More news from Rome to NYC

[Omar Campanalunga]

I have not been able to reserve slots from Fiumicino to New York during the past weeks, but I had decided to fly, it was an incredible experience.
Here are some screenshots.

[Theodore Martin]

Yes, I too tried to reserve a slot (any slot) on the Cross The Pond event and was unable to get one. And with their comments of there being long delays in getting a clearance if you don't have a slot I decided to not fly.

Just took a look at JFK and it is totally swamped right now. About 200+ a/c scheduled there right now!

Have a good landing Omar.

[Michael Blakely]

Sooooo coooool!

[Omar Campanalunga]

Yes, it was more than 3000 people connected. I do not remember in VATSIM so many people connected.

[Todd Meek]

The funny part is I wasn't even aware that this event was taking place and I was doing one of my flights on the flight bid and I saw that Europe was lit up with controllers and I was getting the messages on Vpilot about doing position reports online thru a website and getting oceanic clearance the same way. I was thinking to myself what the heck is going on up there and I had only 1 ATC my entire flight which was around United Arab Emirates and I was only in his airspace for like 30 to 45 mins. Would have been fun to participate but holy cow they were beyond swamped.

[Theodore Martin]

.... Would have been fun to participate but holy cow they were beyond swamped.

That is one of two major events each year I try to participate. I've done the Cross The Pond previously and it was a lot of fun (though long). The other event is called World Flight and is a charity event put on by a group in England (I think). They basically fly around the world in 2 or 3 days using rotating crews. They usually have several of the participants flying fully built cockpits and a couple of years ago they live streamed from the cockpit. I was very interesting watching their stream while I taxied or flew behind or in front of them.

The World Flight group defines the route, selects the airports, and actually provides ATC at the airport (or arranges to have the normal controllers available). Since they may have 30 to 40 a/c at any given time and are flying online, they stay away from major airports so that normal VATSIM ATC and/or traffic does not interfere. It really gets interesting fitting 15 or so a/c (B73x to heavy metal) on these small airports. You will see a/c parked on the grass, taxing on both sides of the runway whether there is a taxi defined there or not. Just a fun event.