[February 19th 0500z-2200z] Sarajevo '84 Winter Olympics Rush - RE-WINDED

[Jonas Kuster]

It is told that the Sarajevo'84 Winter Olympics were the best organized games in history. We younger generations only know it was the best Sarajevo rush in history!

And from now, the rush will each year be RE-WINDED!

Completely reconstructed and well-equipped, Sarajevo Airport was functioning well during the Sarajevo’84 Winter Olympics, even though there were some weather problems. In the period of February 5 – 20, 630 planes landed or took off, 49 of which were regular flights and 581 charter flights. In this period only two flights were cancelled. 46.710 passengers came by air. On February 20 only, 70 airplanes took off with 120 tons of luggage. 74% of all Yugoslav air traffic in 1984 was the Sarajevo-related traffic, an increase by 15%. The alternative airports at Dubrovnik, Split & Mostar were not used.

All pilots are therefore invited to feel the rush, by re-winding the time to the sweet past, finding the old aircraft and flying your native spectators and participants from origin of choice to the 1984 Winter Olympic Capital Sarajevo - we will be online during the entire opening hours of the airport 05-22z!

And if you have hard time deciding which origin or destination it should be, there is help to get!

Whole 8 partner airports will be providing ATC around Sarajevo as inspiration to you, being:

05-08z: Sochi (URSS), Russia, 940 NM
07-10z: Odessa (UKOO), Ukraine, 550 NM
09-12z: Athens (LGAV), Greece, 440 NM
11-14z: Istanbul (LTBA), Turkey, 500 NM
13-16z: Budapest (LHBP), Hungary, 220 NM
15-18z: Naples (LIRN), Italy, 250 NM
17-20z: Geneva (LSGG), Switzerland, 540 NM
19-22z: Salzburg (LOWS), Austria, 330 NM

As well the 1984 feeder airports Zagreb (LDZA) and Belgrade (LYBE) will be covered too and alternates Dubrovnik (LDDU), Split (LDSP) and Mostar (LQMO) opened if needed!

During the Sarajevo’84 Winter Olympics and somewhat before they started, air traffic intensified with 50-70 operations a day. It was the first time that JAT's biggest passenger aircraft DC-10, flying directly
from New York, landed here. There were other big international planes, too, like L-1011-Tristar, B707, DC-8, and other ones, DC-9, TU-134, B727, B737, DHC-7, C500 etc. too, flying to and from Sarajevo all the time.

Of course, you may also fly modern aircraft, GAs etc., it is all up to you, we only want you to feel the spirit of the 1984 Winter Olympic Capital Sarajevo covered in snow, fog and aircraft!

Please visit the very detailed and beautiful events page for historical information, pilot briefings and resources at: http://wor84.vaccbih.info/

And remember to mark the 19th FEB with a huge X and join the rush!

So, let's RE-WIND the Sarajevo'84 Winter Olympics rush together by making it one of the biggest rushes on VATSIM,

vACCBiH | Events Department

& Event partner vACCs: CROvACC, SCGvACC, VATRUS | Rostov FIR, vACC Ukraine, HvACC, TRvACC, VACCHUN, VATITA, vACC-Switzerland & VACC-Austria

[Josef Renotiere]

http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.p...446154*p446154

There is served and it's not even breakfast here - a real party!
One of our inbounds is all the way from Anchorage, Alaska, real Olympic spirit and respect for that!
The rush has topped, total 17,5 hrs non stop ATC elapsed, with JAT123 B737-400 Classic as the symbolic last plane to land in Olympic Sarajevo and receiving a wine-salute (no details)!
Thanks to every one supporting this big event, individuals, pilots, the partner vACCs and all others too!
According to our counts, we have had around 150-160 operations during the entire day at Sarajevo, which is more then double of the busiest day in 1984 (70 operations) and 1/4 of the total 2 weeks Sarajevo '84 Winter Olympics traffic. Also being the biggest figure for Sarajevo on VATSIM for 1 day ever.
The airport capacity is around 250 operations/day, we aimed to top the capacity, but there was no need, as in several occasions we had full airport, up to 5 departures at HP and up to 20 planes in the air which had to hold for up to 30 mins. Real Sarajevo rush!
Pilots from all over the world visited Sarajevo: Some flew their native sportsmen and guests from their origin world wide, most notable was a Swissair flight flying 11 hours from Anchorage, Alaska to Sarajevo. While some flew shorter distances and some got inspired by the partner airports and other airports covered by the partner airport vACC same time.
Even though lasting 17,5 hrs, it was really a good roster and pleasure being online and having so many good pilots and support from the ATC-colleagues, all of you, but especially LDZO_CTR, our CTR being there ALL the time, keeping, holding and separating the traffic for us! LYBA_CTR eastern neighbor CTR did pretty much the same, just bit shorter period, still excellent!
We already got a lot of positive feedback, pilots being grateful and happy, saying it was the best and among the best events ever. Greeting all the ATC-staff, even asking if we are RL ATCos. And noting our multi-language capabilities. Of course some few had some longer delays that they didn't found interesting, while others found it realistic and enjoyed. Or some experienced variations in the ATC due to the rush and therefore need for efficiency and FS crashes due to potential scenery issues, but it was less then a handful.
All of you are welcome to write the feedback's on: http://wor84.vaccbih.info/feedback or here if easier, but we aim to have all on the page, to keep it for the next years!
And remember that we have a contest going on, so if having pictures and videos, upload according to the information on: http://wor84.vaccbih.info/contest
Thank you once again on behalf of,
vACCBiH | Events Department & Team
& Event partner vACCs: CROvACC, SCGvACC, VATRUS | Rostov FIR, vACC Ukraine, HvACC, TRvACC, VACCHUN, VATITA, VACC-Switzerland & VACC-Austria