[22 October 2016] Cross The Pond - Eastbound

With a tentative date of October 22, VATSIM hosts Cross The Pond Eastbound, the annual flight across the Atlantic Ocean from North America to Europe. The departure and arrival airports are in the process of being selected, so we won’t know whether KBOS will be an official airport or not. However, in any case, BVA will have a major presence in this annual event. We encourage our pilots to fly local, or—for the guys who like the tubeliners—to join the fun and reserve a departure slot.

Please keep an eye on this thread for more information as the event draws closer.

Congratulations, guys!  ;D

UPDATE! Boston has been selected as one of the featured departure airports for the 2016 Cross The Pond Eastbound event! VATSIM's biggest and most challenging event takes place on Saturday, October 22 from ~6:15am-5pm ET.

More information at: http://ctp.vatsim.net/. This is a serious event and pilots who are planning to book or fly transatlantic should be flying an add-on jetliner with FMS/routing capability as well as familiarity with oceanic procedures.

Pilots flying the event book departure slots for Cross The Pond. Slots are limited, and they typically book very quickly. An announcement will be posted on this thread when bookings will open. The same as last time, bookings made will be estimated slot times (+/- 15 minutes) and estimated flight levels (+/- 1000ft). Actual slot time and flight level will be confirmed (via email and via login on the CTP website) along with your full route on the day of the event.

Updates regarding the event will be posted in this thread as well as available on the CTP website. We hope you enjoy the event!

Departure Airports:

Boston (KBOS)

New York JFK (KJFK)

Miami (KMIA)

Dallas Fort-Worth (KDFW)

Arrival Airports:

London Heathrow (EGLL)

Zurich (LSZH)

Amsterdam (EHAM)

Hamburg (EDDH)

Cross the Pond Eastbound 2016 bookings will open this Saturday (10/1) at 3pm ET. We hope you choose Boston Logan as your departure field and we look forward to the big day on October 22nd!

Bookings have been postponed till tomorrow Oct 2nd at 1900z

Edited post above. Bookings are postponed to tomorrow at 1900z.

Bookings are open! DAL507, B77L, KBOS-LSZH

All Cross the Pond bookings departing BOS have been taken (in less than 2 hours!), and only a few others remain. Didn't get a booking? Check out some of our tips below:

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We're sorry that you didn't get the booking of your choice for this years Cross the Pond Eastbound! However, there are alternatives.

Our first suggestion is to continue to monitor the Cross the Pond website as well as the forum thread, as people occasionally drop their booking which opens it up to other pilots.

If that doesn't work, you can always choose to fly as a "non-event" aircraft. You won't have a slot, which means you don't have a designated departure/arrival time. With that said, you may experience significant delays on the ground and in the air. However, if you don't mind waiting, staying patient, and taking along some extra fuel this may be your solution.

Lastly, keep in mind that although the event is intended for aircraft to cross the atlantic and embark on an oceanic journey, you can always fly regional, bizjet, or general aviation flights if you enjoy those more! Air Traffic Control will be fully staffed and although you may experience some delay, it's better than not flying at all!

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We hope these tips and tricks help. Regardless of if you got a slot or not, we look forward to seeing you on the 22nd. Blue skies and happy landings!

Boston Virtual ARTCC (BVA) Events Team

I was planning to fly a Challenger 300 KBOS-EGLL during the Cross the Pond event. Obviously I have no slot. FL410 should put me above most traffic. The plane takes enough fuel to get there with an extra hour or so, but flying around waiting for a landing slot... well there's not a lot of wiggle room.

Are there any rules or pieces of good advice suggesting I should not try this?

Thanks,

Andrew

Are there any rules or pieces of good advice suggesting I should not try this?

You shouldn't experience much of a delay (if any) out of BOS, but no promises. All things considered, the time taxiing out, holding short for departure, the holds on the other side of the pond combined with sequencing, taxi time in, etc. add up. Combined with the fact that you may be placed on a non-event NAT track (for those who do not have a booking), which tends to be a longer trip. I'm not sure i'd suggest taking the Challenger for this type of an event where significant holds are always a possibility.

 

You shouldn't experience much of a delay (if any) out of BOS, but no promises. All things considered, the time taxiing out, holding short for departure, the holds on the other side of the pond combined with sequencing, taxi time in, etc. add up. Combined with the fact that you may be placed on a non-event NAT track (for those who do not have a booking), which tends to be a longer trip. I'm not sure i'd suggest taking the Challenger for this type of an event where significant holds are always a possibility.

Sound advice Camden, thank you. Maybe I'll fly into Manchester or Gatwick to avoid EGLL congestion. The Challenger is the only plane I have that can do this (my airliners are in the hangar awaiting a more powerful computer).

Keeping with the thread, I don't see that DY gave his slot away yet, though he is certainly on tap to control.  So if he still has it, you could try to coordinate a slot transfer with him, knowing full well that if someone else just happened to be on trying to get a slot at the same time you were trying to work a transfer and had lucky timing, the slot could go to the other guy.  (Pretty slimy by the way, DY....)

As Cross the Pond departures begin to diminish, the controllers, staff, and administration of the Boston Virtual ARTCC would like to take this time to thank all of those involved with Cross the Pond.

The Cross the Pond Planning Team made this years Eastbound crossing a swift and enjoyable process. Additionally, our controllers did a phenomenal job preparing and executing the event.

Please take the time to send our controllers feedback so that we know how we did. Feedback can be sent via www.bvartcc.com/feedback

We were extremely proud of our performance, as we never had an official hold or delay. Although pilots may have experienced a wait in the queue for takeoff, this was simply due to traffic congestion (looking at the statistics, we handled far more than real-world Boston Logan controllers during the same amount of time) and all departure airports had the same experience. Thank you to all pilots for their patience, professionalism, and an overall job well done. Remember, without you, events like these would not be possible.

Also please be sure to follow us on Twitter (@BVARTCC) and check out some of our tweets, pictures, and screenshots from the event today.

We look forward to Cross the Pond Westbound in March and wish you blue skies and happy landings until then.

Hope to see you in our airspace soon,

Boston Virtual ARTCC Events Team

All, if you participated in CTP (as a controller or pilot), you are able to leave feedback here. You can express any comments, concerns, or suggestions you may have for future CTP events.

Thanks!