Don Desfosse

As we come screaming into this hectic, yet hopefully very soon a very peaceful season, I'd like to share with you an old aviation tome that puts a smile onto my face every year when I get to read it. You have my sincerest and best wishes for a very safe, healthy, blessed and happy holiday season! A retelling of the 19th-century story, especially for aviators. This has been floating around the Internet for years in various forms -- and probably was passed around as photocopies for years before that. 'Twas the night before Christmas, and out on the ramp, Not an airplane was stirring, not even a Champ. The aircraft were fastened to tie downs with care, In hopes that -- come morning -- they all would be there. The fuel trucks were nestled, all snug in their spots, With gusts from two-forty at 39 knots. I slumped at the fuel desk, now finally caught up, And settled down comfortably, resting my butt. When the radio lit up with noise and with chatter, I turned up the scanner to see what was the matter. A voice clearly heard over static and snow, Called for clearance to land at the airport below. He barked his transmission so lively and quick, I'd have sworn that the call sign he used was "St. Nick." I ran to the panel to turn up the lights, The better to welcome this magical flight. He called his position, no room for denial, "St. Nicholas One, turnin' left onto final." And what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a Rutan-built sleigh, with eight Rotax Reindeer! With vectors to final, down the glideslope he came, As he passed all fixes, he called them by name: "Now Ringo! Now Tolga! Now Trini and Bacun! On Comet! On Cupid!" What pills was he takin'? While controllers were sittin', and scratchin' their heads, They phoned to my office, and I heard it with dread, The message they left was both urgent and dour: "When Santa pulls in, have him please call the tower." He landed like silk, with the sled runners sparking, Then I heard, "Left at Charlie," and "Taxi to parking." He slowed to a taxi, turned off of three-oh, And stopped on the ramp with a "Ho, ho-ho-ho..." He stepped out of the sleigh, but before he could talk, I ran out to meet him with my best set of chocks. His red helmet and goggles were covered with frost, And his beard was all blackened from Reindeer exhaust. His breath smelled like peppermint, gone slightly stale, And he puffed on a pipe, but he didn't inhale. His cheeks were all rosy and jiggled like jelly, His boots were as black as a cropduster's belly. He was chubby and plump, in his suit of bright red, And he asked me to "fill it, with hundred low-lead." He came dashing in from the snow-covered pump, I knew he was anxious for drainin' the sump. I spoke not a word, but went straight to my work, And I filled up the sleigh, but I spilled like a jerk. He came out of the restroom, and sighed in relief, Then he picked up a phone for a Flight Service brief. And I thought as he silently scribed in his log, These reindeer could land in an eighth-mile fog. He completed his pre-flight, from the front to the rear, Then he put on his headset, and I heard him yell, "Clear!" And laying a finger on his push-to-talk, He called up the tower for clearance and squawk. "Take taxiway Charlie, the southbound direction, Turn right three-two-zero at pilot's discretion" He sped down the runway, the best of the best, "Your traffic's a Grumman, inbound from the west." Then I heard him proclaim, as he climbed thru the night, "Merry Christmas to all! I have traffic in sight."

For those of you who celebrate it as a holiday, and also for those that don't, I'd like us all to take a moment to give thanks. I'd like to give thanks... ... to our families ... to those that keep us safe from harm's way ... for being as fortunate as we are. If we have a computer and high speed internet access, we are doing so much better than so many in this world who struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. ... for those that share peace and love in this world ... for those that have brought, and continue to bring us VATSIM, free of charge ... for being part of such a wonderful team as we have at ZBW. We ebb and flow, and get stronger and weaker over time (just like ourselves, eh?), but we are made up of a great group of people and come together as a strong and wonderful family. May we all be thankful, grateful, loving and sharing, and may we all have a safe, healthy and Happy Thanksgiving. Don Desfosse Air Traffic Manager Boston ARTCC

Please join me in welcoming (back) Gary Millsaps (MS) to the Facility Engineer role at ZBW. Gary had once served as the ZBW FE in 2007 while on the road to being destined for great things as VATUSA1. We're glad to have him home once again, an experienced hand to lead, manage and guide our facilities from a technical standpoint. Gary's focus is everything technical -- sector files, POF files, infrastructure, etc. Gary, welcome home, thanks for stepping up, and we look forward to great things.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Michael Detmold (DD) [s:227tx65i]believed my lies[/s:227tx65i] [s:227tx65i]took the bait[/s:227tx65i] has graciously accepted a new assignment as ZBW's newest Training Administrator. Michael has been instructing here since the beginning of the year, was a Mentor prior to that, and is tremendously knowledgeable about ZBW and its operations. Please join me in welcoming Michael into his new role.

Note: All controllers can make updates (if you feel comfortable editing text files) directly into your VRC and/or ASRC profile files, as well as the bostonpof.txt file (that comes with the sector pack). Suggest for safety's sake that you search/replace one at a time, though if you're adventurous (and I think there's very low risk!) you can global search and replace 120.6 with 127.2.

The A90 Plymouth sector frequency (also commonly known as Boston South sector for us) has changed from 120.60 to 127.20, and Rockport is now the default when they're combined. We will follow suit, effective immediately. I have confirmed with the adjoining facilities that this should not be an issue to their operations. That said, please let me know immediately if you encounter or become aware of any issues. We will work to follow up with all of our documentation, though that may take a few weeks. So, in a nutshell: When there is one BOS APP on, it should be using 118.250 When we're split N/S, N should be on 118.250, and S should be on 127.200

Team ZBW, First, I'd like to thank Paul Byrne (PB) for all of his hard work and outstanding results as Air Traffic Manager at the Boston ARTCC. Paul upheld a long, proud tradition of excellence in this facility, one which each and every one of us must strive to uphold going forward. May retirement treat you well, may the wind always be at your back, and may you never be a stranger here. We don't care that you hang your hat in Dublin; Boston is still your home. I am thrilled, privileged, humbled and honored to announce that I have been selected to serve you as Boston's newest Air Traffic Manager. I am also thrilled that Jeffrey Marques (AA) is happy to stay on in his role as DATM. My goals are simple, and ones that you have heard before. I want to maintain, and grow, Boston's fine tradition of excellence. We maintain our reputation by providing exceptional quality service, every day. We grow it by providing more of it -- vast amounts more of it. My dream is to double our online presence in the next 6-9 months. We can do that through increased training, increased availability, and increased teamwork. One of our hallmarks is our ability to have fun here at ZBW, and another is our ability to have fun working together as a team. The annual Tea Party event reinforces that for me every year. May we all rise to the challenge, get on and control more, do something every day to improve our skills, and maintain and grow our presence as one of the hallmark ARTCCs within VATUSA, and on the entire network. Thank you all for the opportunity to serve you and to help our team excel! Don Desfosse (DO) Air Traffic Manager Boston ARTCC

We tell our students that there's no need to post test corrections when they've earned a 100% test score, but it's good to recognize excellence in our midst! Don Desfosse (DO) VATUSA Senior Student (S3) 10 Jan 2008 Clif Whitten (WN) VATUSA Student (S1) 04 Feb 2009 Matthew Spencer (SP) ZBW Advanced Approach 03 Dec 2009 Mike Willey (WY) VATUSA S1 06 Feb 2010 Matt Spencer (SP) VATUSA C1 23 Mar 2010 Mike Willey (WY) ZBW Local 23 Mar 2010 Dhruv Kalra (DK) ZBW SOP 19 Apr 2010 Clif Whitten (WN) ZBW Advanced DEL/GND 15 Oct 2010 Ryan Geckler (GR) ZBW SOP 13 Nov 2011 Michael Dugan (DA) ZBW Advanced DEL/GND 21 Nov 2012 Philip Katz (KZ) ZBW DEL/GND 04 Jul 2013 Phillip Katz (KZ) VATUSA S1 22 Jul 2013 Camden Bruno (BN) VATUSA S1 18 Nov 2013 Camden Bruno (BN) VATUSA S3 22 Mar 2014 Clifton Whitten (WN) VATUSA S3 14 Jun 2014 Erik Partridge (PG) VATUSA C1 05 Oct 2014 Nathan Oines (NO) ZBW DEL/GND 12 Dec 2014 Jeremy Valentine (VE) ZBW DEL/GND 09 Jun 2015 Jeremy Valentine (VE) VATUSA S1 02 Jul 2015 Jeremy Valentine (VE) VATUSA S2 02 Jul 2015 Evan Reiter (RT) VATUSA S1 15 Jul 2015 Brandon Bergna (BG) ZBW APP 17 Dec 2015 Arvid Hansson (HO) ADV Local 29 Jan 2016 Alec Liberman (LN) VATUSA C1 9 Aug 2016 Benjamin Dudley (DL) DEL/GND 31 Aug 2016 Benjamin Dudley (DL) ADV DEL/GND 14 Oct 2016 Hunter Logan (LG) SOP 4 Nov 2016 Szymon Puzdrowski (PI) SOP 29 Nov 2016 Benjamin Dudley (DL) VATUSA S2 9 Jan 2017 William Guisbond (GD) SOP 6 Mar 2017 Austin Cirulli (RQ) DEL/GND 29 Apr 2017 Austin Cirulli (RQ) TWR 5 Aug 2017 Hao Peng (PH) ADV DEL/GND 12 Aug 2017 Austin Cirulli (RQ) VATUSA S2 3 Sept 2017 Jonathan Halverson (HS) ADV DEL/GND 19 Sept 2017 Christopher Knapczyk (KC) SOP and DEL/GND 23 Dec 2017 Daniel Everman (DE) Center 3 April 2018 Jonathan Halverson (HS) VATUSA S2 4 April 208 Thomas Freedman (FN) DEL/GND 11 May 2018 Gary Coldiron (CR) DEL/GND 11 May 2018 Josh Nunn (NU) Tower 13 May 2018 Scott Fausel (FL) SOP 14 May 2018 Zachary Watts (WS) SOP 22 May 2018 Nathan Rankin (RI) DEL/GND 25 May 2018 Scott Fausel (FL) ADV DEL/GND 27 May 2018 John Alusik (AK) Tower 20 June 2018 Josh Nunn (NU) VATUSA S2 27 June 2018 Chris Caracciola (CA) SOP 22 August 2018 Benjamin Dudley (DL) APP 31 August 2018 Sean Doyle (DY) VATUSA S3 9 September 2018 Nathan Rankin (RI) Tower 10 October 2018 Tommy Ondrey (OT) SOP 4 December 2018 Andrew Van Sickle (VE) SOP 7 December 2018 Matthew Medeiros (MI) SOP 16 January 2019 Nick Ovitt (OT) SOP 22 January 2019 Nick Ovitt (OT) DEL/GND 23 January 2019 Cheston Newbold (ND) SOP 24 January 2019 Jeffrey Marques (AA) ADV DEL/GND 30 January 2019 Andrew Van Sickle (VE) ADV DEL/GND 5 February 2019 Fran Santiago (SO) SOP 20 February 2019 Ryan Flynn (FY) SOP 5 March 2019 Sergey Kheyfets (KT) DEL/GND 7 March 2019 Tim Brett (BE) SOP 11 March 2019 Charles O'Rourke (OE) DEL/GND 27 March 2019 Nathan Rankin (RI) VATUSA S3 2 May 2019 Peter Alberti (AT) DEL/GND 17 May 2019 William Flanigen (FE) DEL/GND 18 June 2019 Benjamin Matthews (MW) SOP 22 June 2019 Mateo Rodriguez (RZ) SOP 17 July 2019 Rob Hernandez (HZ) SOP 23 July 2019 David Epstein (EN) SOP 24 July 2019 Justin Blakey (BY) DEL/GND 25 July 2019 Steven Cho (CH) SOP 6 August 2019 Jackson Rhodes (RD) SOP 14 August 2019 Adam Turner (TR) SOP 18 August 2019 Jero Wang (WG) DEL/GND 2 September 2019 Yuxuan Liu (LU) SOP 20 September 2019 Alfonso Martinez (MZ) VATUSA S2 22 September 2019 Mark Salgado (SG) SOP 20 October 2019 Mark Salgado (SG) DEL/GND 20 October 2019 Stephen Yang (YG) SOP 21 November 2019 Junzhe Yan (YA) SOP 21 November 2019 Luis Seoane (EO) SOP 8 December 2019 Clay Brock (BC) LOCAL 20 December 2019 Jeremy Casella (CA) SOP 21 December 2019 Clay Atkins (AS) SOP 21 December 2019 Ralph Pollak (PK) SOP 17 January 2020 Braden Kearney (KY) SOP 28 January 2020 Adam DeVita (DA) SOP 12 March 2020 Brodey Moran (BM) SOP 1 April 2020 Milan Kroemer (KE) SOP 1 April 2020 SEUNGMUN JI (JI) SOP 5 April 2020 Evan Bowen (EB) DEL/GND 8 April 2020 Case Tatro (TO) SOP 13 April 2020 Kyle Brady (BD) DEL/GND 14 April 2020 Jackson Miller (JM) DEL/GND 24 April 2020 Shan Mufti (MF) SOP 8 May 2020 Jacob September (SB) DEL/GND 13 May 2020 Adam DeVita (DA) DEL/GND 25 May 2020 Scott Cote (SS) SOP 25 May 2020 Kyle Meskus (MU) SOP 11 June 2020 Wil Tucker (TR) DEL/GND 12 July 2020 James Taylor (TL) SOP 20 July 2020 Adam Elcock (EK) SOP 27 July 2020 Jacob September (SB) LOCAL 5 August 2020 Adam DeVita (DA) ADV DEL/GND 8 August 2020 Kells Moore (KM) ADV DEL/GND 19 August 2020 Matthew Wurzbach (WH) SOP 27 August 2020 Matthew Wurzbach (WH) DEL/GND 27 August 2020 Evan Cooper (CP) SOP 2 September 2020 Marcus Griep (GP) SOP 7 September 2020 Marcus Griep (GP) DEL/GND 7 September 2020 Austin Curtis (CC) SOP 7 September 2020 Mark Nardei (NI) SOP 8 September 2020 Mark Nardei (NI) DEL/GND 8 September 2020 Mark Greenlaw (GW) SOP 16 September 2020 Steven Toye (TE) DEL/GND 21 September 2020 Jacob Miller (MJ) SOP 16 October 2020 Jacob September (JS) APP 23 October 2020 Andre Giel (GI) SOP 4 November 2020 Kyle Vander Ark (VR) DEL/GND 15 November 2020 Charlie Sun (SU) SOP 15 November 2020 Leonardo Almeida (AD) SOP 21 November 2020 Leonardo Almeida (AD) DEL/GND 21 November 2020 Andrew Thomson (TS) SOP 27 November 2020 Jack Levine (LV) VATUSA VATUSA S2 1 December 2020 Marcus Griep (GP) Advanced DEL/GND 6 December 2020 Ryan Coakley (CY) DEL/GND 12 December 2020 Dante Nicotera (NR) SOP 2 January 2021 Joel Kraft (KA) SOP 3 January 2021 Joel Kraft (KA) DEL/GND 5 January 2021 Ivan Shapovalov (SV) SOP 20 January 2021 Matthew Hallihan (HA) Advanced DEL/GND 31 January 2021 Brian Rucinski (RC) SOP 9 February 2021 Ivan Shapovalov (SV) DEL/GND 20 March 2021 Alex Schlesinger (SL) SOP 21 March 2021 Dwain Sponseller (SE) ADV DEL/GND 25 March 2021 Daniel Nguyen (NN) CENTER 13 April 2021 Dante Nicotera (NR) ADV DEL/GND 26 April 2021 Christian Eitner (ER) SOP 27 April 2021 Christian Eitner (ER) DEL/GND 27 April 2021 Sean Moss (SH) SOP 4 May 2021 Sean Moss (SH) DEL/GND 5 May 2021 Ryan Zabel (ZL) SOP 9 May 2021

Excellent, excellent choice! Congratulations Jeff!

Nice! I like Tangueray almost as much as you like chicken! Seriously, folks, thanks for all the kind words and show of support and encouragement. My goal is to continue ZBW's great legacy of accuracy, professionalism and excellence, while at the same time building up our ranks and our retention and having fun doing it. Those sometimes appear to be conflicting goals -- it's hard to build up a large roster when you're a lot more picky than most about accuracy and excellence -- but I have no doubt that together, this team can do it. My predecessors have left large shoes to fill; I look forward to adding to our legacy.

More great choices! Congrats, guys!

Mike, you have my heartiest congratulations, best wishes and full support as our new TA. You have some incredibly huge shoes to fill, but you leave no one any doubt that you'll fill them just fine! Dan, Paul could not be more correct. You have been steady as a rock, tireless in your determination and pursuit of excellence, and have left an incredible legacy. My strong hope is that we'll see more of you on the scopes, teaching and mentoring, now that you've set up a rock-solid foundation. And to both of you guys, have fun!

Fabulous, SY, congrats!