Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Gates For Online Events

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | Gates For Online Events

DVA13576
Captain, B777-200

Joined on December 11 2018
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Midwestern United States

188 legs, 430.1 hours
114 legs, 203.3 hours online
186 legs, 426.8 hours ACARS
19 legs, 33.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 29 2019 08:51 ET by Tom Pletzke

Good Morning,

I enjoy flying in the online events and would like to know if we could include suggested gate choices. I realize that there are several places like route plotter where we can find gates but it would be nice to huddle in the same location for both airports.

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

DVA2887
Senior Captain, A320
OLP, 737-ATP, VFRADV

Joined on January 30 2006
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1,287 legs, 1,796.9 hours
841 legs, 1,048.5 hours online
1,269 legs, 1,774.9 hours ACARS
31 legs, 49.6 hours event
3 legs dispatched, 2.5 hours

Posted onPost created on January 29 2019 10:38 ET by Andrew Vane

Finding the Delta gates is is somewhat easy. Click on the airport code in your log book.

Good recommendation though. Some airports will not have enough Delta gates for all the aircraft in our flight. Others like ATL have so many there is no guarantee that you'll be parked next to others on VATSIM. Plus, there is no guarantee that pilots will park at the DAL gates at an airport ha ha for an event.

We have had events in the past with assigned gate locations. It was a "live" event and a lot of fun. We'll have to plan another one. Paging Mr. Wilbanks...

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

Posted onPost created on January 29 2019 10:47 ET by Tom Pletzke

Thanks Andrew, I see now there is another option called include arrival and departure gates on the route plotter. So much great information!

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

DVA4176
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
OLP

Joined on March 11 2007
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"In the cold Kentucky rain"
Horn Lake, MS USA

7,219 legs, 11,692.3 hours
4,673 legs, 6,709.8 hours online
5,630 legs, 8,974.5 hours ACARS
371 legs, 587.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 29 2019 12:32 ET by Scott D Williams

With about 6 different DVA organizations these gates get crowded early on the busy events. Bring plenty of patience.

Scott D Williams

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

Posted onPost created on January 29 2019 13:11 ET by Tom Pletzke

Yep, patience helps. I have had to move around a little to find an open gate and have had planes on top of me. All part of the fun. I always credit them for being involved and I am never upset about it.

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on January 30 2019 12:26 ET by Andrew Vane

Tom Pletzke wrote:

I have had to move around a little to find an open gate and have had planes on top of me. All part of the fun.

Its pretty amusing to see another aircraft spawn in right in your aircraft, only to see them slew down a few gates.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

DVA3220
Captain, B737-800
OLP

Joined on May 19 2006
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Southeastern United States

78 legs, 129.9 hours
73 legs, 122.3 hours online
76 legs, 127.3 hours ACARS
31 legs, 57.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 04 2019 23:15 ET by Tyler Devereaux

While I realize the challenges with online flying, I wanted to chime in and second Tom's idea. Occupied gates are a reality, so even though our onslaught of an airport during an event may be unrealistic, pulling up after a flight to find someone else parked at your gate isn't that uncommon. I really like the new ACARS feature that suggests gates, but I think it'd be even more cool if we had that information ahead of time. I like to go over planned after-landing stuff before I get to the airport, so I don't have to come to a full stop off the runway and figure out where I'm gonna head for parking. I think it'd be kinda fun to at least plan out a gate when we signup. If it's not available when I arrive, that's okay, I'll "get in touch with ops and see what they want to do with us" (figure it out); on the other hand, if it actually did work out for a small majority of us participants, it'd be pretty darn cool to pull up next to a fellow DVA member. And for the airports Delta doesn't have a bunch of gates at ... we could chalk it up to ... "a temporary contract for special event parking." I don't know.

I realize there's obviously some opposition, but I didn't want to leave Tom out in the rain by himself: I, for one, think it's a pretty cool idea.

Posted onPost created on February 05 2019 08:51 ET by Tom Pletzke

Thanks Tyler, I have an Delta umbrella in case of rain smile

. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bsj32RsEH7FFRPz9oEf9EsB9UvWW297w/view?usp=sharing

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on February 05 2019 12:22 ET by Andrew Vane

Is probably more beneficial to have a DVA gate area at the larger airports. We should all find each other easily at smaller ones like CLT or RDU. However, at MSP or ATL where there are tons of Delta gates, perhaps we can recommend an area where we'd prefer to all go to gates in case we do have company traffic at the same airport on vatsim. The exception would be the heavies who need the larger gates.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

DVA8920
Senior Captain, B737-800
OLP
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"Any landing you can walk away from..."
Smyrna, GA

2,135 legs, 5,362.8 hours
1,073 legs, 2,508.7 hours online
2,044 legs, 5,156.3 hours ACARS
89 legs, 220.5 hours event
0 legs dispatched, 3.4 hours

Posted onPost created on February 06 2019 02:48 ET by Daniel Wilbanks

Admittedly took a minute but I found my way to this post.

I’ve considered this idea before, but my concern lies primarily with the differences in scenery. Just because I have up to date payware scenery for, say, ATL and gate E34 exists for me doesn’t mean that it exists for someone else with less accurate scenery.

Perhaps that could work out okayish if the difference is minor. You don’t have E34 but you have E30 so you spawn there instead. Close enough. But what happens when a member has default scenery at an airport that has since added terminals, re-numbered gates, etc? If we tell the members we’re all going to leave out of gates S1-S20 and one member loads FSX only to find out his only listed options are Gate 1 - Gate 152, he’d be rather confused. Now the pilot has to google for a map of the airport, compare that with what he sees in the sim to figure out where he is, and then randomly try other gates until he gets to where he wants to be.

In theory, a great idea and one that would be cool to implement on occasion. Maybe someone has an idea I’m not thinking of?

Daniel Wilbanks (DVA8920)

Posted onPost created on February 06 2019 08:53 ET by Tom Pletzke

I think a range would give us a suggested area and still be able to pick our own stop if we wanted to. Actually, I spend more time with runway and gate considerations than I used to. I would find myself driving all over the airport because I would pick a gate too far from my runway. I enjoy the DVA links for airport gates while flight planning. I use them every time and consider wind direction to narrow my runway selection, then I review what gates are closest to runway. Then I repeat the process while planning the landing. Sometimes, ATC and/or wind direction change, makes me update my runway. In that case, I just review our link to determine a possible closer gate or ACARS sometimes gives gate suggestion at landing (love that feature!).

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

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