Evan Reiter

True -- and agreed -- but how do you manage the taxi instructions when we don't have an airport diagram (that everyone has) to work from?

The last Alaska Getaway we did was: PANC, PAFA, PADQ, and PAVD. The problem with some of the ones you've mentioned (going from memory here) are that they're uncontrolled...right?

The final release version of KBOS 4.3 is now available! This update completes the construction on Taxiway "M" and adds the extension of Taxiway "D" to the airport, and improves frame rates on the airport compared with both the full and lite versions of 4.2. As a result, only one version is necessary. A full list of changes and additional information is available in the package. All members should download and install this new update, even those who were participating in public beta testing. Installation is simple and instructions are provided for you at: http://bostonvirtualatc.com/dnn/portals/0/scenery/. You will be prompted to download all of the files you need. As of today, controllers will begin issuing taxi instructions that will require this updated version of the scenery, so please make sure to install it as soon as practical. NOTE for PUBLIC BETA TESTERS ONLY. The easiest way to install the scenery is to locate the BVATC_KBOS download from http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/dnn/KBO ... ation.aspx and replace your FSX Root/Addon Scenery/BVATC_KBOS folder with the downloaded copy.

REMINDER: Our server will be shut down at 2pm ET on Saturday, October 15 and will be unavailable to members until 7:30pm ET. The server is being shut down so it can be used to film our promotional video. Those involved with the video will be provided with alternate connection instructions. If you are interested in participating in the video, please send an e-mail to [email protected] to confirm your availability and receive additional details.

Those who signed up have been contacted via e-mail with additional information, and will need to RSVP for the event. If you did not receive a message and think you should have, please let us know. Additionally, the decision has been made to host the event in our server, which will mean that the server will be unavailable from 2-7:30pm ET on Saturday, October 15 to those not participating in the video event. A server re-start will be performed at 2pm ET on Saturday, so please ensure to time any flights so as not to be impacted by the restart and password change. At the end of the event, the server password will be reset so regular members can use the server once again. If you wish to participate in the event, it's not too late; send a message to [email protected] confirming your availability from 3:30-7pm ET on Saturday, and list the aircraft type that you'd prefer to fly (we can't guarantee you will be given your first choice but will do our best to accomodate requests).

The Boston area will be closed to aircraft starting at 2pm ET on October 15 and continuing until 7:30pm ET for filming our promotional video (http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/dnn/Pac ... nFilm.aspx). Only those who have been asked to participate in the video will be able to take part in the event; other pilots will be asked to remain clear of a 40nm ring of KBOS unless they are flying an aircraft that is compatible with our cameras. Additional information about the event/TFR will appear later this week.

That we can do.

It actually is November 4-13.

Our next Getaway is Hawaii in December (4-13). After that, we traditionally head to Aspen. Norcal is on the list after that, probably during February or March 2012.

Re-posted from this month's Logan Informer. This article was written by Cpais (Claudio), one of BVA's Air Traffic Controllers. Recently, some of you may have noticed that more frequently than ever, early afternoon ATC has been available on the BVA Server. Expect to see a lot more of this ATC coverage going forward, as BVA is currently trying to utilize its European based controllers to expand peak hours into the earlier portion of the evening. To help support this goal, ATC Mentors are planning to host more training sessions during the early evening in order to get even more controllers in the session, so please be sure to come out and support our up and coming controllers whenever you can. BVA’s long-term vision is to have constant ATC online throughout the early afternoon and evening, including TRACONs actively controlled by our ATC staff starting at 1PM ET and onwards.

The ISP re-started our website/forum server briefly today to fix an issue with the mail service. This resulted in a 10 minute interruption of our website and forums. Both are now back online.

If you can find enough controllers willing to stay online until 12am ET (or beyond), I'd be happy to support that. Give me a list of controllers...and a date (and time).

Okay folks. Dan and Andrew have been up until...well, now...working on this last-minute update for the KPBI airport to change the runway numbering. Let's show them both our appreciation of their hard work by making sure we all get the update for KTPA and KPBI installed for the event tonight. Jon: next time, if you could let us know about issues with the airport in advance (say, 2 weeks instead of a few hours), the chances of getting the update out will be greatly improved.

Hmmm...excellent point about the runway numbers. I'll see if Dan can create a quick update for us tonight!

Well, there it is...our first bad weather event in more than 4 years. We had 37 pilots at the peak, and are looking at 58 flight plans 2/3 of the way through the event. I believe this dispels the myth of custom weather causing issues (I didn't see any more people than usual get disconnected). Since I had the ATC perspective only, I didn't get to experience any of the weather. What is the general consensus on the event? Is it worth doing again? Should we try harder weather or do we need to tone it down a bit? By the way, tonight's METAR: Wind 070 at 12. Visibility 3/4 in heavy rain, thunderstorms. Ceiling 300 overcast. Temperature 22; Dewpoint 18. Altimeter 2970. The weather was the same at both airports, with the tops in between the two around 9,500. Looking forward to your feedback...and a real-world weather Rc coming up on Tuesday!

As Hurricane Irene continues its advance toward the Northeast US within the next few days, be prepared for potential outages affecting our FSX and FlightDesk server depending on the severity of the hurricane. The ISP that hosts FSX and FlightDesk is located in New York State and is taking precautions in order to be "fully prepared for" the hurricane. Our ISP has advised us that the precautions it is taking include: Increased staff levels this weekend to ensure proper coverage in the event that an emergency response is necessary Completed readiness checks of emergency power systems including UPS and generators plants Notification of fuel vendors which may need to provide additional fuel for generators in the event of a long-term utility power disruption Our ISP has also stated that "throughout the event, all systems will continue to be monitored as usual. Additionally, the Facilities and Operations teams will be performing an increased number of inspections of building structure and all critical systems. We have also assembled an emergency management team to continually monitor and be responsive to the situation as it progresses." We hope that, as a result of these precautions, there will be no interruptions to our FSX server. One of the inherent advantages to being an internet-based community is that our administrators are located across the country (actually, across the continent). We do not expect any service disruptions to our website and forums (the ISP that hosts those is located on the other side of the country) and will post updates on our forums, Facebook, and Twitter in the event of any outages. I am also aware that some members may be unable to participate in our planned Sunday evening "Bad Weather Regional Circuit" event featuring KBOS & KJFK. Should that be the case, we'll be sure to host a similar event going forward.

Let's keep an eye on the storm for sure...but part of the idea behind the event is to test whether custom weather will work in the server without causing connectivity issues. This is important so we can understand whether this type of event works in the future, or if we are "stuck" with real-world conditions.

Chase makes a good point. We're never going to find a situation that pleases everyone and in this case, holiday travel means Chase will be away from home but it allows Sasha to be home. Sasha, this is your event and therefore your choice.

Nobody has attended Office Hours for the past several weeks. While that's fine and expected (gives me an opportunity to get some work done which I genuinely appreciate), that also means no action will take place on items like this. The next session is on Sunday.

That would be Tuesday, November 22, then?

From my end, I need 2 weeks' of lead time to set up a Regional Circuit. Dan: how long would you need for a scenery update? Ok, let's do a FWA/IND Regional Circuit. As I said, give me a date.

Sounds like a great idea! KIND and KFWA would make a good pair of airports for the Regional Circuit, although FWA will probably need a severe makeover from the scenery design team. Another option is to go a General Aviation Fly-in involving FWA, IND, LAF, and one more, maybe GUS, MIE, or AID...or both. What do you think would work best? Please give me a date (the Rc needs to be on a Tuesday, 8-11pm ET, the Fi should be on a weekend day, but evenings during weekdays will work as well) that works well for one or both events so we can schedule those now.

Our website and forums were offline for approximately 8 hours this afternoon and evening due to the failure of a crucial piece of network equipment at our ISP's datacenter. As you can now tell, the website and forums are back online. This outage was not a result of any scheduled or unplanned maintenance on the part of BVA and was enitrely out of our control. Nevertheless, I apologize for the inconvenience of not having the website and forums accessible today and am glad that it did not affect our 20+ pilot session this evening. Our ISP has described the problem to me as a a power failure that occurred despite multiple layers of redundancy (building wide battery UPS, and multiple redundant diesel generator backup systems). The problem has been diagnosed as a failed automated transfer switch (ATS), a key component in power redundancy and failure. Once power is restored, the ISP will be reviewing the failure of its power redundancy systems to ensure corrective action is taken to address the problem. I will certainly post any additional relevant information I come across. I should also thank our dedicated Social Media team, including Tom (tofutwitch11) and Brandon (bcarter755), who dutifully kept us up-to-date through our Facebook profile (http://www.facebook.com/BVATC) and Twitter page (http://twitter.com/#!/BVATC). Those of you following us on social media were kept updated throughout the course of the day. And those of you who weren't...shame! You'll know better next time, I'm sure.

There has been a great deal of forum activity surrounding the release of PMDG's 737 NGX product which was recently released. My personal opinion of PMDG is that its aircraft tend to be top-of-the-line, and all releases prior to this one have been compatible with multiplayer. For the past several months, the FSX multiplayer community has been aware that communication issues are almost exclusively caused by a "bad" (for want of a better term) aircraft. The aircraft does not have to be on a specific frequency or even be powered; the simple presence of the aircraft in the server can cause the communication fidelity to drop. We have observed this behavior with a handful of add-on aircraft, of which most have created patches that resolve the issues. You can find more information about the phenomenon at viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1725. According to one poster, the issues are caused by "incorrect" and "very ineffecient XML (& C) programming". BVA is now investigating the possibility that the PMDG 737 NGX consistently or intermittently causes communication issue within our server. The consensus seems to be that there is an issue with the aircraft but that it does not always affect the session. It is therefore possible that some users might be able to fly the aircraft without negatively impacting others' experience. The good news is that, despite the original response, PMDG has indicated that they have resolved this issue and plan to address it in the first service pack or patch they release (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/341571-pmd ... ng-thread/). The bad news is that, until the patch is available, anyone flying the PMDG 737 NGX in our session may be subject to ejection in the event that the server communications begin to lag with that aircraft online. You will, of course, be sent a PM before being ejected. For this reason, BVA advises members not to purchase the PMDG 737 NGX until the patch is confirmed to resolve multiplayer issues, and those members who have purchased it to be prepared to cut flights short in the event that communication issues appear. Additionally, BVA will ask for the support of those who have purchased the aircraft in evaluating the impact of the patch of the performance of the aircraft on communications. My opinion, having not used the aircraft, is that it is worth the money and something I will buy once the issues are resolved. PMDG has a great reputation for quality aircraft and to my knowledge, none of its other aircraft cause issues in multiplayer. I really hope they address this issue quickly and effectively so they can maintain it.

Our website will be offline temporarily, likely for about an hour, beginning at 11:30pm on Saturday, August 13 and continuing into early Sunday morning as necessary. The update is to address some back-end functionality with the WYSIWYG text editor that should not affect website performance or look and feel. We will be remaining on our current DNN version. The forums and FSX server will not be affected.