Boston Virtual ATC and VATSIM

[Francis Dube]

As you may or may not know, there is a group that flies and controls on the FS Multiplayer platform that is Boston Virtual ATC. They fly and control primarily in the Boston ARTCC airspace and in the last few weeks have reached out to us with an interest in merging with our ARTCC here on VATSIM. Primary meetings have shown that they have a good amount of support from their membership in making this move. The next move from both sides is to meet together to talk about the transition and get on common ground.

 

BVA brings a lot of competent controllers and pilots who are very proficient with our airspace. This will expand our uptime and our traffic base. BVA also has exceptional documentation for pilots and controllers, our SOP's will be reviewed and in many cases combined to make even better SOP's and operations than we currently have. BVA brings a strong base of VFR traffic where our strength is IFR jet traffic, we will both be learning a lot from each other as this process moves on.

 

All controllers are invited to attend a meeting in the VATUSA teamspeak this Sunday 6/28 at 9PM ET. I have copied the post from BVA to their membership introducing the idea to them. Any other comments/questions may be directed to me via PM or email.

 

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A second option that was explored is merging with VATSIM's Boston ARTCC, which consists of certified VATSIM air traffic controllers. In preliminary meetings designed to gauge possibility, the ZBW ARTCC at VATSIM has shown a strong interest in joining with Boston Virtual ATC. Their staff is excited about the talent, traffic, and community that Boston Virtual ATC has to offer.

 

In this scenario, BVA pilots and controllers would become members of the VATSIM Boston ARTCC. Everything about BVA (our scenery updates, PRPs, Virtual FBO, resources, virtual airlines, etc.) would remain available to members. While other VATSIM members would be permitted to fly in the VATSIM Boston ARTCC, only BVA members will have access to our TeamSpeak server and community resources. Our strong sense of community would remain as it is today.

 

VATSIM's exceptional radar and pilot technology allows pilots to connect to the VATSIM network using virtually any flight simulation platform. FSX, FSX:SE, P3D, X-Plane, and even FS9 are all supported. BVA would bring our highly trained controllers, as well as our training program, to VATSIM.

 

VATSIM is a busy community that consists of primarily jetliner traffic. Combining Boston Virtual ATC’s general aviation presence with the busy airliner traffic of Boston ARTCC has the potential to make the new community busier and more realistic than any other.

 

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A meeting has been scheduled at 9pm ET on Sunday, June 28. Members of Boston Virtual ATC as well as members of the VATSIM Boston ARTCC are invited. The meeting will be a great chance for our members to ask questions directly to the leadership of the Boston ARTCC, and VATSIM in general.

 

The meeting will be held in the VATUSA TeamSpeak server (our server is password protected and restricted to BVA members only). More information about the meeting, including connection information, will be posted later this week.

[Guest Denny Puka]

[s:2i8k1x76]I for one, welcome our new BVA overlords[/s:2i8k1x76]

Jokes aside, I feel like this could bring nothing but good to the table. More traffic and staffing is a huge plus definately

[Mike Willey]

Although still dealing with all of the details that this kind of merger would present, this is potentially a great opportunity to differentiate vZBW from all of the other ARTCC's and create a new expansion community idea for VATSIM in general (Pilots and Controllers as part of a regional ARTCC).  As with all mergers of this type we have to find a way to accommodate both extremely strong cultures without diminishing the strength of either.  Its an exciting opportunity but still much detail to work through.

[Camden Bruno]

For any controllers interested in attending tonight, the password to the VATUSA TeamSpeak has been posted here and will not be posted to this thread, as this is a public topic.

[Matthew Miller]

Overall the meeting last night went very well! A big thank you to everyone who was able to join us. We were very impressed with the amount of questions and enthusiasm with the merger, and although some questions could not be fully answered, I'm glad we were all able to come together and put each other's minds at ease. Although the merger is not final yet, we have opened up our Teamspeak to our friends at BVA to be able to join and become comfortable with each other. I expect both organizations to remain mature and respectful of each others standards... whilst keeping the Boston ARTCC charm that we've all grown to know and love. Although there are some parts of the merger that we have to keep quiet about, everyone deserves to know what's going on. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions.. anything - Please feel free to e-mail either DB or I.

[Clif Whitten]

Thanks for helping to facilitate the meeting MR.  Could you make Evan's recording of the meeting available once he has it published?  I too was at work and missed a few of the discussions.

[Matthew Miller]

Sure. It’s available here: http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/Portals/0/Pilot%20Meetings/Recordings/FutureOfBVAPilotMeeting_June28.mp3

[Guest Denny Puka]

BVA memebers got this email (Logan Informer

[Hi Denny,

 

From July 6-13, BVA members will have the opportunity to vote between two options to support the future of our community. Members can vote online, or live at a Pilot Meeting scheduled for 8pm ET on Sunday, July 12.

 

Find all of the latest developments, along with news about an update from Cape Air Virtual, in our July 2015 Logan Informer.

 

Whichever direction we choose to take to support cross-platform compatibility, the next few months will be some of the most exciting and challenging the community has faced. But, as always, we will face those months together. Whatever the underlying technology, BVA members will fly, control, and flourish as a community.

 

See you in the skies or on the scopes.

[Guest Denny Puka]

Hi Denny,

 

BVA members now have the opportunity to vote between two options to support the future of our community. Online voting is open until July 13, and members can also vote live by joining our Pilot Meeting at 8pm ET on Sunday, July 12.

 

Voting has been designed to encourage those who are involved with the community, and familiar with the discussion, to contribute. In addition to determining the direction the community will take, input from members will help shape implementation.

 

We encourage all members to read more about the future of the community, then submit a vote online by 1pm ET on July 13.

 

Results from the vote will be announced on July 13, and a timeline for the implementation of the selected solution will be released by July 30.

[Camden Bruno]

From Don Desfosse (VATUSA1)'s post on the VATUSA/VATSIM forums:

 

I'm pleased to announce that the membership of the Boston Virtual ATC organization has decided, as a whole organization, to join and migrate to VATSIM.  We anticipate that this will bring approximately 35 new controllers and nearly 1000 new pilots to VATUSA/VATSIM.

 

I could go on for pages, but in the interests of a Reader's Digest summary (Seeley is now saying, "this is brief??!!??"):

 

BVATC operates mainly (though not exclusively) in the ZBW area, and currently uses exclusively the FSX multiplayer platform and TS to operate and communicate.  With the introduction of FSX:SE and P3D, BVATC realized that the user base that relies only on the FSX (think boxed-version-only) platform is diminishing, and precious few new members would be seeking out the FSX boxed version vs. newer/other options.

 

BVATC ATC members are highly trained, much like VATSIM, and their training/operation is very clearly based in the 7110.65 and RW SOPs.  Their ATC certification program has ratings that are very much akin to what VATSIM already uses.  From what we've seen of BVATC controllers that have already dipped their toes in VATSIM waters, testing it out before their formal vote, many/most BVATC controllers are either at or near GRP standards already, so ZBW has been able to perform some training on the VRC client and differences training, and then a quick checkout akin to what one might expect to give a visiting controller or transfer. 

 

BVATC, by definition, is based in Boston/ZBW.  As such, I imagine ZBW will see the biggest benefit.  However, legacy BVATC members are excited about the prospects of flying around the country, and the world, and receiving plenty of ATC while doing it both during and outside of events.

 

BVATC is a very tight-knit community of both pilots and controllers.  Their existing culture highly values both.  They focus a lot more on GA than we normally see in VATUSA (/VATSIM), so adding a bunch more GA ops will only add to our effective simulation of Virtual Air Traffic, and the addition of a lot more airliner/freighter/etc. traffic is exciting to the BVATC folks.  By combining the airline traffic common on VATSIM with the general aviation-focused traffic on Boston Virtual ATC, ZBW airspace (and beyond) will offer a more realistic mix of traffic in a more routinely busy environment. The increase in general aviation and internal ZBW traffic, including from Cape Air Virtual, will give controllers new opportunities to practice their craft, and pilots more ATC to enjoy. Controllers will train and work together to manage what will become one of the busiest airspaces on VATSIM. Meanwhile, the combined ATC training staff will be larger, allowing controllers to benefit from more training opportunities and staff who have a multitude of experiences on various networks.

 

BVATC folks have a very highly defined culture that they value very much, and one of their major concerns is they are able to keep their tight-knit community culture largely intact.  One the challenges of any merger of organizations is valuing the people and culture while new, aligned norms are determined and adopted.  ZBW leadership, BVATC leadership and I are committed to ensuring that the combined ZBW/BVATC organization can morph into a culture that is highly effective and prized for the entire membership.

 

Because BVATC, though based in Boston/ZBW, has hosted events outside ZBW in the past, and their membership highly values that flexibility, I anticipate that the legacy BVATC community will likely either start approaching ARTCCs and requesting ATC for their flying events (think of their community as part-VA), or perhaps even asking that some of their controllers be granted visiting controller permission, either as a "regular" visiting controller or for short-term stints (maybe even just one evening) to support their event.  I'm going to ask ATMs and facility staff to consider the possibility of keeping an open mind and allowing some short-term or event-only visiting privileges.  At worst, maybe your airspace sees a little extra traffic for a small-scale event.  At best, more facilities pick up more reasonably-well-qualified visiting controllers.  In either case, I recognize that a request for a one-time allowance of visiting privileges to facilitate an event will be weird in legacy-VATUSA norms, but would encourage ARTCCs to be open-minded and either offer to use your own staff to staff the event (much like you'd do for any VA's event), allow them to control themselves with short-term visiting privileges, or (best of both worlds) both!  And then let me know how it works out!

 

A transition team has been developed between ZBW and BVATC to determine best practices with respect to training/certification, SOPs, etc.  This will take some time to get nailed down (think several months), but the leadership from both organizations are committed to mutual, ergo combined, success. 

 

The fact that BVATC has chosen to come join the VATUSA/VATSIM community is new (announced just a few hours ago), and there are a lot of details that still need to be worked out.  The fact that VATUSA is welcoming hundreds of additional good controllers and pilots is great for our community and hobby.  The key is that the combined leadership of ZBW and BVATC is committed to mutual success, as is VATUSA and as am I.  Please join me in welcoming the members of the Boston Virtual ATC organization, controllers and pilots alike, to VATUSA.

 

 

For reference only: Some (updated) selected slides from the preliminary talks:  www.vatusa.net/files/VATUSA%20BVATC%20A ... slides.pdf

[Guest Denny Puka]

This is great! Just a question, with vZBW's and BVA's active controllers combined how many would we have in total? Would that mean as an ARTCC, we have the most controllers in total (out of VATUSA/VATSIM in general)?

[Don Desfosse]

Assuming all come over, ZBW would be hovering around 100 on the roster.  The better measure is how many are active, though....  That said, the ZBW roster would be one of the top three, likely number three.

[Guest Denny Puka]

Assuming all come over, ZBW would be hovering around 100 on the roster.  The better measure is how many are active, though....  That said, the ZBW roster would be one of the top three, likely number three.

looks like our [s:1ey0jbcx]world[/s:1ey0jbcx] virtual world domination plan is set!

[Guest Bob Lehew]

Hi

I'm trying to join Team Speak for the first time...Think I know the server identification, but not the password?

Bob Lehew

[Camden Bruno]

Hi

I'm trying to join Team Speak for the first time...Think I know the server identification, but not the password?

Bob Lehew

 

Hi Bob,

 

If you login to the website and go to Members > Member TeamSpeak, the information is there.

 

Thanks,