Continental Week

[Erik VanderWerf]

Sometime, perhaps once or twice a year, we should devote an entire week to International Flying. Post changes or ideas for the "Continental Week."

 

Mon- Europe

Tue- Asia

Wed- Africa

Thurs- South America

Fri- North America *For our International Friends

Sat- Austrailia

Sun- Antartica *If we wanted to

 

notendorsedbybvainanywayshapeorform. :?

[Evan Reiter]

Good idea... I think some international destinations would be a nice change. However, as we've discussed before, flying to different countries, even neighbouring countries like Canada, can cause some difficulties. For starters, charts for these countries are rarely available online, and when they are, they're out-dated (try to find a Canadian airport on AirNav or myairplane.com... unfortunately, it won't work). Even worse, there's no SkyVector.com for Canada, meaning we don't have access to low- and high-altitude en-route charts or sectional charts.

 

Then you come down to the question of ATC. Different airports and airspaces require different procedures and (maybe) different phraseology... and learning all that takes hours! Even when we move around the country, our controllers will often take some time to get used to a new airspace (I know I had to do some quick research when I set up for Salt Lake City Approach last night (with the mountains nearby), and that was still in the United States!)

 

While we would like to think about going international, it's not something we could do on a rapidly-changing basis. Our controllers are able to do the job they do because they are familiar with the airspace. If you take me out of ZBW, I'll need at least 4-5 days to prepare, and if the location is away from the continent, then I'll be in a lot of trouble.

 

I do think that we need to begin exploring other parts of the world we live in slowly, and that's why, coming in 2010, we're going to have a major European focus featuring a getaway and several events... stay tuned!

[Erik VanderWerf]

Im not exactly taliking about ATC or charts. We can use the ones in FSX. And the event is really to see the wonderful parts of each continent. And if ATC joins, they can use the same American commands. Its not exactly realistic, but it gets the job done.