[Every Tuesday, 18-20z] Zurich Night

[Jonas Kuster]

Welcome to the Zurich Night, the weekly onlineday of Switzerlands major airport! Every Tuesday from 1800z to 2000z, expect full staffing, professional and friendly ATC service and plenty of traffic.

Enjoy one of total 4 IFR approaches or get yourself a spot as a small VFR aircraft between the big birds. VFR flights are still performed regularly despite the airport's size. This makes flying VFR to/from Zurich extremely interesting, but it's also a huge challenge which requires careful preparation. A lot of small airfields in the vicinity offer numerous possibilities for short VFR hops.

Zurich is a unique airport with a lot of operational restrictions due to noise abatement and its challenging layout. We know it by heart and love this airport with all its rough edges. And we are sure you gonna love it as well!

Almost every Tuesday we will also staff Geneva (LSGG) and Basel (LFSB) for you. Check out the bookings on vacc.ch.

Join our frequencies every Tuesday evening and enjoy!


Airport information, Scenery & Charts
LSZH - Zurich

Routes
Find valid routings on routes.vacc.ch.
Still looking for a destination? We recommend Berlin Brandenburg (EDDB) (18:00-20:30z) and the Adria Region (18-21z).

[Mauro Gerber]

Von HTR123 ein grosses Dankeshön an die gesammte ATC-Crew

[Michael Kühne]

Ebenso von HTR89

[Jonas Kuster]

Tonight last official recurrence before the summer break of 6 weeks where you may expect reduced staffing. The Zurich Night will be officially back at August 29th!

Don't forget to participate in the Checkout next tuesday, July 18th!

[Tobias Schlegel]

@Tim
Wie im Feedback schon erwähnt, vielen Dank für den super Service gestern. Noch so zur Visualisierung, wie das bei mir (EZY91YA) ausgesehen hat.

1. Versuch
Arrival_LSZH_01.jpg

2. Versuch
Arrival_LSZH_02.jpg

[Tim Peter]

Vielen Dank Tobi!

Ich hatte den Niederschlagsradar auf meinem 2. Screen, aber leider kann man diesen nicht im EuroScope einblenden. Somit ist es schwierig euch sauber um eine Zelle zu manövrieren.
Zudem war gestern doch einiges los auf der Frequenz...
Wenn immer möglich versuche ich aber eine Lösung zu finden und freue mich immer über Inputs von Pilotenseite.
Deine Info über die Zelle am Ende des Downwinds beim ersten Anflug, sah ich nicht so klar wie du.

Ich hatte gestern einen super Abend und viel Spass auf Arrival.
Vielen Dank fürs fliegen!

[Jonas Kuster]

The Zurich Night will be in summer break for 4 weeks after 17 July and return 21 August.

[Ramon Balimann]

Zurich Night wird morgen Abend nochmals stattfinden vor der Sommerpause. Aufgrund der heissen Temperaturen freuen wir uns umso mehr auf euren Support vor der Sommerpause!

Don't forgett the last Zurich Night before the Summerbreak! So a last time for this season support our vACC and get the Pilots some great ATC experience!

[Ramon Balimann]

Danke an Alasdair und HP für den Service heute Abend! Damit ist der Event Zurich Night bis am 13. August in der Sommerpause. Natürlich freuen sich die Piloten immer auf euren Service und es dürfte auch ohne Event den ein oder anderen Piloten nach Zürich ziehen am Dienstag. ATC ist also trotzdem erlaubt

Thanks Alasdair and HP for Service tonight. Zurich Night will make a Summer break until 13th August. Pilots will always be happy for your Service and it might have some Traffic at Tuesday from Pilots flying every Week to Zurich. So feel free to book for LSZH during July

Liebi Grüess und schöne Summer!
Ramon

[Ramon Balimann]

Summer break is over! Next Tuesday it's time again for Zurich Night. See you next Tuesday!

[Ramon Balimann]

Am 17. Dezember ist es zum letzten Mal im 2019 Zeit für Zurich Night! Da Weihnachten und Silvester heuer auf den Dienstag fallen machen wir somit eine kleine Winterpause und sind am 7. Januar 2020 zurück.

This tuesday, 17. December, last Zurich Night for 2019. Due to Christmas and New Year's Eve on Tuesday we will do a Winter break and will be back on 7th January 2020. See you!

[Andre Bohni]

Ich habe einmal die Zahlen der letzten Dienstage zusammengestellt, jeweils von 17z bis 22z (wahrscheinlich hätte mann zum Teil bis 23z nehmen sollen). Es sind unglaubliche Leistungen die wir in den letzten Wochen vollbracht haben

17.03 Dep 57 Arr 63
24.03 Dep 81 Arr 84
31.03 Dep 73 Arr 98
07.04 Dep 80 Arr 93
14.04 Dep 73 Arr 110
21.04 Dep 54 Arr 75
28.04 Dep 41 Arr 83
05.05 Dep >61 Arr > 83 stand 21.16z

Quelle statsim.net

[Michael Kühne]

Und wir sollten immer 2 CTRs und 3-4 APP/DEP aufmachen, damit das noch Spass macht!

[Jonas Kuster]

immer 2 CTRs

Ja, unbedingt. Auf die Radar-Lotsen sind wir momentan noch mehr als sonst angewiesen. Alleine ist es bei aller Effizient unkontrollierbar.

Also Guest Controllers with CTR approvals are requested to join the weekly tuesday evening and staff a suitable Swiss Radar position to help organise the traffic.

[Florian Hofer]

An dieser Stelle meinerseits ein grosses Kompliment an alle Controller! (War als EDW72D EGCC-LSZH und EDW642 LSZH-LEBL unterwegs)

Das war ja mal ein riesen Ansturm diesen Dienstag! Waren das in der stündlichen Belastung nicht viel mehr als an einigen VA-Meetings? (Ohne Bezug zu diesem Jahr, da dies ebenfalls speziell tangiert wurde durch Corona..)

Auch am Boden als es nicht mehr ging und Starts begrenzt werden musste: TOBT/EOBT Ankündigungen super geklappt auf DEL und in der Zeit als ich auf der Frequenz war, schienen sich die Piloten gut daran zu halten.

(Ok, ich wollte erst eine TOBT haben, da ich meine APU nicht unnötig laufen lassen wollte - Umweltschutz und die armen Ramper ;-) - und mich GSX auch nicht 30 min mit "Release parking breakes" vollquatscht. Die TOBT habe ich dann auch so erhalten und konnte das weitere Vorgehen in den nächsten 25 min planen.)

Nochmals sorry meinerseits für die verk***te Landung... Noch bremst mir der 330er zu wenig bei der tiefen Zuladung welche ich hatte...

[Ramon Balimann]

After the next Zurich Night on 30th June we will make a Summerbreak as usual. We will be back on 11th August. Enjoy the Summer and the great weather in Switzerland!

Feel free to controll during this period but there will be no promotion.

See you!

[Michael Briner]

A question out of curiosity: Wouldn't it be smoother to remain during the Zurich night within one arr/dep concept instead of doing an operational change within the event? I do know that this happens in real life according to noise abatement and I also prefer to simulate as close as it gets to real life, but it always causes delays due to reclearances and jams on the taxiways.

I disconnected frustratedly yesterday while standing in the queue on taxiway A.

- Waiting time to get the dep clearance via rwy 28: approx 15-20 minutes
- Waiting time to get startup clearance: 5-10 minutes
- Just before taxi clearance came the operational change, meaning to get a reclearance via rwy 32 (reclearance was received rather prompt but it took another 5-10 minute nonetheless)
- and finally I would have waited another minimum of 20 minutes till takeoff

In total, I spent 1.5 hours on the ground, without even lifting off.

So don't get me wrong in this matter, the ATC service was as friendly and professional as always, but the fun factor got lost a bit. I just wonder whether it would be smoother by remaining within the concept of dep rwy 28 and arr rwy 14.

[Michael Kühne]

Not sure if it make a big difference, if done efficiently you loose maybe one or two departures/arrivals due to the config change. The issue is the very high number of traffic in general, not regulated as real word traffic would be, leading to delays both on ground and in the air.

[Florian Hofer]

As I was flying-in early this tuesday and did not depart again, I don't know how the situation was later on. But the problem with this ammount of traffic comes from different sources.

1. Real World has a fixed capacity, depending on runway config. As far as I know, this is approx 35-40 landings per hour and 35-40 departures with 14 arrival and 28 only departures. As soon as you have 16 departures, this is reduced by 2 to 3 arrivals and approx 2 departures per 1 departure 16.
If now 30 pilots want to depart within a time frame of 30 minutes, this is strictly not possible, also due to different further reasons.
a.) Different sceneries, resulting in confusion when there is an aircraft standing on a taxiway within another scenery.
b.) Pilots tend to be lest efficient compared to real world (Also due to single pilot workflows)
c.) Zurich has many many special push back procedures in use in order to optimise traffic flow. (e.g. Push backs onto taxiway F/E from aircraft stands in the bay (from taxiway N)) Majority of the sim pilots does not have this, which causes delay on push back. (But also on taxi in due to blocked taxiways.) --> I have to set them up again, because I updated my scenery.. Takes me up to 3h to program them all.


2. Real World operates with way more ATCO during peak times. Handling that ammount of traffic with our ATCO numbers is beyond real. (Especially enroute has more ATCO in order to reduce delays due to frequency occupation.)

3. Runway changes are sometimes coordinated to late. During normal times (Non-Corona time) it is mostly sufficient to call it 15-30 minutes before. But due to traffic volume since corona, we should increase this at least to 1h before the change. ATCOs should coordinate the last departing/landing traffic latest 15 min before the change. (Tower/Arrival are the majors here. GND/DEL to reclear accordingly earlier.) --> I personally have to keep this in mind too. We as ATCO have great potential here.

[Michael Briner]

3. Runway changes are sometimes coordinated to late. During normal times (Non-Corona time) it is mostly sufficient to call it 15-30 minutes before. But due to traffic volume since corona, we should increase this at least to 1h before the change. ATCOs should coordinate the last departing/landing traffic latest 15 min before the change. (Tower/Arrival are the majors here. GND/DEL to reclear accordingly earlier.) --> I personally have to keep this in mind too. We as ATCO have great potential here.

A good point I can underline. The timeframe of receiving clearance for rwy28 and having to get a reclearance was - as I remember - below 10 minutes. Maybe DEL should clear earlier on rwy32. Or at least DEL should check again before giving the hand-off to Apron due to start/push request. If the config change is up within the next 10-15 minutes, an immediate reclearance would make sense.