Jan 5th: First VATSIM/MITRE cooperative event

VATSIM has recently announced a potential partnership with MITRE a not-for-profit consulting firm that deals with airspace issues for many countries around the world. MITRE sees the potential in working with VATSIM to leverage our many strengths, primarily our ability to stand up a significant number of skilled pilots to participate in their airspace research experiments.

To explore this potential partnership, VATSIM and MITRE will be hosting a fly-in event within the Chicago ARTCC on Saturday, January 5th, 2008. This first event is a test for MITRE to learn how VATSIM events work, and for VATSIM to explore ways to deliver the results MITRE needs, by providing pilots that are comfortable flying a provided route and can handle their aircraft skillfully while accurately following ATC instructions.

Further details and a link to the sign-up page are on the dedciated vatsim.net forum

Please note that because this is a research situation, pilots whose flight begins to hamper the experiment may be disconnected by an event Supervisor at very short notice. This will have no disciplinary implications unless the pilot was seriously out of line. We are concerned only about creating a worthwhile test environment for these VATSIM/MITRE cooperative events. All are welcome to fly, just realize that we will be requiring that pilots fly their routes accurately and respond to ATC instructions quickly.

Come and help us show MITRE what VATSIM can do!