Gilles Lagace Share Posted August 27, 2010 EXPERIMENTAL "OFF" Events for all members of BVATC. This is a personal invitation to try a new concept for our flying activities when EVENTS are NOT in the focus... and when there are NO controllers active anywhere. One sure thing we learn in Flight School is to communicate our intentions on UNICOM, be it 122.95 or even 122.7, and what better way to practice it at a NON TOWERED airport like this interesting airport I'm proposing : CONCORD MUNI (KCON), has 2 runways, one 6000' long, 1 ILS, not too many charts to print... nice river along airport, BOSTON, PORTLAND, BRADLEY close ... cheap avgas... and friendly neighbourhood, and even Cape Air has routes to CONCORD! So, my proposal is that "every member" voluntarily uses KCON in his/her "off-events" flight plans: please file KCON as your DEPARTURE airport ... OR ... your ARRIVAL airport ... hence the D & A abbreviation... so the real DNA you carry in your piloting cells will vibrate together with the D&A of fellow pilots. As this is "experimental" this offer could be removed at anytime. BVATC officials need to know if this is convenient and not disruptive, and mostly if this concept is fun for you members. So, I will be happy to hear you on UNICOM... and see you fly around KCON for the next 14 days... as this experimental proposal will end at 09:05 ZULU on September 10th 2010. I will mostly hang around CONCORD until then... Your Forums comments are welcome too. Remember this is experimental : you simply have to fly "OUT " of this featured airport to anywhere in the world... and be sure to come from anywhere in the wolrd to fly "IN" this airport| 7 days a week / 24 hours a day ... only off events. When controllers are staffing other airports (go see them, and work with them)... |) By the way, sorry , about our controllers, we don't have a tower frequency at KCON ... maybe we should move this experimental concept to towered airports soon, if we see you have interest in joining with fellow members of BVATC using the D&A concept. DOCUMENTS : AOPA Airport info : http://www.aopa.org/airports/KCON and "Kneeboard info" http://www.aopa.org/airports/KCON/kneeboard.pdf Gilles | CYUL | Founder of the "TANGO SQUADRON" - BVA member since July 31st 2008 Link to comment
Gilles Lagace Author Share Posted September 10, 2010 Hi controllers, pilots and mentors in BVATC. The experimental period for my proposal is ending today. The focus airport was KCON - Concord Muni... "Concord < = > reunion". My goal was to see if flying time, "off-Events", could be directed to/from a FOCUS airport, and so bringing controllers and pilots closer together| and fully staff ONE airport at a time.... hopefully providing "close encounters of the UNICOM type... or even of the ATC controlled type, too". :roll: ....................................... :idea: Please reply to this topic and speak of your experience "OFF-EVENTS" and the way you feel with "spontaneous" - "unannounced" filling skies... having UNICOM chatter from any location... or having to chase (or not) our friendly pilots to fly with or nearby... so we have some "traffic". :?: Do you feel like you would try your chance at flying TO and/or FROM such an airport... if BVATC announced such a suggested featured "off-events" airport of DEPARTURE or ARRIVAL on the website or FlightDesk ? :?: Does you time zone location, or daily life, prevent you from attending actual EVENTS ? ....................................... Filing a flight plan in "FlighDesk" involving the featured D&A airport as DEPARTURE or ARRIVAL would get us to merge together, I tend to believe. :idea: Waiting for your fine thoughts about this. - Thanks! Gilles | CYUL | Founder of the "TANGO SQUADRON" - BVA member since July 31st 2008 Link to comment
Larry Wilkinson Share Posted September 11, 2010 Sorry I did not get to attend at KCON during your trial. That being said as a RL pilot that fly's out of a lot of small airports using UNICOM, I think this is a great idea. A new event with no ATC. I love it. Just in or out or T & G's. I think it should be a small, one runway airport. This is something we could schedule once a week if no other events hender it. A true fly in. Maybe we can feature a small airport in a region that some of the members live or Real Life pilots fly out of. I fly out of Ferguson (http://www.fergusonairport.com/) 3200 ft runway Grass or Paved. Great idea. Link to comment
Guest Yun Chase Share Posted September 11, 2010 Yeah, I completely missed this opportunity but I have to agree with Bulletman, I think this is a great idea. CTAF/UNICOM transmission is a vital part of real world GA communications procedure (even for some regional carriers). While BVATC encourages using CTAF announcements when operating at an uncontrolled airport, it's a bit boring if you're the only one departing or arriving at a particular airport... Sometimes, I feel stupid for doing it when I know there is no one around you for 500 miles... :D What if we designated Wednesday evenings as a CU night? (CU = CTAF/UNICOM) Since many controllers work Tuesday nights for RC events, it will give them Wed. nights off and thus pilots can choose to fly this. So every Wednesday night, we pick a different Uncontrolled airport for this CU event... If once a week is too much then we can try once a month, say like the 15th of every month (unless that falls on a Tuesday)... What do you think? By the way, I fly out of Mansfield just SW of Boston(http://http:|//www.|king1b9.|com) with 3500' Paved/2200' Grass Rwys... I was supposed to go flying out of Mansfield today but had to cancel because we have a neighborhood block party today... :lol: Bulletman, I see you're near the panhandle...I grew up in Melbourne, FL. :D Link to comment
Gilles Lagace Author Share Posted September 11, 2010 Thanks "Bulletman" and "gochase95"... Great feedback from you both. I will gladly set your airports as starting experimental D&A points... and ask "Operations" if they could have a special "D&A timetable" on the website where we could post TIMEs and LOCATIONs announcements... for these Off-event airports to fly TO/FROM... Stay tuned for some announcement about this "experimental" off-events procedures. Remember that this is to fill the time between events so members from all around the real BVA world can meet and practice UNICOM... and when rested controllers want to come in the tower... then we follow ATC rules, for communications. WILL BE RIGHT BACK... :geek: Gilles | CYUL | Founder of the "TANGO SQUADRON" - BVA member since July 31st 2008 Link to comment
