Cross the Ditch 7: Spring 2012

[Ray Lang]

Cross the Ditch 7: Spring 2012
Sunday 09th December 2012 0800-0200 NZDT / 0600-0000 AEDT / Sat 1900-1300 UTC




Cross the Ditch 7: Spring 2012

The Southern Hemisphere spring heralds fiesty weather and spectacular skies. This can only mean it's time once again to Cross the Ditch!

What's it all about?

For eighteen hours this December, the skies over the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand will be filled with aircraft all on a mission to Cross the Ditch.

An example of that typical down-under understatement, this "ditch" is over 1100nm wide. The flight routes all range from two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half hours flight time.

Throughout the event, the Oceania region's two divisions; VATNZ and VATPAC; will be providing full ATC coverage, in the Southern Hemisphere's premiere oceanic event.

This is a great opportunity to experience Oceanic flying without the need to commit to an eight-hour flight! If you're new to Oceanic Flying, our reporting tool makes taking part a breeze.


Event Times

This eighteen hour event is timed to allow pilots from all over the world join the fun:

    UTC: Saturday 8th December 2012 19:00 - Sunday 9th December 2012 13:00
    AEDT: Sunday 9th December 2012 06:00 - Monday 10th December 2012 00:00
    NZDT: Sunday 9th December 2012 08:00 - Monday 10th December 2012 02:00



Waves

This season's event is organised in waves. Each airport will have a three hour departure window, during which time flights will be able to leave for the next destination. As the window closes, the departure window will open at the next destination.

Given each of the flights is 2.5 - 3.5hrs in length, the previous wave's flights will be arriving at the same airport as the next wave departs, maximising the amount of traffic at each airport.

NOTE: in order to ensure that you have ATC coverage throughout your flight, you MUST fly the wave route that is active at the time of your departure.

The individual routes are designed to ensure as much opposing traffic enroute as possible.

Each flight passes from one Oceania division to the other, and the result is six mini-flyins over the course of eighteen hours!


The Waves for Cross the Ditch 7 - Spring 2012 are:


Wave    Flight                                    UTC          AEDT         NZDT
1       Auckland (NZAA) to Sydney (YSSY)          1900-2200    0600-0900    0800-1100
2       Sydney (YSSY) to Christchurch (NZCH)      2200-0100    0900-1200    1100-1400
3       Christchurch (NZCH) to Adelaide (YPAD)    0100-0400    1200-1500    1400-1700
4       Adelaide (YPAD) to Wellington (NZWN       0400-0700    1500-1800    1700-2000
5       Wellington (NZWN) to Melbourne (YMML)     0700-1000    1800-2100    2000-2300



Tony Forrest has open  his cheque book to enable to get your favourite Noble aircraft out of the hangar and into flight engineering for a final check over before the event start.
Tony will even chuck in a paint job for free. So lets show the Noble Air Flag  .