CTP 24E Controller Briefing
CTP Westbound 2024 | BIRD/BIKF Controller Briefing
Welcome, and thank you for volunteering to control in Iceland for this edition of Cross the Pond! This briefing provides important event information for BIRD controllers participating in CTP Westbound 2024.
Roster
The BIRD roster is available HERE.
Installing the Controller Pack
This year’s CTP Controller Pack is a standalone package that should be installed separately from any other install of the BIRD Sector File. The Controller Pack is distributed through GNG, but only via the website.
Do not overwrite your "normal" BIRD sector file with the CTP pack!
- Launch Euroscope. When the “Open profile file” window comes up, navigate to wherever you have extracted the BIRD CTP Pack, and select the BIRD_TopSky.prf profile.
BIRD Modified Vertical Splits
For the event, the standard BIRD vertical splits will be modified to widen the middle split and push up all the splits in general. For the event, we are splitting our sectors at FL365 / 375 / 385.
In other words:
- When two sector splits numbered 1 & 2 are online, they shall split the sector at FL365 (split 1 is lower, 2 is higher.)
- When two sector splits numbered 1 & 3 are online, they shall split the sector at FL375.
- When two sector splits numbered 2 & 3 are online, they shall split the sector at FL385.
- When three sector splits (1, 2, 3) are online, sector no. 1 shall cover up to FL365, sector no. 2 from FL355-385, and sector no. 3 from FL385+.
The aim of this change is to more evenly distribute the expected CTP traffic load across each vertical split.
When two sector splits have been rostered, no matter what number split the roster says, the two controllers are free to pick any split they desire for that sector.
E.g., Even if the roster says Person A and Person B are to open BIRD_S1_CTR and BIRD_S2_CTR respectively, they can choose to open BIRD_S1_CTR and BIRD_S3_CTR instead if, based on the traffic situation, it would be better to split the sector higher at FL375 instead of FL355.
CTP NAT Tracks
During Cross the Pond, due to the high volume of traffic, the CTP planning team publishes event-specific NAT tracks. These are for event traffic only.
For this edition of the event, BIRD is fully responsible for four NAT tracks (A1, A2, B1, B2) and partially responsible for a fifth track (B3.)
All the NAT tracks are visually displayed on the ACC radar view (hotkey F1+1.)
VATCAN Bookings Plugin
As with recent editions of CTP, we will be using the VATCAN Bookings plugin for the event. This plugin adds a variety of event-specific information to your radar scope and aircraft lists.
Firstly, you will notice two new buttons on your scope – the “Refresh” button, and the “Enter Code” button. To move the two buttons to a better place, left-click on the Refresh button and drag.
Click on the “Enter Code” button and type in the event code: wCGGR
To start the plugin’s auto-update function, right-click on the Refresh button. You should do this before you connect to VATSIM. The border of the Event ID button will turn green when the event data has been loaded successfully into Euroscope. E.g., (screenshot taken from a past edition of CTP, so the event code is different.)
The border will turn red if the download failed for any reason. If this happens, try re-entering the event code to make sure it is correct. If the code is correct, and the button is still red, contact Jonathan Fong (@mythic_fci on Discord) or an appropriate member of the CTP planning team for assistance.
If the plugin is working correctly, every event aircraft will have "EVT" displayed in orange next to their radar target, e.g.,
Aircraft without a booking will not have anything next to their target.
New Sector Inbound/Exit List Items
Event-relevant list items have been enabled on the Sector Inbound and Sector Exit lists (a few were already present before; others are new):
- EVT: Event. Aircraft with a booking will have an X in this column. Non-event aircraft will have nothing.
- NAT: The NAT track an aircraft has been cleared on.
- OFL: The flight level an aircraft has been cleared to at the oceanic entry point.
- OMNR: The Mach number an aircraft has been cleared to at the oceanic entry point (aircraft may deviate up to +/- 0.02 Mach from this without notifying ATC)
CDM for BIKF Departures
As BIKF is a departure airport for this edition of CTP, we will, for the first time, be using the CDM for Euroscope plugin to help manage the flow of departure traffic.
Controllers who are unfamiliar with CDM may read the introductory guide created by VATSCA Denmark here.
To facilitate the use of CDM, the Departure List has been modified to add some flow control related items:
- TOBT: Target Off Block Time (i.e., startup time.) Left click to edit, or set to the current time.
- E: Evaluation of aircraft status (single letter — P means EOBT is more than 35 mins in the future; C means correct; I means invalid off-block time)
- RDY: The time that the pilot reports ready for startup. (Also known as “ASRT” or “Actual Startup Request Time”)
- CTOT: Calculated Take-Off Time. Left click to edit.
- SLOT: Aircraft's booked slot time from the CTP website (provided by the VATCAN bookings plugin.)
The most important thing to note is that for the event, we will not be using the plugin to calculate CTOTs, since those are assigned as part of each aircraft's CTP booking. Instead, DEL must manually change the CTOT to the aircraft’s CTP slot time — i.e., the CTOT should match the time listed under the SLOT column.
You may also note that some items previously part of the Departure List (e.g., ROUTE, MACH) have been removed. This is in line with the abolishment of oceanic clearances across Iceland/BIRD.
BIKF Event Procedures
All of BIKF's usual SOPs remain in effect for CTP, with the addition of the following items:
- Event aircraft ALWAYS have priority over non-event aircraft.
- An event aircraft which has missed its slot by >30mins is considered non-event.
- Dual runway operations is strongly preferred for the event. This is to increase departure rate as much as possible, by reducing the interaction between arriving and departing traffic.
- CDM is in effect at BIKF using the procedures above. DEL & GND should coordinate to ensure all aircraft are pushing back at their TSAT (no earlier, and ideally no later.)
- As a reminder, aircraft shall remain on DEL's frequency until reaching TSAT, at which point DEL shall transfer them to GND for push & start.
- GND is reminded to make full use of the BIKF tug release points.
Non-Event Flow Control
All controllers shall monitor ECFMP to keep updated on new flow control measures as they arise.
Westbound Departure Releases
Non-event departures going Westbound (i.e., same direction as event traffic) are subject to release by ECFMP. All such traffic should be told to expect significant delays (up to several hours.)
Releases for non-event departures must be requested and coordinated via the CTP Non-Event Traffic Coordination Sheet, starting from the time listed for BI** in the sheet. Guidance is available HERE; the sheet is still WIP, to be released soon.
- Once an aircraft has an approved release from the CTP planning team, DEL shall communicate any reroute and CTOT time to the pilot, and input the CTOT time into CDM.
This does not apply to Eastbound traffic.
Level Cap
All non-event Westbound traffic shall be capped at FL280. All Eastbound traffic shall be capped at FL290.
Final Notes
If you have any technical difficulties (e.g., laggy Euroscope), try the following ‘tricks’:
- Go to Euroscope, OTHER SET, Display Settings, Regions, and untick the first 4 settings. This will disable the dark grey landmasses on the sector file, which will improve performance.
- Get rid of all vis points except the one in your sector (should be automatically configured for the most part; only South 1/2/3 controllers may need to do this).
Please message Jonathan Fong (@mythic_fci on Discord) if you have any questions. Happy controlling!