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welcome to a real thread about Cross the Pond, and not a whinge about release dates of service packs! So the day approaches, Saturday 12th of October 2013. Expect VATSIM to light up with hundreds of pilots, dozens of ATC positions including the non-radar Oceanic procedural airspace and heaps of PMDG 777's! Although the real world usually sees only westbound traffic in the daylight(UTC) hours, Vatsim will 'flip the clock 12 hours' and push everyone through Eastbound on the previous nights NAT Tracks (or something highly resembling them). This is so the flyin takes place on Saturday, and not in the wee hours of the morning. Why? Because they want AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE to participate in the event, and not a ghost town of night owls. What time? from about 10:00z (UTC) with departures running for about 5 hours, flights taking around 8 hours. Where? Departure Airports: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - KATL Boston Logan International Airport - KBOS Detroit Metropolitan Airport - KDTW Washington Dulles International Airport - KIAD Arrival Airports: Frankfurt/Main Airport - EDDF London Heathrow Airport - EGLL Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - EHAM Vienna International Airport - LOWW Oceanic Entry Slots (and by extension airport departure slots) have been booked for most of the NAT tracks. These have been booked out. If you don't have a slot you can still participate, however you will likely be directed to plan via a specific NAT track tracking track to track (tautology ahoy!). One hopes the specific "no booking needed" NAT routing will be made available on the website http://ctp.vatsim-uk.co.uk/pilot-area/ but it may turn out only to be buried deep in the Vatsim forum flyin thread. http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=61671 How? Watch this AWESOME documentary from NATS, the Air Traffic Control provider for the UK which provides very detailed information on how Procedural ATC happens in the North Atlantic. See the story from both sides regarding the how, and the why. The video will answer questions like: Why do you need to receive a Clearance to enter the NAT when you already received clearance before you departed? Why do you need to provide a position report to Air Traffic Control every time you pass a waypoint in the Gander or Shanwick control area? Why won't the controller let me make my step climb at the optimum point? and what should I do if I the predicted crossing time of the next waypoint just changed on my FMS? This and more are answered in the video!