M. B. Ingersoll

Understood. But... what's VRC?

Yes, I love the ability to get the ATIS in text through vPilot. But what I used LiveATIS for was to quickly and easily get both the departure and arrival weather for flight planning. Guess I'll go back to http://aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/ . When I'm doing longer flights, I'll also use http://aviationweather.gov/adds/winds . I'm curious what others might use, but that's probably fodder for another topic. Thanks!

Cannot seem to connect. Since the merge, I've continued using Live ATIS as its very handy. But, did we lose this when we transitioned to VATSIM? Was I on borrowed time? Thanks (and if there's been a discussion of this, I didn't find it when I looked before posting this),

Well, I had great plans to fly a new airplane to the event from "outside" with an arrival about 15 to 20 mins into the event (KWRI to KSYR). I was gonna follow that with a run to KMHT. But I had some real problems adjusting the weight and balance and, when I had it about right, FSX crashed - something that rarely (knock on wood) happens to me. Well, that was annoying. Got set again, took off (no ATC) and probably within a mile of departure, I'd augured in almost immediately after engaging the ALT hold. It was set for FL240 but the aircraft started descending almost immediately. Lesson learned. Start number three - got some altitude under me before engaging the ALT hold. The newness of the airplane did keep it interesting for me, but the controllers were great, granted my request and I had an uneventful landing. I'd like to have done the second leg but I couldn't hang. Thanks to all our ATCs - I think that was one of (if not THE) most complete coverage I'd seen in an event.

Looks like I finally got it using the iCal thing. I thought that was just a "three month" import sort of thing. Will see if it persists. Would be VERY handy to see BVA stuff in my Google Calendars again. Thanks for the help!

Back in the old days (what - a couple months ago?) I had the Google Calendar that was associated with my email set to automatically display events from the BVA calendar. I'm not much of a technoweenie but I think it was a iCal thing. At any rate, it's no longer working. I found this feature to be very convenient as I could see BVA events right on my "N3535E" calendar which was, in turn, visible on my other calendars. I've looked around this forum trying to find something about a change but found nothing. Is the feature no longer enabled? Is there another "calendar address" I should be using? Appreciate any help offered.

Absolutely! And reroutes are sure a lot easier to take on VATSIM than IRL. IRL you may have whiney pax or an impatient customer awaiting a shipment you're carrying; and, of course, "time is money." But I've found that the only thing that stresses me much about a VATSIM reroute is when my COO (wife) in the other room keeps asking, "Are you done YET?" Yes, I really do enjoy BVATC and now, BVARTCC!

Slightly off-topic since it's not about the time correction, but I just finished my second leg in the subject event. Niiiice. Flew IFR from BID to CON and then back (in a Baron, of course). Great service all the way. I did discover that I could not file OTP for an altitude on my return (evidently a vPilot limitation - digits only, no text - or it may be a VATSIM thing - can't remember when I ever filed OTP with BVA or VATSIM so I'm not sure where the catch is). However, I put "REQ VFR OTP" in the remarks section and filed for 8K. As soon as I was identified, I adv'd the controller of my request and got it. Worked great (no surprise). I think BVA and VATSIM is a good pairing. Thank you to all our Controllers!

Very late reply (I don't get on the forums often enough) but I gotta say "The Hump" was, as the others said, a great experience! I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. I can see that a LOT of research was put into this event and I can't imagine how much time was spent in the planning. Thanks to all who took their time to set this up for us - and thank you to their families, too!

Well, I just shut down after my third flight in this event - my first VATSIM event in probably a couple years. Very satisfactory with one small exception - a shortcut granted, followed by a freq change, followed by a route change that was worse that my shortcut OR my original flight plan, followed by another request and.... well, I suspect the Controller was getting tired of me, but I finally got a good route. Thing is, this is very realistic so, actually, I really didn't mind it that much! But great service and quite a bit of traffic on the freqs. Anyone else fly the Tea Party? What are your thoughts?

Question from a non-techie - will the TeamSpeak server be affected?

The Controllers all sounded like they had enough aircraft to keep them awake. After two legs in a Baron (KHMU to KHKO, then from there to KHTO), at the tail end of the session, I got in an Army C12 (yeah, I'm old) for an IFR hop up the mountain to PHSF (Bradshaw AAF on the eastern edge of the prohibited area 3103). To say the weather was not cooperating would be an understatement. But I got excellent help from ZHU. He vectored me between the volcanoes at his MVA and, as soon as I was far enough west, he let me down another 300 feet but even that was not enough. He offered to get me lower west of the airport for an approach to RWY 09 (I'd been attempting 27), but about a half mile or so past the airport, I got ground contact and was able to land on RWY 09. The photo shows my view at the completion of my landing rollout on this 3695 foot long runway. I went totally IMC with about 1500 remaining, then out, back in and out again until I could stop pretty much right on the numbers for 27. The Old Guy's Wild Ride. Thanks for staying late, Evanet!

A quick public thank you to our Controllers who worked this event. I flew outta PDK and had FP'd myself all around the perimeter of Approach's airspace in a counter-clockwise run to set up for the ILS RWY 10 - I was in a Baron and figured that's where you'd put me to keep me outta the way of the big stuff. But right off the bat, the North Arrivals Controller offered me a shortcut AND the use of RWY 8L. Sweet. Got in about three options before taking vectors back to the ILS final for 21L at PDK. Good turn-ons and excellent phraseology and good spacing with divergent types, too! Made for a great experience (especially when I realized my ASN was sent for manual and, once corrected, was plunged into total IMC). Yes! Anyway, thanks again. I hardly ever fly with anyone but BVA.

I concur w/Cameron. You will often find STARs for GA aircraft at feeder airports in congested airspace. But, even absent a published STAR (and SIDs, for that matter), ATC facilities often have "standardized" or "preferential" departure and arrival procedures. Such procedures (being unpublished) would, of course, have to be spelled out as part of the route (assuming the pilot was unfamiliar with the area and did not file the preferred departure/arrival procedure). Using standardized procedures (including SIDs/STARs) cuts down on the coordination between Controllers within a given facility as well as between ATC facilities. And when you cut down on verbal coordination, you increase safety by decreasing the chance of miscommunication.

Possibly off-topic, but I have a wonderful utility called "Leroy" by Daniel A. Hawton - I think the website is AirCharts.org. This is a great little ap that makes getting FLIPs SO easy - I thought I probably found it here or through another BVA member. Well, I noticed it was gone during the outage. Is AirCharts.org a BVA site or is there some connection? Just curious...