Evan Reiter

Our website ISP has scheduled maintenance to perform a RAM upgrade between 11pm ET on September 7 (Friday) and 5am ET on September 8 (Saturday). Our website and forums will be offline during the maintenance. The estimated downtime is 1 hour, though that could occur anywhere within the maintenance window.

The event materials, including the details on the page as well as the NOTAM with detailed information about SFRA procedures, have now been posted: http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/Events/Challenge.aspx. You need to be logged in to view them. There is a lot of information but despite the length, it's all relatively straightforward. The section "Basic SFRA Requirements" on the page itself really does give you all the information you need to know about flying in the event provided you are already familiar with sectional charts and have a vague idea of what the SFRA is. Settle in for a long haul next time you're online and do a little reading so you're ready for the event on Sunday, September 2 from 3-6pm ET. This Challenge is all about airspace: understanding where you are, what the requirements are to go where you want to, and how to navigate between airports without violating airspace or restricted areas. Most BVA members will never fly into the Washington SFRA in real life. However, many will encounter TFRs which create similar structures or fly through complex, multi-layered airspace environments. If you can manage this airspace (particularly the SFRA transition from KHEF to KESN), you can handle airspace anywhere! In this Challenge, pilots are to fly between the three controlled airports: Manassas (KHEF), which is located within the SFRA, and two outlying airports, Frederick (KFDK) and Easton (KESN). You can fly the route in any order (the route options shown below are examples) but the idea is to operate within the SFRA on each flight, either transiting through it to fly between KESN and KFDK or entering/exiting it to land at KHEF. You'll know you've done everything right if you don't see a military aircraft approaching and rocking its wings to intercept you! If you have questions about the materials, let's make this the official forum thread. Please ASK HERE! We're tried to make the materials as simple as possible and give you links to as much information as we can, but the varying degrees of experience in our community, as well as the compromises we make when trying to simulate the utmost realism, probably mean that we've missed something.

You wouldn't have had the chance. The bad weather at DCA (at one point down to 1 1/4 visibility with 2000-ish RVR's) precluded our use of the River Visual and we were stuck with ILS 1 all night.

It will be available by Thursday at the latest, posted to this forum thread and linked on the Challenge page of the website.

As Dan said, we're working on a comprehensive briefing document for pilots which outlines very specifically the requirements and procedures to follow. The point of the event will be: 1. Read, understand, and follow the procedures we give you 2. Navigate smartly to avoid airspace and show off your understanding of complex, multi-layered airspace environments 3. Multi-task with simultaneous ATC communications and flying the plane The materials for pilots will be available this coming week to allow you plenty of time to review and prepare for what's bound to be an exciting event.

We had very low traffic (barely broke 20 pilots) during the Rc today. We'll probably re-consider whether we continue to do Regional Circuit events on Friday nights (11 pilots online with 7 controllers at 9:45pm ET). Opinions?

Maintenance is complete and FlightDesk is back online. Thank you for your patience.

The FSX, Live ATIS, and FlightDesk server will undergo scheduled maintenance testing beginning at 12:01am ET on July 26 and lasting for approximately 30 minutes. Most flights should be unaffected but FlightDesk's server will be restarted several times and any aircraft in flight may be disconnected from the server during the testing period. We recommend you avoid flying during that time unless you don't mind being disconnected.

The ISP has notified us of scheduled maintenance to take place on Saturday 7/28/2012 beginning at 12:01am EDT and continuing for up to five hours. During this time, our website and forums will be offline; FlightDesk and FSX will not be affected. The maintenance is to perform "updates and maintenance" on all services on our web server.

We do make a point of running "Double Play" events occasionally -- probably not quite once a month -- on Friday evenings. Usually when we don't it's because we forget -- so send me a reminder PM in FlightDesk if you don't see at least one double play on the schedule. ChrisOlmstead take note: we'll repeat our July 31 KATL/KJAX event on Friday, August 3 from 8-11pm ET (in addition to the Tuesday night). With the Pack the Pattern on Thursday at KBIL, that should be a fun week!

Another fantastic event from my chair at PADQ. In one of the most interesting moments, we had four aircraft land and takeoff of three runways in a span of about 2-3 minutes which included two runway changes and a substantial amount of help from some great pilots. A few screenshots from the event as a whole (not taken during what I described above, we were way too busy!) are attached. Looks like great fun...one of these days I'm going to have to fly one of these Rc's!

ADD: Have fun with ZAN at 1:06am ET (only 9:06pm local time). ZAN_July13.mp3[/attachment:2yk6pnhx] ASA14 squawked 7500, and FDX291 used a jump to hyperspeed to make the trip from KPDX in about 30 minutes.

Welcome to Alaska! We'll feature PANC, PAFA, PADQ, and PAVD until July 22 but there are a number of challenging, fascinating, and truly beautiful things that I think you should do before the Getaway is over. Most of them aren't at the featured airports but are still within the Anchorage ARTCC and controlled airspace. Checklist: what to do before the end of the Alaska Getaway... Fly the VFR Challenge. It will be one of the only times you get to talk to a Flight Service Station on BVA -- and one of the only times that talking to FSS is actually required while you're inside Class E airspace. July 21 at 7pm ET. Fly into or out of PAJN. The LDA X RWY 8 approach at Juneau ends with a "fly visual to airport 3.2nm" because of a large cliff on final approach. Of course, the other side of the runway with sharply rising terrain isn't a whole lot better. The flight to PAJN is about an hour and a half from Anchorage (and around the same distance from Seattle) but well worth the trip. Merrill Field Airport (PAMR). With a neat 90 degree runway configuration and right next to Anchorage International, Merrill Field Airport is a must-see for VFR traffic. Barrow Airport (PABR). The northernmost point in the United States, Barrow Alaska is another interesting airport to visit. If you've ever wanted to visit the far north, PABR is the place to go (I can't promise FSX's default scenery will live up to expectations, though). Fly a long haul into PANC. Anchorage International is the second busiest cargo airport in the United States as well as a frequency fuel stopover for long haul flights to and from the far east. Fly overnight, while ATC is offline, or better yet plan a long haul to arrive when ATC is signed up on the Timetable. For those a bit less ambitious, Sitka (PASI) and several other airports which are commercially served are several hours from Anchorage. Visit Lake Hood, the largest and busiest float plane area in the world, also conveniently located next to Anchorage airport. The default Beaver, Goose, or any other payware seaplane would be ideal. There is a LOT to do and see in a very short time so I encourage everyone to take advantage of the ATC and enjoy this unique airspace while we have it. Feel free to add your own "musts" to the list. And, as an optional bonus to those who are certified -- control Center, so I can actually fly in controlled airspace during the Getaway and don't have to spend the entire event behind a scope!

Screenshots from the event are now posted at: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2975.

Looking at the chart itself, I believe you're supposed to make the turn just past Citi Field. I'm not sure whether there are specific restrictions that preclude you from overflying the stadium and/or whether anything special happens if there is a game going on. I'm also not if or how the special security notice 9/5151 (http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_9_5151.html) applies here. Clearly the route that's listed on the chart takes them inside of that airspace but perhaps there is some exclusion: It also does state: "THE RESTRICTIONS DO NOT APPLY TO THOSE AIRCRAFT AUTHORIZED BY AND IN CONTACT WITH ATC FOR OPERATIONAL OR SAFETY OF FLIGHT PURPOSES, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND AIR AMBULANCE FLIGHT OPERATIONS." so that may exempt guys on the x31 Approach as well.

The event lasts three hours. Figure an hour flight time for each leg, that gives you an hour for the taxi and turnaround time as well. If you get right into the event at 8pm ET, you should have no problem getting both legs done by 11pm ET.

We're just over a week away from the KLGA and KPWM Challenge event. On Sunday, July 8 from 3-6pm ET you'll be up against difficult approaches at both of the featured airports. Portland will be socked in, with low ceilings, thunderstorms, limited visibility, icing, and wind shear. I'm not sure if it can possibly be any worse than the last one...but if so, it will be! La Guardia will be perfectly VMC with light and variable winds and clear skies. Where's the challenge in that, you ask? You'll have to fly the fun, and sometimes white-knuckle, Expressway Visual Runway 31 approach which involves a nice 180 degree turn to short final, all below 1,500', and with strict restrictions on the location (go too far in either direction and you'll have the FAA knocking on your door the next day). But we aren't asking you to fly the KLGA approach blind. An event like this wouldn't be on BVA unless we had the help you expect from a learning community like ours. The official KLGA Expressway Visual NOTAM is now available from here; it's also linked from the Challenge Details page. This NOTAM explains all about the approach and offers tips and images for flying it. Throughout the event, controllers at New York will be accomodating; we know that you may be trying the approach for the first time and so we'll let you know how you're doing. If you make a mistake or get turned around, just ask for vectors back into the sequence. There will be a live radar feed available throughout the event, and each pilot will get a picture of the landing at KLGA posted to the forums (unless I forget about someone, or you'd rather not have your image posted). As you prepare for the event, use this thread to ask ANY questions you have about how the approach should work. Use opportunities like tonight's Triple Center to try out approaches like the River Visual Runway 19 (KDCA) or even this one (weather permitting). If you don't feel comfortable flying the approach then of course you can just fly from KLGA to KPWM, land in the IMC, and call it a day. However, I believe most members are anxious for a challenge and are ready and able to learn new things. Navigation, improved situational awareness, multi-tasking, and low-level stellar airmanship are all part of this challenge. Are you up to it?

Great screenshots! We had coordinated BTV_A to be offline for about 30 minutes mid-event so that was no surprise.

Now that FlightDesk’s Version 1.2 is the stable version, Bill is hard at work on the next version. Development for FlightDesk 1.3, most of which is happening on the server, has begun. While we won’t be releasing a public/client beta for quite some time, Bill is adding code to the server on a daily basis. A number of new features on FlightDesk 1.3 beta are extremely experimental in nature and as a result of our testing you may have noticed FlightDesk’s server crash intermittently over the past few weeks (you lose connection to FD and can’t re-connect). The crashes are caused by new features we’re implementing on 1.3 and whenever they occur, we revert back to the stable version of the server until we can see exactly what happened. While we try our best to test all of the changes before we release them, many of the changes that Bill is making for 1.3 can only be tested in a busy environment with multiple aircraft. Please bear with us if FlightDesk’s server occasionally goes down and you lose connection to FlightDesk. These crashes will not affect your flight or connectivity to FSX. If you notice that you lose connection to FlightDesk only and are unable to re-connect after five minutes, please send Bill or me an e-mail via the Contact Us page of the website so we can get the stable version of the server running again. And when you lose connection, offset your frustration by remembering that Bill is working hard on improvements to one of the best pieces of software ever written for FSX.

For the next one: thoughts on a KLGA/KPWM event? We could do KLGA in VMC (I think) and leave KPWM in IMC. That gives people the hard-core approach at KPWM and leaves us open to bring in the Expressway Visual Runway 31 Approach as the other half of the challenge. Target date is July 8 at 3-6pm ET.

Being Canadian has nothing to do with it. I've learned long ago not to upset the person who has direct ability to eject me from FlightDesk and FSX! I had a ton of fun on BOS_T last night handling a myriad of arrivals and departures. I think we had a departure lineup a number of times on Runway 22R. I'm very impressed with the quality and abilities of our pilots that I saw last night. We had 2 people go around at KBOS and about 8 at KJFK, for various reasons (low weather, bad runway breaking action, etc.). FlightDesk says I spoke to about 42 pilots. I don't know what the weather actually turned out to be but from the reports of pilots breaking out at minimums (everyone said they had the lights "at minimums", one pilot reported breaking out at 210') but here's what you had to contend with: Wind 290(M) at 12 gusts 19. At KBOS, this works out to a crosswind component of 15 knots. Visibility 1/4 up to about 3500', then 1 mile up to about 7000', and then clearing above that Layers with light to moderate turbulence, moderate wind shear, and some light icing thrown in for fun Thunderstorms, heavy rain Ceiling 190 overcast, with CB's up to 100, then cumulus the rest of the way up Tops somewhere in the low FL's (FL200 or so) For a while there I thought folks weren't going to be able to land in the event at all. Well done everyone! The next scheduled event is the Alaska VFR Challenge at the end of July. However, since we have some time, we'll schedule one more IFR Challenge around the ZBW between now and then. Great pilots and a good turnout almost always make for a great event -- let's do it again soon! Here's a few screenshots from the event to top things off (EJA151 was on my frequency at the time, that's why he's the only one being tracked):

So you are saying as long as we do not get intercepted or forced down it is fair game.......? You will be intercepted and shot down either way.

I like the idea of everything but the mandatory fine which may not work for people without credit cards (and we probably can't enforce). I like the idea of disqualifying pilots who are intercepted and have to get forced to a different airport or who are ejected/shot down although I'm not sure from what. Sounds like we have a good set of ideas to work from when we put the event together.

We'll probably have a few mil boys stationed at Andrews ready for a quick response to anyone who busts the ADIZ/FRZ/SFRA. Would that be the best place to station aircraft? How many do you think are needed? Is someone interested in potentially setting up a Tower there (or is that even needed)? Thoughts on how we'll communicate an emergency situation to you? Also: what frequency would military plan to be on, how many jets/intercept, and what happens once someone has been intercepted? If you want to give me a few paragraphs to add to the event description around intercept orders I'd be happy to include them.

We should be good for August 12; some of the event materials will be updated with the new date tonight. The event features KROC, KELM, KBGM, and KITH.