Thanks for the clear explanation!
Cross the Pond is happy to announce our departure and arrival fields for 2023 Eastbound!
Departing:
- KJFK
- KBOS
- CYYZ
- TNCM
- KMCO
- KATL
- CYHZ
- CYWG
- SBBR
- SKBO
- TJSJ
- MDPC
Arriving:
- EGLL
- EDDF
- EHAM
- LOWW
- EBBR
- ESSA
- FACT
- DIAP
- GOBD
- GMMN
- DTTA
- LIRF
You can keep up to date with us via our twitter and facebook @vatsimctp, or the CTP Discord server. To join our discord head over to ctp.vatsim.net and follow the instructions.
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Hi all,
Do you know When slot will be available ?
Thank a lot
Soon. Watch this space and CTP’s social media accounts for an announcement.
hope they came out soon !!!
Pilots are now allowed to join our slot lottery!
Demand for participation in CTP outweighs the available capacity of the controllers and airspace. As a result, we chose to limit the number of participants using a slot system.
Only pilots with a slot are able to participate in the event. In order to distribute the slots to pilots we complete the following steps:
- Pilots register their interest (available until 11OCT23 1900 UTC)
- Everyone who enters the lottery will get a personalised booking time
- Pilots login after their allocated time and pick a time slot and city pair (being earlier in the lottery gives more chance for the route you want) (available 16OCT23)
- After everyone has had some time to select their route, the remaining slots are released to all members (27OCT23)
Several factors affect the outcome of the lottery, the most significant of which is your historical interaction with this event. If you have no-showed during a previous event when you held a booking, you will have slightly less chance of getting a slot now. If you applied but did not get a slot last year, you will have a slightly higher chance of getting a slot now.
As in previous events, you will have to return to the website in the week leading up to the event to reconfirm your intention to fly and to provide important information such as your callsign, maximum assignable flight level and so on.
You may now register to be included in the lottery at ctp.vatsim.net
If you want to keep up to date with CTP, don’t forget to join our Discord server at ctp.vatsim.net
======================================================================
This Event’s system in Detail
To explain the process in detail this time. The lottery will run much the same as previous - that being that everyone will go into the lottery and get randomised into an order. This order will be affected primarily by chance, however, there will be weighting for the following:
- No shows - negative weighting if you no-showed a slot you had in the previous event. This does not include people who dropped a slot they were allocated.
- Previous slot allocations - if you got a slot in the last lottery, you have a slightly negative weighting. Likewise, if you didn’t, you have a slight positive weighting
- Sequential events - if you have multiple sequential unsuccessful events, you get more of a positive weighting
With all of those factors taken into account, people will be ranked from 1 to N (N being the total number of people who express interest). A reminder that the main factor is chance, and therefore if you have negative weighting, you aren’t guaranteed to not have a later booking time. Likewise, with a positive weighting, you aren’t guaranteed an early one.
Each person is then given a time that they can book from and there is at least 1 minute between each person in the lottery, therefore a maximum of 5 people getting in every 5 minutes. We try to base the booking times so that members from around the globe would be able to log in near to them without much hassle. The point of this is that if you can’t exactly make whatever time you’re given, you are likely to be able to log on soon after and still get a choice of slots, in contrast to the classic ‘free for all’ system where being 15 minutes late meant no slot at all.
We’re not sure how popular all the slots will be, therefore it’s perfectly possible that we’ll run out of slots before the last booking times and therefore people towards the end of the lottery may not have any slots left to choose from. Equally, it’s perfectly possible that some slots and times that are less popular will still be available. People with slots can drop them at any time, so slots will always pop up.
Everyone will then have to return to the site between 23OCT23 and 26OCT23 (0000-2359 UTC) to confirm they are flying and ensure they’ve filled in all the details. If you don’t do this, your slot will become available to anyone else to take.
Regardless of what’s left, anything not taken will be available on 27OCT23 1200z UTC. Anyone at this point can take a slot from what’s left. Anything dropped will be available to be booked.
How will we be notified about when our personalised booking time is?
Once the lottery is drawn (which happens a few days after registration for the lottery closes), everyone that expressed an interest in the event on https://ctp.vatsim.net will get an e-mail that contains the time slot from which they can book.
Here’s the e-mail I got after the lottery for CTP westbound earlier this year:
Congratulations. You are now eligible to book a slot from
2023-03-25 16:48:00z! You will be able to book any time after this up
until bookings close.Announcements will be made on Social Media when the bookings are viewable but until then, the link below will not work.
As Jordy said above, you will get an email with the time from which you will be able to book a slot.
Endless loops of redirects for me, cannot find where to actually book a slot. The link provided takes me to the website, only thing available is the discord, which takes me to this post rinse and repeat. How do I book a slot?
It already ended on the 11th at 1900utc,wait til after the lottery and public slots come out
As Malcolm said above, the expression of interest phase is over. You’ll be able to book a slot once they become public.
As Cross the Pond approaches, experienced VATSIM pilots and controllers will be hosting a 45-minute pilot briefing livestream to help pilots get ready for the event. All VATSIM pilots, especially those with or expecting a CTP slot, are invited to participate live or watch the recording.
- Date: October 21, 2023
- Time: 1500 UTC
- How to Watch: YouTube
The session will be recorded and available on replay immediately following the livestream.
Covering Americas operations, oceanic procedures, and tips for the arrival into Europe/Africa, this 45-minute seminar will be perfect for pilots flying Cross the Pond Eastbound, as well as those looking for some reminders on best practices for online network flying. Following the presentation, there will be plenty of time for questions!
Agenda:
-
What is Cross the Pond?
-
Departure: Tips for Americas Operations
-
Oceanic Procedures
-
Arrival: Flying into Europe and Africa
-
Checklist for Flying CTP
-
Questions & Answers
The free live event is hosted by Flight Simulation Association and will be available on Twitch, YouTube, and the FSA website.
Hello, Do you know how many seats were available in the lottery and how many slots were available?
Yes - people who expressed interest vs slots is 2269 vs 1337
question might have been asked, but when will slots be made public
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The answer is hidden within the secrets of your mouse’s scroll wheel 
(As in, scroll up in this thread…)
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!!! Change in the CTP Schedule before the event !!!
All, for operational reasons, we have made a change to the previously announced schedule on the forum, with milestones leading up to the event. The change is as follows:
- Slot confirmation: already available, deadline is 26OCT23, 2359z;
- Public slots opening and slot trading is available 27OCT23, 1200z, until late in the night before the event when slots will be locked.
We apologise for any inconvenience due to the change.
NOTE: If you do not confirm your slot by the deadline, it will be released from you and returned to the public pool that opens on the 27th at 1200z
Hello,
For users that didn’t get a slot, at which time does the oceanic airspace will be denied to them ? Aka, what is the latest time of east-bond oceanic entry ahead of the event someone without a slot is allowed to enter ?
Thanks !
Cross the Pond 2023 - Eastbound - Non-Event Traffic
Tomorrow we will host more than 1,300 planes across the Atlantic to a range of airfields across Europe and Africa, from departing fields in the USA, Canada, the Caribbean, Colombia and Brazil. In designing this event, the majority of our ATC capacity is assigned to pre-booked traffic for our event.
Because of this and the huge amount of work that goes into providing service for these planes, we ask you not to fly across the ocean at all. We also ask you not to utilise the event fields during the peak window as there are many other flight options available.
The rest of this post details what you should do if you choose to fly despite this request.
If you plan to fly in or out of departing event fields, you will be metered, most likely delayed via the North America vATCSCC depending on the workload at the event fields and enroute sectors.
If you plan to fly across the pond as non-event traffic (in either direction), your routing will be mandated based on avoiding traffic already booked to cross the pond, and you can expect to be assigned a very low level for the duration and potentially have no ATC for parts of your flight.
If you plan to fly intra-Europe during the event, you will be subject to delays if your flight crosses the paths of CTP arrivals and you will be delayed on the ground in order to manage the workload for our controllers. This can happen to anyone arriving or departing from an event airport.
Departing offline in order to circumvent departure restrictions on the ground is a violation of the VATSIM Code of Conduct and will be monitored by the supervisor team.
If you plan to cross the Atlantic in the Eastbound Direction in North America
You can expect a re-route on the ground (if covered by ATC) or in the air if already airborne when you fall under the control of ATC. This may involve a level change compared to your plan.
If you plan to cross the Atlantic in the Westbound Direction, we recommend that you fly along one of the following tracks:-
X1 GOMUP 58N015W 58N020W 58N030W 58N040W 57N050W ENNSO
X2 DINIM 50N020W 50N030W 49N040W 48N050W NICSO
Any other routing, including the real-world westbound tracks for the day, will be limited to a maximum FL of 280.
We hope this guidance assists with planning your flight and helps you to understand why you may be delayed during your flight.