One of VATSIM’s most popular and well-attended annual events is back for 2023 and now accepting slot bookings.
Cross the Land: Eastbound invites virtual pilots to conduct a long haul crossing from one of 6 airports in Europe to one of 5 destinations in the Middle-East.
The event has run bi-annually now for several years (there is a westbound leg too which takes place in the first half of the year) with each iteration seeing gradual improvements in coordination and traffic flow.
The event is perhaps only bested by Cross the Pond, the VATSIM network’s flagship annual event which sees hundreds of simmers make a transatlantic crossing with full air traffic control services along the way, thanks to the herculean efforts of more than 100 trained VATSIM controllers.
Having flown in both events myself, I can say that Cross the Land is a great bit of fun if you have a free Saturday. If you want to fly across the Atlantic with oceanic procedures one day, but are perhaps a little nervous about it like I was, then this event will act as a good warmup for handling busy frequencies and congested airspace.
Cross the Land: Eastbound 2023 is taking place on September 9. It is a slotted event, meaning you will not receive a clearance unless you have pre-booked a specific departure slot and route. To make a booking, visit https://ctl.vatsim.me/cross-the-land-eastbound-2023-airport-voting-results/bookings
Additionally, the team are accepting applications for the “controller hitsquad”. This will be a team of trained VATSIM controllers who will act as standby gap-fillers should any airport or airspace need a service provided which can’t be met with by the rostered controllers. To apply for this, you need to have at least an S2 rating. If you’re an S2 and interested in joining the hitsquad, just fill in this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScX_rWhME1ytAI_q8PPppj8OxHeC6R8idTQQmkXdyPagSUezg/viewform
City Pairs
This year’s departing cities are: 🇳🇱 EHAM (Amsterdam), 🇩🇪 EDDB (Berlin), 🇫🇷 LFMN (Nice), 🇮🇹 LIRN (Naples), 🇪🇸 GCTS (Tenerife-South) and 🇹🇷 LFTM (Istanbul)
And arrival cities are: 🇱🇧 OLBA (Beirut), 🇯🇴 OJAI (Amman), 🇪🇬 HEGN (Hurghada), 🇸🇦 OEJN (Jeddah) and 🇦🇪 OMDB (Dubai)
