4. Pre – Connection Procedures - On Line flight

        Be advised that our flight planning has been made on the basis of the AIRAC Cycle 1012. Be sure to have this AIRAC data installed in your system, or check for possible incompatibilities with older or newer cycles. Also if you use FS Navigator 4.x or any other AIRAC compatible addons take care and update it, dowloading from NavData. 

        Prior to your connection here is a piece of advice that could be proved to be wise. We urge you to utilize the ServInfo, a MUST HAVE utility created by Michael Frantzeskakis (check our Links Page) and find out which of the active servers has the smallest ping time for you. You should choose to connect to this server in SquawkBox/FSInn. Although this is already a standard procedure for the regular and experienced On-Line Flight Simmers, we mention it, so that we reduce the lag factor to the minimum possible level.

        As mentioned above, we will connect to VATSIM network and having contacted the vACCs engaged in our two routes, we expect  ATC coverage up to a satisfactorily level.  For the record,  you are supposed to have at least a fair knowledge of on-line flying otherwise you better leave it for next year when you will be more experienced :-).

 

5. Meeting Point-Communications-AVC usage

    First of all : The date of flight is Saturday December 18th 2010.       

     We will meet at the apron of Athens Eleftherios Venizelos (LGAV) at 16:00 UTC (Zulu), which is 18:00 Local Greece Time. The whole procedure (clearance delivery) will start at 16:10 UTC (Zulu) and the first departure slot (take off) will be 16:20 UTC (Zulu).

     Bear in mind that we will apply time slots and assigned gates for our departures to honour our registered pilots. On connect with VATSIM be sure that you have your Squawk on stand by mode and please have your aircraft positioned in the assigned gate prior to this event. Not a big deal after all… 

      We will meet in ASe’s event company frequency which is rw.liveatc.net/ase  

      This will be our check-in frequency where we just announce our presence and confirm our details. When time comes we all switch to the ATC for the rest of our Event. 

       PLEASE set your reality preferences to “IGNORE CRASH” while on the ground. No reason why we should lose time by unpredictable aircraft (pilots ?) behaviour in  LGAV's or EFRO’s Apron.

       Connecting to VATSIM network does not mean that voice capability is mandatory. All controllers will provide ATC services even to text-only-able pilots. But… voice makes things much easier for all of us and is one step closer to reality.  

        Try to use radio laconically and speak loud (not too loud) and clear. You must have your system well tuned in order to take the maximum out of it. Make some testing of your settings. You must also understand that not all of people have English as their native language…. Just for this reason please use standard ATC phraseology as it will facilitate things a lot. Clear, Simple and Effective communication!

         In FIRs that their ATC is not manned we will return to our company official frequency (rw.liveatc.net/ase) and we will return to ATC voice frequency when ATC is again available.

                 6. Aegean Seagull Log Book and Santa Claus

        We remind you that you do not have to be a qualified Aegean Seagull pilot to participate in our flight, BUT you must be good at flying your aircraft. Have under mind that ASe is an advanced virtual Airline System, the very first that introduced the exclusively on-line flying in its operations, and its pilots fly with the highest standards available in the FS community. That means that the fun factor will be greatly enhanced. It is a good opportunity to have a good taste of our operations level and perhaps apply to join us. ;-)

                 7. Flight plan

Here are the flight plans in all their details .

 

LGAV NEVRAxx.NEVRA UG33 KOROS UN133 EVRIK UZ317 RUMUK UM977 SUW UM985 BOKSU UM857 PVO UM854 KEKOX.KEKOXxx EFRO

And here is our Navigation Log :

Aegean Seagull flies to Santa’s Home Year #10

1. LGAV-EFRO FLIGHT LOG A/C : 737-700, 727-200 or any a/c type able to cruise with at least M0.78 at FL390 FLIGHT LEVEL 390 - CRUISE SPEED : M 0.78 - FLIGHT’S DURATION : 4,0 hrs
   Location	Id	Type	Freq	Track	Distance	Airway	Country/FIR
   Athens Eleftherios Venizelos	LGAV	Airport					Hellas/Athinai FIR/LGGG
   NEVRAxx		SID			32.6		Hellas/Makedonia FIR/LGMD
   NEVRA	NEVRA	ISEC	-	61	32.6	UG33
   KOROS	KOROS	ISEC	-	014	58.3
   PEREN	PEREN	ISEC	-	008	99.9	UN133
   EVIVI	EVIVI	ISEC	-	332	53.6		Exit/Entrance
   VANET	VANET	ISEC	-	355	53.6		Bulgaria/Sofia FIR/LBSR
   DOTAM	DOTAM	ISEC	-	355	3.7
   EDADA	EDADA	ISEC	-	355	7.1
   SOFIA	SOF	VOR/DME	112.60	355	13.4
   TODRO	TODRO	ISEC	-	352	13.4
   OGOTA	OGOTA	ISEC	-	352	17.7
   RESLA	RESLA	ISEC	-	352	6.9
   ERDOM	ERDOM	ISEC	-	352	11.4
   LOMOS	LOMOS	ISEC	-	352	19.0		Exit/Entrance
   ABRED	ABRED	ISEC	-	342	50.2		Romania/Bucuresti FIR/LRBB
   LANOM	LANOM	ISEC	-	342	14.1
   PIBOL	PIBOL	ISEC	-	341	8.6
   NEKUL	NEKUL	ISEC	-	342	32.1
   VASIS	VASIS	ISEC	-	341	27.2
   BESET	BESET	ISEC	-	341	13.5
   EVRIK	EVRIK	ISEC	-	341	11.4
   ODREN	ODREN	ISEC	-	022	26.6	UZ317
   OBARA	OBARA	ISEC	-	023	18.6
   RONOT	RONOT	NDB	418.0	023	12.1
   RIMER	RIMER	ISEC	-	023	11.4
   RAVEK	RAVEK	ISEC	-	023	10.5
   EPAVA	EPAVA	ISEC	-	023	6.9
   RUMUK	RUMUK	ISEC	-	015	24.2		Exit/Entrance
   DIBED	DIBED	ISEC	-	351	112.3	UM977	Ukraine/Lviv FIR/UKLL   Exit/Entrance
   OSMAT	OSMAT	ISEC	-	355	21.3		Poland/Warszawa FIR/EPWW
   BALBA	BALBA	ISEC	-	355	37.1
   ETUBO	ETUBO	ISEC	-	355	96.5
   BESOT	BESOT	ISEC	-	355	27.2
   BUGUM	BUGUM	ISEC	-	355	4.7
   SUWALKI	SUW	ISEC	-	355	64.1	UM985
   BOKSU	BOKSU	ISEC	-	018	15.4	UM857	Exit/Entrance
   VAKAL	VAKAL	ISEC	-	005	34.1		Lithuania/Vilnius FIR/EYVL
   GUNTA	GUNTA	ISEC	-	007	92.0		Exit/Entrance
   ATRAK	ATRAK	ISEC	-	008	13.5		Latvia/Riga FIR/EVRR
   RIGA	RIA	VOR/DME	112.05	007	20.2
   SOKVA	SOKVA	ISEC	-	006	59.7		Exit/Entrance
   ANAMA	ANAMA	ISEC	-	006	31.5		Estonia/Tallinn FIR/EETT
   KEMET	KEMET	ISEC	-	005	18.7
   TALLINN	TLL	VOR/DME	112.20	005	42.1
   BEKNA	BEKNA	ISEC	-	017	7.6
   INTOR	INTOR	ISEC	-	018	19.6
   BALTI	BALTI	ISEC	-	018	5.0		Exit/Entrance
   PORVOO	PVO	VOR/DME	112.80	17	25.5		Finland/Tampere FIR/EFES
   ROVIL	ROVIL	ISEC	---	331	34.4	UM854
   ANTON	ANT	VOR/DME	113.70	355	2.5
   TILDO	TILDO	ISEC	-	354	28.7
   EMLIS	EMLIS	ISEC	-	354	18.4
   LUKAT	LUKAT	ISEC	-	354	17.7
   DIPAR	DIPAR	ISEC	-	354	8.2
   EPESI	EPESI	ISEC	-	358	36.8
   VAVIX	VAVIX	ISEC	-	355	16.4
   MIMLA	MIMLA	ISEC	-	355	51.7		Exit/Entrance
   OSTOS	OSTOS	ISEC	-	356	36.6		Finland/Rovaniemi FIR/EFPS
   OULU	OUK	VOR/DME	113.30	356	29.8
   IRKUN	IRKUN	ISEC	-	356	28.6
   BILSA	BILSA	ISEC	-	356	27.4
   KEKOX	KEKOX	ISEC	-	356	10.9
   KEKOXxx		STAR
   Rovaniemi	EFRO	AIRPORT			33.1

Total Distance is some 1790 nm.

FSNavigator 4.X format flight plan and PMDG FMS flight plan can be found here.

Note: Although we would very much like all of our event pilots to have the suggested flight plan, the Final Route is definately up to pilot's discretion.

   

       8. IFR charts

     You can find all nessecary IFR charts for  Athens Eleftherios Venizelos (LGAV) here and for Rovaniemi (EFRO), Ivalo (EFIV) and Kittila (EFKT) airports here. ( Official Finland AIP Aeronautical Charts).

       Last year as in all recent years, the event was a huge success on pilots participation terms and holding stacks were heavily loaded. For the record the first holding stack was located in Estonia's FIR !!!!! It would be a good idea if you could refresh your holding procedures knowledge, to avoid causing any kind of inconvenience to the overstressed ATC or yourselves ;-).

          

         9. Flight Duration - What to expect in Rovaniemi.

    Duration of the flight  will be approx 4,0 hours, from engine start up to engine shut down, not counting the delays that may happen due to increased traffic on ground in Athens.

    All pilots be advised that Scandinavia vACC announced on the 11/12 that it is organizing a Christmas Event  on 18/12 weekend, so expect quite a lot of traffic on EFRO arrival. To be more accurate expect traffic congestion on your arrival to EFRO, so be sure to have your fuel tanks full, and also take the time and be updated on the holding patterns in the area. Our experience from all these years shows with no doubt that this may be well the busiest approach you make for all your around the year  flights.

    A good friend flightsimmer and real life commercial pilot, Mr Vangelis Hasiotis ASe411 was lucky enough to fly the LGAV-EFRO flight in Christmas 2004 period. To see a photo-report from his visit to EFRO Rovaniemi, click here.

                                                     10. Cruise Flight Level and Mach Number

            First of all we would like you to participate with aircraft that are able to cruise with M 0.78. The suggested Flight Level is FL390. This way we will ensure that the final Finland ATC will receive our flight within the specified time window and will not have to wait for us being widely dispersed. Now if you insist to fly with a slower aircraft then you should select a lower FL to keep clear of the M 0.78 main stream. In a case a faster aircraft is your choice, please select a higher Flight Level.

            11. Alternative Airport

        Usually Our Alternative Airport was Oulu EFOU around 100 nm south of Rovaniemi. As our past years experience shows it would be also good to be ready for diversion to one of the EFIV Ivalo (128nm northeast of EFRO) or EFKT Kittila (72 nm northwest of EFRO) airports. After all these years Finnish vACC was absorbed to VATSIM Scandinavia vACC, which will man alternative airports in Sweden and Norway. Keeping our tradition, we will continue having EFIV and EFKT as our alternative airports, because we just don't travel to the north, but to Finnland.

            12. Fuel on board

        For Boeing 737-700 flyers such as Aegean Seagull’s “Island of Skiros” or "City of Chania"  45.000 lbs of fuel should be enough to cover the flight plus 45 mins of holding plus diversion to the alternative airport of Oulou (EFOU), Ivalo (EFIV) or Kittila (EFKT) plus medium delay on Athens ground. Expect long holding times approaching EFRO so take care to have as much fueal as you can in your tanks. Although it is very good to plan carefully your fuel load, our events experience shows that 100% full fuel tanks will keep you out of agony's way.

            13. Missed Approach

        Some details about missed approach…

         This is something that every pilot, who respects himself, should pay some, at least some, attention. We, Aegean Seagull pilots, pay much, really much, attention to it. As weather conditions are not a controlled parameter to a flight, you can very easily be engaged a situation well under the minima for the decision altitude in your destination. In that case we execute a missed approach and we either go for a holding pattern and a second approach later either climb and fly direct to the alternative airport. The latest happens when the main destination airport is closed or there is no chance for the weather to become better. We also execute a missed approach when communication with ATC is lost prior to our landing clearance.

         This is the reason why you should study the missed approach pattern at both the destination and alternative airports. If a controller has many aircraft in his area of responsibility, it will be quite difficult for him/her to pay the extra attention needed to you. Besides this way we are as real as it gets…

        

                                           14. Saving your flight regularly - Reconnection procedures

        We strongly suggest you to save your flight in regular time intervals. This way you can ensure that even if a reboot is inevitable, then you will be within close range of the other aircraft. There is an EXCELLENT freeware utility by Peter Dowson called AUTOSAVE. Its a DLL that goes into the MODULES folder and it does things like saving your current flight status (in standard MSFS situation files) and then if it crashes it just resets your flight back to "10 seconds ago" status. You can have as many sequenced files saved (say last 10 or each 10'') and choose where to start from again. If you crash the aircraft FS will restart from last saved file. If FS itself crashes you can just go and select the situation (flight) file you wish from the list of files when you reload FS. It can be found at www.schiratti.com -> DOWSON 

    

 

           15. Participant Pilots

        In the table below you can find all participant pilots. 

        A Very Big Thank You to all of them.

Aegean Seagull Flies to Santa's Home Year #10  LGAV-EFRO
Departure Sequence  #	Pilot's Full Name	Callsign	Country	Aircraft Type	FS Type	Assigned Gate / Stand	Assigned CTOT (UTC)
1.	Christos Makris	ASE260	Hellas	MD-11	FS2004	A13	13:30
2.	Dimitris Trakosas	AEE196	Hellas	737-300	FS2004	A13	15:30
3.	Toby Kerr	FIN1812	UK	767-300	FSX	A13	16:17
4.	Babis Peribolas	ASE300	Hellas	737-700	X-Plane	A11	16:20
5.	Makis Tsaparidis	ASE299	Hellas	767-300	FSX	A09	16:23
6.	George Papanikolopoulos	ASE011	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	A07	16:26
7.	Eddie Armaos	OAL331	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	A03	16:29
-.	Themis Katakalos	OAL331	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	A03	-
9.	Konstantinos Siderakis	AEO761	Hellas	737-800	FS2004	A01	16:32
10.	Konstantinos Gavrinas	SX-GVR	Hellas	C750	FS2004	B17	16:35
11.	Nikos Fragkias	ASE063	Hellas	A320	FS2004	B03	16:38
12.	Giorgos Christinakis	AEE201	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	B05	16:41
13.	Nikos Argiriou	MCS775	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	B07	16:44
14.	Nektarios Chazirakis	IBE904	Spain	737-800	FSX	B09	16:47
15.	George Kollias	AEE621	Hellas	767-300	FS2004	B11	16:50
16.	Thanos Karponis	ASE317	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	B13	16:53
17.	Nikos Terizakis	ASE196E	UK	767-300	FS2004	A30	16:55
18.	George Dorkofikis	OAL132	Hellas	767-300	FS2004	A32	16:58
19.	Apostolos Damkalis	AEE199	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	A34	17:01
20.	Emmanuel Stefanakis	OAL537	Hellas	MD-80	FS2004	A36	17:04
21.	Fotis Dimitropoulos	ASE516	Hellas	737-700	FS2004	B13	17:07
22.	Aidan Rice	ASE279	Ireland	747-400	FS2004	A34	19:00
23.	Marinos Klouras	BAW1021	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
24.	Eugene Prigozhin	RCF972	Russia	-	-	-	DNR
25.	Christos Karachalios	CFG1742	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
26.	Marc Habegger	HAL55	USA	-	-	-	DNR
27.	Theodore Aggelopoulos	AEE242	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
28.	Theodore Chronopoulos	HNL002	Hellas	EMB-145	-	-	DNR
29.	Nikos Trikas	TVI335	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
30.	Stathis Tsirigotis	TVI123	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
31.	Mike Ionas	OAL109	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
32.	Fotis Loucas	AGJ137	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
33.	Alkis Anastasakis	AGJ369	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
34.	Andreas Miaoudakis	AGJ666	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
35.	John Kariotis	AGJ001	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR
36.	Vasilis Podaras	AGJ101	Hellas	-	-	-	DNR

*DNR: Did Not Register

  

 16. Bonus ASe Christmas livery plus a first for this year...

         Available for long haulers is the PMDG 747-400 repaint based on our launch livery with Christmas graphics added. This repaint was produced by Mr Paschalis Katsiotis ASe287. You can find it here.

        You can also have the "Bold & Beatiful" project livery for our PMDG 737NG created by Mr Babis Peribolas ASe300 here , or if you prefer ASe's launch livery you can find textures for PMDG 737NG here.

        This year will be the very first in our history that an on-line flight of our event will be webcasted live! If you cannot fly, you will be able to watch Captains Eddie Armaos and Themis Katakalos already registered with the callsign OAL331, flying from Athens to Rovaniemi. For the record, Captains above will fly in their home cockpit, which is very much impressive as you can see here along with the link for the webcast.  

  

17. Wrapping things up

         Our dear Pilots and friends, we have established something special in the history of Aegean Seagull vAS, Hellenic vACC (the oldest event in its history)  and also well known in the international FS community (the oldest event in VATSIM as well). Therefore we hope that we will see you flying  with us. As it is a Special Event, please feel free to invite all FS friends of yours, even if they are not Aegean Seagull Pilots. We want to share this event with as many pilots as possible, because we want to celebrate the 10th anniversary for this strong tradition of our Virtual Airline System. 

18. ATC Event coverage

         Below you can find the names of Air Traffic Controllers that covered our event along our route. All ATCOs below were observed to mann the respective ATC posts from 13:30Z to 02:30Z. Thank you all.

Aegean Seagull Flies to Santa's Home Year #10  LGAV-EFRO
#	Air Traffic Controller	ATC Post	ATC Post Description
1.	Nikoletta Koukouroyvli	LGAV_GND	Athens Ground
2.	Fotis Myrintzos	LGAV_APP	Athens Approach
3.	Apostolos Damkalis	LGGG_CTR	Athens Control
4.	George Maloukos	LGAV_APP	Athens Approach
5.	Theo Giourtis	LGGG_CTR	Athens Control
6.	Alexey Zimin	EURE_FSS	Eurocontrol East
7.	Kostas Petropoulos	EURE_FSS	Eurocontrol East
8.	Alin Fusaru	LRBB_3_CTR	Bucharest Control
9.	Maciej Lapoc	EPWW_S_CTR	Warsaw Radar
10.	Martins Lezdins	EVRR_CTR	Riga Control
11.	Artur Rodionov	EETR_CTR	Tallinn Control
12.	Florian Harms	EFES_CTR	Tampere Radar
13.	Matt Davies	EFES_Y_CTR	Tampere Radar
14.	Juha Holopainen	EFES_6_CTR	Tampere Radar
15.	Alexander Klink	EFRO_X_APP	Rovaniemi Approach
16.	Luke Cunningham	EFRO_APP	Rovaniemi Approach
17.	Callum McLouglin	EFRO_R_APP	Rovaniemi Approach
18.	James Latham	EFRO_TWR	Rovaniemi Tower
19.	Peter Nielsen	EFRO_GND	Rovaniemi Ground
20.	Fotis Dimitropoulos	LGAV_TWR	Athens Tower

 

19. Event photos

         Here are some pictures that were taken during the event. 

       

Special Thanks to 

- Mr Vangelis Hasiotis ASe411 for his contribution in the real-life LGAV-EFRO flightplan and EFRO approach/visit photo reportage. It feels really good to know that one of us flew this dreamy route as a real pilot !

- Mr Babis Peribolas ASe300 and  Mr Pachalis Katsiotis ASe287 for painting ASe's 737 and 747.

- VATSIM's Romania, Latvia vACCs, Eurocontrol, Mr Florian Harms (No doubt the Star of the night!), Mrs Nikoletta Koukourouvli, Mr Apostolos Damkalis and Mr Fotis Myrintzos for their valuable support in our Event. 

- Mr Eddie Armaos and Mr Themis Katakalos for their live streaming webcast of their participation in our event.

-Aegean Airlines Virtual and Maceconian VA for their kind words

-Mr Emmanuel Stefanakis (OAL537) and Mr Apostolos Damkalis (AEE199) for allowing us to publish their photos

         Do not hesitate to contact us for any additional information or question you might have.

               PLEASE, DO NOT FORGET TO INFORM US ABOUT YOUR PARTICIPATION.

         Finally our best wishes for

  Merry Christmas  

and a

Healthy & Happy New Year  

to you and your family !!!.

 

   

 

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Document last updated on : 23/12/2010 - 12:30 Local Hellas Time

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