STUFF IT!

[Guest Bob Moore]

An event Idea I've been kicking around.

 

BVATCâ¬"s

â¬SLets Jam the Booth⬠Event

 

Before there were cell phones people used Phone Booths to make calls when out and about.

Do you remember phone booths? If you do, you may remember when college students would jam as many of them selves inside it as they could.

What did they get out of it? They got the satisfaction of being the best at sharing a very tight space with a bunch of guys with stinky feet, sweaty armpits and pungent underwear.

 

Well BVATC is running with that same idea but doing it BVATC style.

So do you know what you get when you Jam a BVATC circuit with as many aircraft as you can?

 

BVATC being the best at an adrenalin pumping immersion into reality that canâ¬"t be experienced anywhere else but the BVATC â¬SLets Jam the Booth⬠Event!

 

THE SETUP

The BVATC â¬Sphone boothâ¬

 

Circuits flown between.

KIAD-Washington Dulles

Which will be landing & departing 3 parallel runways in simultaneous operations.

&

KPHL-Philadelphia Which will be landing & departing 2 parallel runways in simultaneous operations.

 

â¬Sthe Jammersâ¬

 

The plan is to get 62 pilots flying inside our BVATC phone booth: That could = one aircraft every 5 miles flying both directions forming a conga line nose to tail. Nice and tight, not arm pit smelling tight but BVATC tight! Also with that number filling the skies we would still have at least 10 aircraft on the ground, 5 at each airport waiting in line spewing turbine exhaust gases all over each other waiting for departure releases. Again this is in our opinion an improvement from stinky feet and the proverbial pungent underwear. The ETE with 135nm legs each way should be about 25-30 minutes, (without holds or delays).

 

ATC Positions:

13 Air Traffic Control positions would be on duty working intensely maintaining aircraft separations. They will do there best to minimize any â¬Sschedule delays⬠for pilots, by getting as many as possible moving on the ground and in the air inside our â¬SPhone Boothâ¬.

 

ATC positions to be staffed:

1. PHL_A Philadelphia Approach 128.40

2. PHL_D Philadelphia Departure 119.75

3. PHL_T Philadelphia Tower North 118.50

4. PHL_T Philadelphia Tower South 135.10

5. PHL_G Philadelphia Ground 121.90

6. PHL_Cl Philadelphia Clearance 118.80

7. ZDC- Washington Center 123.85

8. IAD_A Potomac Approach 120.45

9. IAD_D Potomac Departure 126.10

10. IAD_T Dulles Tower West 120.10

11. IAD_T Dulles Tower East 128.42

12. IAD_G Dulles Ground 132.45

13. IAD_ Cl Duller Clearance Delivery 135.70

 

Traffic & Delays:

Even with our top notch controllers on the job some delays will be inevitable. At the onset of the event we will feature staggered departure times assigned to pilots starting from both airports. This will help with commâ¬"s and getting aircraft in the air quicker, but even with that you can expect ground congestion with lines of aircraft on the taxiways. You may even experience some local controllers holding traffic on the ground, with departure controllers not accepting any new flight strips until his airspace traffic density eases a bit.

After you get airborne and en-route things really get dicey with constant radio chatter between ATC and pilots. The steady nose to tail traffic of inbound and outbound aircraft inside our â¬Sphone booth will find our ATC utilizing all the tools at there disposal to maintain separations. Including but not limited to, speed restrictions, vectors for separation, and altitude changes as well as utilizing published or non-published hold points.

 

ON-TIME or DELAYED Passenger Satisfaction ratings:

With this event we wanted to try to provide an environment that rewards pilots for flying numerous flights on time, and to simulate in a small way the rewards and or frustration airline pilots can get from disgruntled passengers and unhappy management due to flight delays. To that end we are providing a little added incentive. Any Pilot who completes 4 legs of the circuit will be put in drawing for 10 BVATC hats. Any pilot who manages to complete 5 legs of the circuit will be in the drawing for 4 BVATC Jerseys. We hope this incentive will help keep the phone booth jammed for the duration of the event. And provide a small amount of the motivation for pilots to make as many flight schedules on time in heavy air traffic as they can.

 

 

Helping the BVATC Community:

Finally a monetary incentive will be paid out based on overall participation that will directly benefit the BVATC community at large.

$5.00 dollars will be donated to BVATC for each ATC position staffed for the entire 3 hour duration. In addition $2.00 dollars will be donated for each pilot that completes at least one circuit. So you not only get to enjoy a great event and a good chance to acquire highly sought after BVATC apparel, but you will help contribute to the BVATC general fund just by participating.

 

Preferred Routes:

KIAD-KPHL WOOLY V214 DQO Alt-13,000

KPHL-KIAD MXE V474 DELRO.DELRO2 Alt-12,000

 

-Loc

[Guest Grayson Ridge]

I like it! Well thought out, and it pushes the operations of real life that I think a lot have wanted to simulate (delays etc). So basically, it's a Pack the Pattern + Regional Circuit + a hint of NYHTC. I'm open to it! I'd love to have to operate with heavies behind me and connect-jets in front of me.

[Guest Ian Taylor-Quiring]

Count me in! I don't have the most forgiving schedule but I'll be there.

[Erik VanderWerf]

That's Cool. Then If pilots lowered their fuel to bare minimum, you would have number-crunching pilots in the air, hoping that the guy in front gets off the runway fast, and number-crunching pilots on the ground, 3-2-1-Bingo! Holding patters would be cool (The last time I said that, someone told me that holding patterns are no longer used).

 

The money incentive, I can see that, but the shirts and hats! Or am I just not getting some big joke like the Aerosoft USB jet engine.

[Devon Hathaway]

yep yep!!! sounds like a great idea!! i'd staff/fly the whole event without a doubt!!!!

[Guest Kevin Wojtanek]

I love this idea, I would really like to try and fly in an event packed with people since my FSX crashed in the last tea party, and the first tea party someone crashed into me. I also like the idea of doing this event in a fairly FPS friendly area since my computer is only avg in running FSX, which is a reason I can't fly the NYHTC because the NY area kills my FPS. Now my only problem with an event like this is trying to decide which plane I'll pull out of the hangar.

[Guest Bob Moore]

If we get this event on the schedule, I've told Evan I have a connection that can produce the hats and Jerseys which I could donate.

Also If we decide to incentivize the event by tying participation to a BVATC general fund contribution, any member or members could step up to fund it in lieu of their "normal" donation. Thereby making their money work even a little harder for BVATC by fueling good participation in an event.

 

We have had 70-90 in session with other "special" events in the past but most of them have been spread over some very large expanses of controlled airspace with numerous airports staffed. During these style events the realism and excitement for pilots was high and all enjoyed knowing they could take off 500- 800 miles away from numerous staffed destinations and get full ATC coverage the whole way....but they rarely heard or saw any more traffic than they would on a typical regional circuit night, and for most it was substantially less. ATC postions for the most part in these events were also slower than a typical regional circuit night. Some ATC in these style events would make only 4-6 ATC to pilot transmissions for the entire 3 hour duration of the event.

 

Like I said previously some events are geared more for pilots, some are geared more for ATC enjoyment. But one key I think to BVATC success is it has always tried to keep a balance between ATC and pilots. After all it is called Boston Virtual "Air Traffic Control". Any event proposed that doesn't keep some kind of balance like that in mind would take some pretty good talking to get BVATC sanctioning I would think...

 

My hope would be that events like the "Lets Jam the Booth", that maybe is geared more for ATC enjoyment is also almost equally as enjoyable for our BVATC pilots.

 

-Loc

[Guest Grayson Ridge]

Question: the map kinda throws me off, is it a two way/two airport trip? or does that pic just show the proposed route?

[Guest Bob Moore]

The map just shows the preferred routes between KPHL & KIAD. KPHL kind of got chopped off there a little bit thats all.

 

-Loc

[Guest Brandon Carter]

What is the current status of this event? Is it still in the works?

[Erik VanderWerf]

As of now, no. If (more) interest is expressed, maybe.

[Guest Bob Moore]

What is the current status of this event? Is it still in the works?

 

When I proposed this event our event calender was pretty full and there was some concern that it was to much like a regional circuit to make a "special event" out of it. It then just died on the vine so to speak... As a side note I did have more time to take the lead when I proposed this event, ( which sadly is not the case today).

The thought of 62+ pilots condensed into two TRACONs is very cool I think. Maybe another tweak for the stuff the booth event, just for the start could be to add two additional airports. This would help with clearances and getting twice as many aircraft airborne and enroute to KPHL and KIAD faster with the added benefit of at least initally having aircraft converging from two different directions at our featured airports. So instead of 31 @ KIAD and 31 @ KPHL at the start Lets have 16 @ KIAD filed to KPHL, 15 @ KAVP filed to KPHL, 16 @ KPHL filed to KIAD, and 15 @ KRIC filed to KIAD. As soon as the two "satellite airports" KRIC & KAVP departures have gone they would close and there ATC would then fly or take relief or alternate ATC postions at the main featured airports KIAD-KPHL. KRIC and KAVP would remain closed after the start and all subsequent flights would remain between the featured airports keeping our Phone Booth Stuffed for the duration of the event.

 

-Loc