Event Suggestion: Meteorite Shower!

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Calvin Waterbury
Posts: 199
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:37 am

Event Suggestion: Meteorite Shower!

Post by Calvin Waterbury »

I am voluntarily rescinding this event suggestion of my own accord as a result of being made aware of how such an event could adversely effect the perception of PilotEdge in the marketplace. I have received no directive to make this withdrawal. Given I believe some of the core tenets are of some intrinsic value, I am leaving the post as a seed for more appropriate submissions. - C.W.

Howdy Folks!

Almost since I joined PE I have been considering the aspect of an event featuring major catastrophic emergencies. I don't like violence being done to others, so things like airplane crashes, terrorist takeovers, random shootings, etc. were quickly eliminated. Today I finally came upon the idea of an "Armageddon" style meteor shower. I'll warn you up front this post is long. Although, the idea of a meteoric event is brand new, the elements have been gestating and are quite involved.

Here are some of the criteria as I see it...
  • All of the PE Controllers will need be working the event.
  • Keith will need to delegate the "work" to someone (let's call that person the "Facilitator") he can confide in and doesn't mind being the legs which will put this all in motion. It is not necessary for the Facilitator to be a PE controller; in fact it is better if it isn't since the "surprise" element might possibly shake up some ATC controllers which would add a delicious element to the catastrophic scenario!
  • In order to create a sense of surprise and being unprepared, this event would be unadvertised (as much as possible) actually occurring during some other dummy advertised event. Say, sometime within the next seven events. I chose seven because, IMO five is too few to provoke a real sense of losing the anticipation and ten is too long in the tooth. It could happen on the next event or it might not show up for months. The Facilitator and Keith would choose the date of the impending meteorite devastation.
  • There always has to be a choice for those that want to opt out, especially since the meteor event might be construed as false advertising. This will necessitate the need for a "Consent Form," but I think this can be handled as simply as readers of this thread replying with, "I would like to be a target."
  • "Targets" are members who have given their consent to be a random victim of the delegation of the Facilitator.
There is more, but I only want to divulge those details to Keith and/or the Facilitator in order to preserve an unpreparedness in the participants.

Now, here is how I see this being played out. For some frame of reference, I will use KLAX as the devastated airport and KSAN as the safe haven.
  • At some point in the dummy event the meteorites will accost a business-as-usual air space at KLAX.
  • Huge meteorites which hit in unpopulated desert areas trigger major earthquakes that fracture all runways and taxiways, except one leaving only one full-length taxiway and path to it unmolested.
  • All other airports in the area of the devastated airport sustain enough damage they can not be used to deviate traffic to for landing. Even KPSP has been knocked out.
  • Additionally, the air is filled with minute "bullet" meteorites which will not destroy, but will cripple an aircraft. More on this below.
  • "News" of this meteorite shower has finally been digested by local government and FEMA. The FAA issues an immediate closure of operations at KLAX and other devastated airports, including immediately clearing all airborne aircraft south to avoid possible impact.
  • PE ATC obeys the FAA mandates and all aircraft on the ground, including those on takeoff roll are immediately suspended from operation.
  • These grounded aircraft will need to be routed to the only available surviving "runway" for departure... the aforementioned surviving taxiway.
  • Since the FAA has issued mandates suspending operations and there is a need to "get those plane out of there", PE ATC controllers will need to model the actual process of contacting the FAA and receiving the needed authorization to move the aircraft and authorize the use of say, Taxiway Alpha for use as a runway. Although this will not directly effect the pilots, the added confusion and distraction (stress?) to the controllers should add to the general mayhem which will affect the controller efficiency or lack of it.
  • Having received the authority to move the aircraft to Taxiway Alpha for departure (miraculously all connecting taxiways are intact), ATC Controllers begin ascertaining where the aircraft are stranded and begin to sequence them to Taxiway Alpha for takeoff.
  • Along with what is happening in the ATC, it would be at this point the "Facilitator" would really start stirring the pot by sending direct messages to each of the "Targets" who had previously given their consent to be crippled during the event. The facilitator would send messages like,
    • "N845TY, a meteorite has removed half your horizontal stabilizer." This will be an "imagined" emergency since there is no way to remove half a stabilizer in X-Plane in flight. Nevertheless, the pilot would still declare a "Mayday!" to ATC adding to the confusion.
    • "N45RT, a meteorite has pierced one of your wing tanks and you have lost half of your remaining fuel." This can be done in real time since the pilot can reduce his fuel by half in the "Weight and Fuel" dialog.
    • "Air Northwest 916 Heavy, meteorites have pierced the hydraulic line to your landing gear which is now inoperable (necessitating a belly landing at KSAN) and a number of your wing tanks leaving you with only a third of your remaining fuel." This is a bad boy because there is only one runway at KSAN, only a third of the fuel is available and due to a belly landing, ANW916 Heavy will have to wait until all other aircraft are safely on the ground before attempting the belly landing. They will have to hope they don't run out of fuel in the meantime.
  • Each aircraft which is "hit" will be reporting "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" to the Controllers.
  • Each "Mayday!" call will have to be evaluated for aircraft integrity and capabilities, like making the trip to the safe haven. Once these evaluations have been made it will then be ATC's job to sequence accordingly. Tense, no?
  • About this time the FAA announces KSAN is the only airport which has escaped devastation of its runways. ATC is ordered to sequence all able aircraft to KSAN immediately. Obviously, this will involve some holds from pilots who have the skill and have consented to be vectored to the hold.
  • ATC continues to sequence aircraft to Taxiway Alpha for takeoff, but because of the general mayhem and some aircraft which have had their VORs, GPSs, etc. knocked out by our trusty Facilitator, TWR, DEP and APP will have their hands full vectoring almost every aircraft. Perhaps TWR will have to deal with a departing aircraft cleared for takeoff which has no air speed indication left and must get enough air speed to become airborne, but can only get this from TWR read backs. Yoohoo, Facilitator, are you listening? (Hint hint!)
  • The Facilitator continues to inflict other aircraft as long as they are north of say, OCN.
  • PE ATC continues to try and clean up the mess.
I will leave the rest of the meteorite event to your imagination. :)

In closing, with careful clandestine planning I see this as very viable and a great learning experience on both sides of the radio. A lot of my design was motivated by giving our dedicated PilotEdge Controllers a challenge as well as all the pilots.

OK, what are your thoughts? Can this happen or is it destined to go down in flames?

Thanks for your time.
Last edited by Calvin Waterbury on Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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