Infinite Flight’s First Twitch Stream - ATC’s Perspective Time-Lapse
So i hope everyone might be knowing about the First Infinite Flight Stream on Twitch which was carried out by @Dan . The event got a huge attendance and it was a big success.
It was 10 minutes before the start of Dan’s flight when everyone got to know the route. I immediately saw the available frequencies and i took Vancouver center. I created a timelapse video for ifatceg. Thank you to @ifatceg for uploading my video. Now let’s start to talk about what happened out there.
The video is divided into two parts; takeoff and cruise then approach and landing. The route selected for this stream was Calgary (CYYC) to Vancouver (CYVR). The route was completely staffed and I will name the controllers in order of the Stream.
Calgary Ground: @MJP_27
Calgary Tower: @WesleyHenrich
Calgary Departure: @Astreal
Edmonton Center: @Siddhansh
Vancouver Center: @MJMN
Vancouver Approach: @Ethan_Hansen , @Siddhansh
Vancouver Tower: @Plane-Train-TV
Vancouver Ground: @Kyle
First of all a great teamwork from all the controllers in order to present such a successful stream.
My plan was simple, I knew Ethan will split the downwind so I just needed to maintain 4-5nm seperation which would eventually result in 5-7nm when downwind was splitted. I had some local flights and some other flights joining from in between airports whom I had to manually vector sometimes in order to maintain the line till the end. East & south departures were allowed to follow the flight plan while North & West departures were assigned specific altitudes and headings in order to maintain seperation from the aircrafts on the left downwind.
Seeing so many staff members, IFCmods and IFATC supervisors all together was exciting as well as stressful at the same time. I had @Tyler_Shelton and @BrandonHG coming from the bottom of the line. I immediately knew that i won’t be able to merge when they come near to the line formed. That is why during their descent, i manually vectored them to right downwind and then at an appropriate point and height sent them to approach.
These events are very familiar with trollers. When the line approached into my airspace i saw 4 fighters and i was a little annoyed to be honest because what normally i’ve seen them do is go through planes, not following speeds, etc. You want them to have fun by being a little close to the line but you also don’t want them to create havoc where eventually you have to report them. But then i noticed that all those were IFATC pilots and supervisors. @Trio @Olivier999 @SunDown @nicopizarro were the fighters who constantly monitored the line and stayed quite far from the planes and maintained a very well safe distance from the line. Thank you for that. You guys would be able to see them in the video.
I knew for sometime the whole line will be on my frequency and i was completely ready for it. There were some moments where the aircrafts were contacting me 1 above the other so i just simply asked them to climb to 38,000 feet because i noticed, the higher the altitude was, the Ground Speed got lower so after i got my seperation i brought them back to 36,000 feet. That is how i built a constant line with some speed and some vertical seperation as you would normally do right?
After the controller change for Vancouver Approach, I took the approach for 08R runway along with my Center duties till I closed after a hectic but completely satisfying 1 hour and 35 minutes of controlling the Vancouver Center.
The pilot quality was the best I’d ever seen on the Expert Server in Infinite Flight. Most of them were IFATC pilots, IFATC Supervisors, IFC Moderators and Infinite Flight Staff members.
They adjusted their speeds themselves and helped me make my controlling look easy. I’m sure you loved the stream on Twitch. Hope you all will love this video too. Cheers!
Video Link: Infinite Flight’s First Twitch Stream - ATC’s Perspective Time-Lapse - YouTube