crash.  The VATSIM servers were being tested once again as we had a nice and relaxing departure out of OMDB without the normal chaos and delays.

We departed 30R via the NADIL 2F departure and we quickly climbed into the evening sky toward FL360.  Unfortunately, the entire flight would take place during the hours of darkness but when flying into a large event area, it is important to keep Zulu times synced for planning the arrival.  The remainder of the trip into Europe would be without ATC and the Teamspeak server was filled with the normal chit chat, jabs, and inappropriate comments as we continued to monitor the situation across the pond.  I don’t have any statistics but this year’s CTP event seemed busier than ever and it was actually nice not having to fight for radio time, trying to provide position reports.  One of our resident controllers with VATSIM Scandinavia kept us company between shifts on oceanic clearance.

As we reached the six hour mark, we began to plan our descent into Zurich or LSZH airport.  It appeared we were going to be lucky with our time into LSZH since the virtual skies were not too crowded and we were hoping not to have to endure holds.  We encountered a headwind during the end of the trip and reserve fuel was beginning to decrease and a hold was the last thing I wanted to deal with.  In fact, some pilots into EGLL were experiencing hour long holds while trying to land at Heathrow and both runways were being used to accommodate arrivals.  I’m sure OOM’s or out of memory errors claimed the lives of some virtual pilots but there was a steady flow into the U.K.

The ATIS reported calm winds with some fog and Zurich was landing RWY 34 for the arrival.  The NEGRA 1A arrival was entered into the FMC with an ILS approach into RWY 34 via the AMIKI34 transition.  I was the last aircraft down and the wonderful controllers at vACC Switzerland had a firm handle on the situation and brought the arrivals into the airspace in an  organized fashion with no landing delays.  As was expected, each of us was vectored onto the final approach path and as I turned final, the low level fog appeared which did not hamper operations.  The airfield was visible throughout the approach and I was quickly down and exiting 34 to the right at E3.  I was quickly handed off to Zurich Apron control and a short taxi to stand E52 greeted me with the other Nutters who had already landed and parked at the “heavy” gates. 

 

Another Nutter flight had come to an end and it really was an enjoyable flight.  Most of us have participated in the various Cross the Pond Events as well as Cross Eurasia but this time, it was nice not to have to deal with the normal chaos.  And to that, I would like to take the opportunity to salute all of the controllers who participated in the event from start to finish.  Take the opportunity to leave feedback for the controllers since I know it makes them feel appreciated and without their support, events like this would never happen.  I was also glad to see the high level of participation because these type of events prove that flight simming is alive and well and hopefully, it will only get better as developers continue to push the limits of aircraft and scenery development.  The future is bright fellow aviators…….

Software Used:

FSX with Direct X 10 enabled via the Direct X 10 fixer

Active Sky 2016 with Active Sky Cloud Art

REX Texture Direct

FlyTampa Dubai

FS DreamTeam Zurich

FS DreamTeam GSX ground services

Orbx Global and openLC Europe/Vector

PMDG 777-300ER

PMDG 777 Fs2Crew Voice Control

Vpilot VATSIM client