Cor de Jong Memorial Flight

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

Copied from IVAO

[img=300X360]http://elroba.nl/IVAO/cdj.jpg[/img]

Dear IVAO friends,

The 20th of September, we all lost a great staff member, founder of IVAO and above all a great friend. Cor de Jong took his own wings to the endless skies above us…

We would like to commemorate Cor next Saturday (29th of September) via a memorial flight from one of Cor his favourite places on earth, Switzerland. Zurich (LSZH) to be exactly. The flight will depart from LSZH around 18:05Z to Schiphol Amsterdam (EHAM) after some moments of silence to honour Cor. The silence will be announced via Broadcast 5 minutes prior the silence will start, to be sure everyone is informed. The pilot flying under Cor his callsign (BGT304) will depart first, the rest of the pilots will follow. When the BGT304 enters the Netherlands airspace he will be escorted by four F-16’s of the virtual Royal Netherlands Airforce. Overhead EHAM, the pilot will fly a lap of honour overhead Schiphol, after which he will disconnect as a sign that Cor has taken his wings forever to his beloved skies. The four F-16’s will fly a missing man formation overhead Schiphol after the disconnection.

The NL-Staff invites you to take part to the Memorial Flight. Keep in mind that you will not be the only one, there is heavy traffic expected. We are currently busy to get ATC all the way from Zurich to Amsterdam. Multiple routes will be flown and be published later to spread the traffic. Please be patient during the arrival at EHAM, it will be a very emotional evening for everyone (especially controllers and pilots from the Netherlands), thanks in advance for respecting that.

To spread the traffic flow there are two routes available, one via German and the other via Belgium airspace. Kind request on behalf on the controllers in the Netherlands is to choose randomly between those two routes. The two available are mentioned hereunder:

LSZH-EHAM (via German airspace):
DEGES Z3 LBU Z11 ABUMO N850 GIN B505 ARPEG Z850 HMM T281 NORKU

LSZH-EHAM (via Belgium airspace):
VEBIT T51 LASUN UT10 TORPA UT40 GIVOR UN853 DIK UA24 BUB UG120 HELEN

Before filing your flightplan, please check ServInfo or IvAe to check which route is mostly filed, be the smartest one and file the route which is less filed in most flightplans. Thanks for taking this in mind!

Thanks for all your personal condolences, it certainly helps Barbara and the family during these difficult days!

With best regards,
IVAO NL-Staff.

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'Nuff said

[EHM-0654 Murray]

This "clashes" with the online department fly-in that we've been planning, and as such (and given I've yet to publish the details) I'm going to postpone that to next month to allow as many of our IVAO pilots to fly this memorial flight as is physically possible; let's take part in this event en masse and give Cor the send off from EuroHarmony that he deserves.

[EHM-1749 Hector]

Sorry to hear about Cor's death. May he Rest in Peace.
I will not be able to participate in this event since but that day I will be flying from Mendoza, Argentina to Maracaibo, Venezuela for my free week from job.
Sorry about it.
Hector

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

Well guys, what a night!!!

When I connected about 18:50z we were already 47 planes awaiting clearance and departure to EHAM.
While there was havoc on the airwaves, 19:00z came and everything went silent for 3 minutes. (The official silence was only two but everyone waited for the 'all clear' from the controller).

My computer crashed trying to cope with all these planes around me.
So I switched to being an observer for a while and got a couple of screenies of the memorial formation from IvAc.




Just see the amount of incoming flights to EHAM not to mention the amount of controllers (and their ranks) that were online this evening.

Finally, got connected again about 21:00z and did the flight along with the final 20 planes departing LSZH.
It was just great. The controllers, the mood, the understanding and service.

After a smooth landing and a 'tour' half way around Schiphol, I was on blocks having paid my respects to someone I knew little but probably did a lot for the IVAO network and the community as a whole.

P.S. It was refreshing to see the IVAO President work first as ground and then as Belgium Radar. :]

[EHM-2097 Andrei]

Here is another image of this massive participation.

I was controlling at the time but at some time within the event I looked with IVAE and the image was very impressive (see below).

One can clearly see the multiple flows of pilots converging into EHAM, the VERY crowded airspace in the airport vicinity and, especially, the huge number of observers (never saw this shade of gray before - so bright).




Note also the connected clients: 942. According to IVAO President, at the peak the number exceeded 1000.