Thanks for the great turnout. An almost too great of turnout for our controller friends in Portugal as things got a little crazy getting out of Lisbon. And for those who got hung on the holds on the way into Madeira, all I can say is sorry. I watched one crash into the mountain side and 2 missed approaches out of the 7 landings I watched at LPMA. At one count I had 18 (eighteen) aircraft in route from Lisbon to Madeira. Another few were filing for the trip when I departed Madeira. With Lisbon and Madeira fully staffed, quite a few pieces of plastic (a.k.a. Airbuses) joined in our parade.End the end with Santa Maria Oceanic and Ponta Delgada Approach, only me and Dean Barry (UKD121) remained.Thanks for showing up everyone and making the day!

great to have all those pilots in portugal! very much thanksi was at lisbon tower almost all the night and I switched to ponta delgada approach quite late, when all the family was sleeping and i couldn't speak so loud; sorry unicorn 121 and others! next time will be better! at least in lisbon with a lot of traffic was the possible job for tonight!at lisbon we had i think more than 30 or 40 take-offs and 15 landings; at madeira probably a lot of landings also since a lot of traffic was going to funchal; azores was not so full! I know that oceanic procedures are a little bit more difficult but try next time! there was a really excelent controller at the oceanic fir, which had not so much work to do! hope next time we will give him more work :(hope you've enjoyed it and also the ATC at lisboa and madeiraand ... come whenever you want! ATC will be available -)harpsi

Hi there,In behalf of Portugal VACC and all of its ATC's I would like to thank all participants on the LPPT-LPMA-LPPD 767PIC flyin.In about 5/6 hours we had 85+ movements (including lots of people flying pieces of plastic) which is a great deal because our airspace is very small. Lot's of holdings/traffic at LPMA but they did their best(thanks "Pedro's", Duarte and "Nuno's")We are looking foward for a new flyin! :)Best reguards and THANKS!Luis FlorencioPortugal VACC - Directorhttp://www.portugal-vacc.orgPS: I was the one at Lisboa Approach! ;)

Sorry, missed this one like all the others :-(Seems like these PIC flights are the kiss of death for me.Waited ages at Lisbon as controllers changed and just as I was about to call for clearance had to answer persistant ringing of door bell.A friend I had not seen for ages called unexpectedly so that was it for the night :-(I was amazed to see on ServerInfo the number of aircraft filed for Madeira, wondered where they were all going to park :-)Hope to have better luck joining the next flight.I will have a word with my flying buddy, BCA45, and see how much the VA is out of pocket for the salvage operation :-lol Glad you had such a good turn out Mike.

Pedro RodriguesI Guys Thank you very much for flying with us in Portugal and specially at Madeira.It was the greatest FLY-IN in MADEIRA ISLAND of all times. For me this event was very special, because I live in Madeira Island and we are always proud about the place we live, and also it was the day that I made my very first 30 days as controller on VATSIM. I want to thank to you all specially to the controllers TEAM that BACK ME UP on inbound traffic to Madeira and specially to my friend PEDRO CAMPEAO, the TOWER MAN (LPMA_V_TWR) for the good job there. He counted for shure 28 landings and at least 13 Departures to LPPD, with 3 missed approach

Pedro RodriguesOne more thing ...It

Pedro and Mike,Thanks for everything you did. I was unable to make the PIC group flight though I did see the lot of you out there when I got home - too late for me to make it all the way from Lisboa.I did have the pleasure of flying Lisbon to Madeira twice this past week, once with Mike and Lee, and both times I had Pedro plugged in working my approach.Much fun indeed - those to go arounds looked insane, but I am sure that 856 and 1014 had the last laugh ( I assume they both made it down, well you never know with 1014 ).Can not wait for the next PIC flight, I am not sure how we are going to top that last one.So good on ya - every one involved from the organizers to the ATC to the participants - these groupflights are part of what makes the PIC community so special.Ian Elchitz CYWG

:-lol Sorry I had to bail out on you guys. For some inexplicable reason my computer froze up during my go-around. By the time I rebooted, I decided to do some family stuff.Hopefully the Windows XP Service Pack 1 released today will solve my problems.

Ok Stiffy, just what is that accent of yours?We've had guess at German, Swiss & Caribbean ! :-lol