KeithHadden wrote:I will begin the Grand World Tour from the beginning to accommodate the majority of participants. Currently the Clone Air group fly on a Saturday morning (0500 UTC) on most Saturdays depending on pilots availability, and anyone can join us then. But I am proposing to repeat the flights in order io extend this to a wider group. It will require more discipline on our (read my) behalf. The legs are on average 2 hours in a 737, however there some shorter ones, and when flying these we will do more than one.
Due to the HUGE number of legs the more often this can be done the better. I would like get the opinion of prospective pilots, so here is a survey:-
How often to meet and fly?
Weekly/Every Two Weeks/Monthly
Which day of the week?
Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday
Time? (specified as UTC please)
How many hours available for each session?
Any other comments and suggestions?
Hi Keith.
I think the idea is great. Planning around something, I presume, is challenging. When I planned the USA tour, I created the road map first (the destination's list, their distance, and a rough idea of what cruising conditions I wanted). Then I posted every leg, accommodating to my own schedule as needed, but keeping Time/Date relatively fixed. There were 54 legs, and it took me 5 years to complete.
From that experience, I would say It would be recommended for your Tour you actually perform your planning around even more detailedly than I had to do, and create a full tour schedule.
My suggestion:
1. Make your destinations' List in order
2. Spread the Tour in a fixed amount of time. I think 4 to 5 years is a correct time frame, but you can try to make it way faster, at your will.
3. For the length of this Tour, I recommend you don't expect people to show at every leg
4. with 2 and 3 in mind, lay out your flying times (DATE/Time in UTC for Departure, and expected DATE/Time in UTC for Arriving).
4a. For this, I say Saturdays are the best date for everyone. (certainly the only day to work for me)
4b. Time in UTC is funny. No time works world wide. The time that is good for some people in the Eastern hemisphere, is the most aweful for those in the Western hemisphere. And viceversa.
5. given 4, I think you could plan every leg to be repeated twice on a date, separated 12 hours apart. And let people attend whichever time they feel works best for them (or both for the die-hard fans)..
Example
Leg 1. Sat Oct 13th. Departures at 5UTC,
and at 17UTC (each pilot joins the group they want to; and report in the tour threads in forums, etc).
6. Create the whole tour schedule sheet and publish completely, and immediately. This is, per example, every year has about 52 weeks. If you have weekly events then you get about 50 events a year (there'll be weekends you might want off due to international holidays, or so... maybe). so In 5 years you can actually do about 250 legs biweekly. [which is nearing, or slightly above, the total number of countries this planet is politically drawn upon].
With that in mind, you can actually go ahead and make a post of with a calendar link (a google calendar, per example) and a full list of flights. There all 200+ legs are specified with: 1. exact date (Saturday? most logically?). 2. Date repeats? 3. Times (at 12 h apart as in 5 above). 4. Destination airport. 5. Arrival airport.
7. People can schedule somehow around this. And they will probably decide to join if this becomes more popular. Also, the fact that is monotonously programmed makes it easier to either decide beforehand or even show up on a very short notice.
8. No one is expected to be completing all legs, but tours need leadership. Someone that shows most of the time. If you want to do this, your time is up.
9. Monthly, publish before-hand the route, recommended airplanes, NOTAMS and other stuff pertinent that pilots need to know for the following 4 Legs.
10. Let such schedule happen, and have fun.
11. Take any of this recommendations and discard whatever might not fit you. It's your tour, afterall...
Best,
IH
