Evan Reiter

Welcome, welcome! Glad to see that you had a positive first experience. Things can be a little strange when a maiden BVA flight happens outside of our preferred airspace but it doesn't sound like that was the case for you. Thanks a lot for the post. I think our community prides itself on is its openness to feedback and welcoming of new members of all skill levels. If your future experiences don't meet your expectations, we absolutely encourage you to speak up and let us know why so we can get better. Looking forward to seeing you again soon. Hopefully the next experience doesn't involve a traffic call for a NORDO aircraft (turned out he had accidentally switched off SFO_T's frequency but quickly tuned back to the right place).

The FAA's Preferred Routes Database is back online: http://www.fly.faa.gov/rmt/nfdc_preferr ... tabase.jsp Other NFDC products are also available at: http://www.fly.faa.gov/rmt/coded_departure_routes.jsp

I've been busy with real-world stuff and finally got around to reading this thread... A couple of thoughts. They're just that -- not stating a new policy or speaking on behalf of the A-Team. First, enforcing the 95' restriction would mean prohibiting the Boeing 737 from the field. The 6/7/8 variants are all above 100'. Every year someone decides to bring a 747, 767, A380, or something equally ridiculous into the airport. I've been one of them once so it's hard to me to say they shouldn't do that. Some folks love to fly a specific set of payware aircraft and that really makes the sim an enjoyable experience for them. Stripping that away would, for some people, detract from the experience. As much as it might be a little more reasonable to fly a B738 rather than an A380 into KASE, both are equally illegal. What should the restriction be in BVA? In my opinion, that sort of depends on the reasoning behind it. If it has to do with aircraft size/weight, that's not really a consideration for us. If it has to do with space on the ramp, that's also not really an issue. However, if the spacing between the runway and taxiway "A" won't allow a wingspan above 95', that's something we would need to consider. All that being said, I'd bet (but of course am not sure) that with enough money and convincing, someone having a good reason to fly a B738 into KASE IRL would probably be given a waiver. A380 might be a different story. Second (with respect to the approaches question)...I have heard the SKW jet that arrives at 10:30pm request and be given a visual approach. The airport's website does say that approaches after nightfall are to be "execute[d] with air traffic control clearance". Given that there are no published approaches authorized at night, this would imply that if you don't have the requisite training you would need to fly a visual approach but could do so. The restriction for VFR aircraft at night is "VFR Operations: aircraft equipped as required under FAR 91.205 (D) for instrument flight-pilot is instrument rated; VFR pilot in command has completed at least one takeoff or landing in the preceding 12 months at ASE." (http://www.aspenairport.com/procedures.asp?type=3). Given our 3h server delay and the fact that we have until 30 minutes after sunset, we theoretically shouldn't have too much night-flying time during the event. Based on the current sunset time (5:14pm local), we have until about 10:45pm ET until it's night for aviation purposes during our events. Note that in our previous event, we did not have the 3h restriction and that definitely affected matters. In the 15 or so minutes of event night flying, we could restrict inbound aircraft to visual approaches only. Does that seem like a reasonable and realistic compromise? Third, we were normally radar contacting aircraft around 10,000'. Aircraft were given a heading by Tower and then sent to Approach for the duration of the event.

Actually not the case (that's what I thought too originally). Aspen is open and attended from 0700 - 2300 local time (LT). The Tower and TRACON close at 2000 LT, and then the airport is covered by a Denver Center frequency. The last commercial flight I could find inbound is a SKW from KDEN which lands around 2230 LT. As mentioned here there are a separate set of procedures which are unpublished and require special FAA authorization to fly. Crews and aircraft must be specially certified in order to fly the approaches. These unpublished approaches are not restricted to day-only operations and its how the commercial guys make it in after sunset. For other operators intending to land at night, a visual approach (not the Roaring Fork) would be the only option. All of the public use instrument approaches + the Roaring Fork Visual are indeed restricted to day operations only.

Please note that the event time has changed again. It is now 3-5pm ET on Sunday, January 13 and the new time is now reflected in the message above, as well as on the website.

The time of our next Pack The Pattern event (KGJT) has been changed to 3-5pm ET to help out Chuck and our friends testing access to the server from the FS Sim Con conference location. This should enable them to conduct their testing live with ATC. Should be quite interesting to see and I for one am hoping for a live stream again! The event page has been updated with the relevant details: http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/Events/ ... ttern.aspx

We apologize for the unplanned outage of the forums today. We are also glad to report that our ISP was able to restore service to the forums as well as to two other site applications (www.bostonvirtualatc.com/charts and www.bostonvirtualatc.com/gettingstarted) this evening. If you are experiencing trouble accessing any of those locations, please advise Phil ([email protected]).

Thank you Tom, amazing! I was actually going to send you a note to ask whether you thought it would be appropriate to post on some of the simpit building forums that you frequent. I know it's not directly the right audience but at the same time I'm sure all those people are FS users and many may use an online community in one form or another. By the way, I'm already getting requests to add communities to the list :). Evan

As you may already know, GameSpy has been unavailable to users since earlier this week. Users who attempted to login to GameSpy received no error message; they were simply unable to sign in. Today, BVA is able to officially announce that the decision to discontinue GameSpy support for FSX multiplayer was made by Microsoft. Glu Mobile, the company which owns the GameSpy brand has confirmed the decision to BVA via a spokesperson. What you should do: Get the word about the new website out there! The more site traffic we have, the more people we can help educate about the options, including our community. Please share the link with friends, aviation enthusiasts, and pilots! Here’s what you can do to help: 1. Visit the website. Every hit counts! 2. Post your thoughts, comments, and feedback about http://www.fsxbeyondgamespy.com on our community forums 3. Share the FSX Beyond GameSpy link on aviation and multiplayer forums like AVSIM, FlightSim.com, or post it on websites you control 4. Visit BVA’s social media pages (including Facebook) and like or share our post 5. Post the FSX Beyond GameSpy link on your own social media pages with a message about why supporting multiplayer is important to you 6. E-mail the link to friends 7. Encourage other communities you know of to use the built-in contact functionality to add their name, IP address, and web link to the site With your help, we can help those displaced by the discontinuation of GameSpy for FSX find a new home and ensure the success of FSX multiplayer through Direct Connect! Find more information in the Press Release e-mailed to all BVA members earlier today.

The FAA's Preferred Route Database, known as the "Route Management Tool" and accessible from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) is offline for maintenance. The database includes many TEC and preferred routes for BVA's local airspace and is linked in several places on our website. Those links now display a "Not Found" or "Under Maintenance" page on the ATCSCC website. The page itself indicates that the application is undergoing maintenance and that service will be restored shortly. In the interim, preferred routes for official BVA events may be found on the respective event pages. We will post an update when we notice that service has been restored.

Very nice. We'll probably do another one before the end of the winter. The pilot materials are already written so the challenge will be coordinating enough military traffic such that we can effectively protect the airspace.

When developing complex software for FSX (itself one of the most complex pieces of software ever written), occasionally we run into situations which are temporarily beyond our understanding. Recently we have been trying to develop some pretty exciting new functionality for FlightDesk and were just about to launch a new version of FlightDesk in beta. For about 2 weeks we have had the versions running in parallel with no issues. Unfortunately we have recently encountered several crashes of the primary, current FlightDesk server. If you were flying in today's event, or yesterday, you've likely noticed FlightDesk shut down and require a re-start. We have been monitoring the server extra carefully to try to determine when FlightDesk crashes and re-start it right away, as well as to try to figure out the sequence of events that leads to these issues. The good news is that these crashes have not been caused by the new version we have been working on. During today's event, for example, we were running just the current version of FlightDesk. The bad news is that we aren't sure exactly what is causing the issue and we have not been able to duplicate it on command. That makes it very difficult to solve. Over the next few days we are likely to see FlightDesk's server continue to crash intermittently. Rest assured that Bill is doing everything he can to find whatever is causing the issue and stop it. Until then, if you are online when FlightDesk's server crashes, here's what you can do: If the server does not come back to life within a few seconds, it's likely that an administrator hasn't been advised of the crash. Please e-mail [email protected] so we can get the server restarted. Think about what might have caused the crash. We think that the crashes might be related to people entering/leaving the session or briefing room. If just before FlightDesk crashes you left the session, or if you just entered the briefing room to change your aircraft, please let us know. Any new information we can gather is a possible lead which will help us solve the problems.

Our ISP has advised that as of this afternoon they have successfully switched their facility back to utility power. Their generator remains on so that the power will switch directly back to the generator in case of any emergency.

In order to set custom weather for our KPDX Challenge Event (3-6pm ET on Sunday), the server will be restarted on Sunday at 1:00pm EST and 6:30pm EST. Please time your activity on the server so as not to lose your flight when the server is restarted. The clocks go back one hour in most of North America early Sunday morning as Daylight Saving Time ends.

As of 9:45am ET, our ISP remained on generator power with regular fuel deliveries scheduled. Utility power is expected to be restored on Monday, November 5. There are no outages likely in the foreseeable future and our ISP has been providing us with regular updates about the status of their equipment.

Our server remains online on generator power with normal connectivity. As of 11pm ET, our ISP has received a delivery of 1,200 gallons of fuel for their generators (which will last for about 3 days of power). They continue to work with the local power utility and expect power to be restored after 6pm ET tomorrow. Until power is restored, the ISP has sufficient fuel and resources to run our server. We will let you know if there are any outages expected or if the situation changes. All the best to our members who were in the storm's path. Many have to not only work on restoring their own homes but go to work and manage the same issues there. The major New York airports remain closed indefinitely (though KBOS remains open).

As of mid-day, our ISP is still on generator power because local utility power substations are submerged or flooded. The server has remained online throughout the hurricane and we have noticed no major spike in connectivity. Knocking on wood for tonight's event.

Our ISP has advised us that they have switched their systems to emergency power after multiple conversations with the local power company and based on weather conditions in other areas. Utility power at our ISP's facility is still working as expected and remains available as a backup. The storm surge has not affected our ISP's facility as as of yesterday afternoon they do not expect it to. They continue to monitor the building and critical systems, have extra staff on hand, and have fuel vendors in standby in case prolonged use of their generators is required. As of this morning tonight's Regional Circuit event (CYVR & KSEA) is on, though we are expecting a slightly lower turnout of pilots and controllers. We will continue to monitor our ISP and advise you of any changes to the situation as they become apparent.

With the National Weather Service predicting that Hurricane Sandy will be advancing toward the Northeast over the next few days, our server ISP (which provides FlightDesk, FSX, and Live ATIS) has advised us they have a backup plan to ensure our server remains online throughout the storm. They have emergency power systems which can be run by fuel-powered generators in the event of a long-term power outage. The latest forecast shows the Hurricane expected to make landfall between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Our server's data center is located in the area which will be affected by the storm. Our website ISP is located on the other side of the country and is therefore not expected to be affected. We will post updates on our website, as well as our Facebook page, if we do encouter any outages due to Hurricane Sandy. We are expecting to know by Tuesday morning whether or not the server will be online for our Regional Circuit. If you live or work in the area of the U.S. Northeast affected by the storm, please take the necessary precautions and be safe.

Maintenance was completed around 1:45am ET and now all systems are online as normal.

Friendly reminder that the server will be shut down at 11:30pm ET this evening by our ISP in order to perform the maintenance described above. Please time your flights to ensure you are on the ground by that time. We will post an update to the website's "Server Information" page when the server is back online.

Our FSX server, including FlightDesk, FSX, and Live ATIS, will be offline from 11:30pm ET on Wednesday, October 17 to 2:30am ET on Thursday, October 18 (3 hours). We will be performing maintenance to upgrade the networking capabilities of the server, including the installation of a second network card. This will enable the expansion of FlightDesk to offer new features which we will begin testing in the next few months. We apologize for the downtime and hope you recognize that some outages are necessary in order for us to continue developing FlightDesk, one of the best pieces of software that will ever interact with FSX. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to any of our administrators.

Post your thoughts on the 6th anniversary event here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3235 While we are leaning toward an event similar to the Boston Tea Party runs we have had in the past, we won't be calling it that.

We have just added a few afternoon events to our calendar (www.bostonvirtualatc.com/Events/Calenda ... rview.aspx) including: - Regional Circuit Double Play (September 29, 1-4pm ET), probably the first Rc BVA has ever had on a Saturday afternoon - SoCal GA Fly-in (October 13, 3-6pm ET) - Seattle GA Fly-in (November 10, 1-4pm ET)

In order to allow pilots and controllers to participate in sessions that incorpoate some daylight during our peak hours, the server time has been set back to our standard winter 3 hour time delay (i.e. 8pm ET = 5pm Server). This should extend daylight hours into our session's 8-11pm ET peak hours and allow pilots and controllers to enjoy a little extra daylight. We normally keep a 3 hour time delay throughout the winter and return the server to real time during the summer months.