Southwest Lockdown - A thread [Pic Heavy]

[Alex Hodgkinson]

You know that virtual airline that flies yellow and blue planes around the South West and other places around the world, the one that the posh London TMA controllers loathe? The one called "Severnair?" Well here is a little thread about how we all managed to host a successful one-day event despite Covid putting a downer on our traditional 'secret location' meetup.

For those of you that remember our ‘Weston’ events from years gone by, we have since turned the event from a ‘public’ display (as unfortunately the museum decided to route away from Flight Sim) to a ‘secret location’ where we all (as in, ATC and pilot types) sit in a big room with lots of ale and drink our way through two days of FS related activities.

Obviously due to this global pandemic, this usual routine obviously couldn’t happen, so we had to improvise.

So the first thing we had to do was invest in cleaning materials, so after our individual workspaces were thoroughly sterilised, we then upgraded the flight progress display.

Then, after the flight strips were done, we logged on. I was on Jersey Control for most of the day (I think from about 1100 till 2100). A familiar position for me but a not-so-familiar position for some others as it’s sadly a position that’s been neglected but is seeing a resurgence. Which is great to see!

After much drinking (I mean, what else do you do during lockdown?!) and a Chinese, I handled 108 individual aircraft across the Channel Islands (Including 4 from Alderney)

I would like to thank all the pilots who flew because you were all brilliant! Secondly, thanks to the adjacent ATC (East and West) who helped me out and stopped three ORIST arrivals arriving on top of each other.

Enjoy the pictures, here’s to the next event...

Well done BAW2216, first ac of the day!

 

 

This was the bin at 13:46...

 

This was the traffic at 14:57...

Edited May 16, 2020 by Alex Hodgkinson

[Alex Hodgkinson]

This was the traffic at 17:40....

 

...and this was the bin!...

Thanks!

[Paul Houghton]

You're gonna need a bigger bin!?

[Dan Bishop-Adams]

How have I only just seen this thread!?

For those interested in figures, here are the total movements for each aerodrome:

Bristol - 154
Cardiff - 85
Jersey - 109
Guernsey - 11
Alderney - 4
Channel Islands (Total) - 124
Exeter - 38
Newquay - 52

This does also include traffic from before/after the event hours (I believe it covers a 24h period). However, many of us did a full 12 hours so the majority of it would've been event traffic.

Much fun was had... here's to the SW Overload Event when we can finally hold it!

A belated thanks again to those who flew.