On October 14, 2017, VATSIM set a new record with 1,458 unique members online for the first time in its history! It happened during an intense, busy, but extremely fun series of events that featured Boston Virtual ARTCC.
Starting at 8:47am ET on Friday, October 13 and for 64 hours and 39 minutes straight, our controllers staffed up Boston Center this past weekend. Day or night, the airspace was active with pilots from across the world. Boston Center controllers handled a total of 822 arrivals and departures from Boston, averaging about 13 operations per hour over the course of the event. As part of the event, we were the most-staffed Center facility across VATSIM, with a total of 78 hours and 8 minutes staffed between October 9-15 (almost 50% of the week!).
From 7-11pm ET, we staffed up Boston for Friday Night Operations, VATUSA’s weekly event. Clearance Delivery issued almost 60 IFR and VFR clearances over the course of the night. It was a busy evening, with traffic flowing in well past the official end of the event. Controllers didn’t have much time to rest: while a skeleton crew manned the overnight shift of Boston Center, most were getting ready for Cross the Pond.
As a departure airport, KBOS handled 160 departures, most of which were headed across the Atlantic Ocean for destinations across Europe. Controllers across our ARTCC kept pilots moving quickly; departure delays at KBOS never exceeded 15 minutes, and the longest lineup we ever had for departure was 10 aircraft. Radar controllers merged KBOS departures with traffic from KMCO, KIAD, and KJFK throughout the course of the event.
To see all of our upcoming events, please visit the Events Calendar.
WorldFlight Australia is a virtual round the world flight that has raised over $200,000 for The Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service. This year, the flight commences in Sydney November 5th and finishes 6 days later on November 11th.
During the 6-day period, pilots from around the world, including several in their own fixed-based simulation cockpits, will be flying around the entire world.
The flight will pass through our airspace on November 8, with a 1315Z departure from Kennedy (KJFK) to Goose Bay (CYYR). In support of the event, Boston Center will be staffed from 7-11am ET. Pilots are more than welcome to take part in the WorldFlight leg, or to fly within our airspace and enjoy some early AM Center coverage.
As usual, we’re burning the candle on both ends here at BVA! WorldFlight takes place early in the morning of November 8. That evening, we are back at it again, with an event featuring Bedford (KBED), Norwood (KOWD), and Lawrence (KLWM) starting at 8pm ET.
In this Challenge, three airports that regularly use circle-to-land procedures will be staffed up in and around the Boston Class B airspace. Bedford (KBED), Norwood (KOWD), and Lawrence (KLWM) and all located nearby Boston's busy Logan International Airport. As a result of traffic landing and departing at Boston, aircraft landing at these three regional airports regularly fly an instrument approach to one runway, then break off the approach and fly a visual maneuver to line up with another runway. This is known as 'circling'.
Last month's question was:
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