I 've transitioned in Reykjavic Oceanic airspace now, so I 've got some time to post some images.
First of all, finding an empty parking spot wasn't easy, but I managed.
And this was the situation on the ground. ATC controlled takeoffs from three runways (18L, 24, 36L), and one landing runway (27). Luckily I departed runway 18L, as this was the traffic jam building up to runway 36L :p
I departed EHAM with only 6 minutes delay to my calculated takeoff time (CTOT), thanks to the great guidance AND planning of ATC. Planning Cross the pond takes a lot of skills, as I saw during a presentation the DUTCH VACC gave at FSweekend two years ago. I had only two aircraft in front of me when lining up runway 18L at E5. (we didn't use E6 as we all would have to cross the active landing runway 27).
And off we went. From lining up to contacting final center controllers, I talked to 4 controllers (Tower, Approach and two Maastricht Radar controllers) in about 10 minutes. Speak about overload :p In Danish airspace at FL300 I flew directly below PSV105, another flight to KSFO at FL360.
I'm currently approaching Iceland, and I 've talked to not less than 11 different controllers, but I 've still got a lot of them to go
In order of appearance:
EHAM delivery (to get my clearance), EHAM planner (to plan the departures for aircraft that are fully ready for push and start and let them contact ground in a orderly fashion to reduce traffic jams on the way to the runway), EHAM ground (one of three ground controllers active at the time), EHAM tower (for takeoff), EHAM Approach, Maastricht ACC and Maastricht UAC, Denmark CTR, Scottish CTR, Reykjavic Clearance (to obtain my Oceanic clearance), back to Scottish (didn't count this one twice) and finally Reykjavic Oceanic. Below you see the madness that's currently going on on VATSIM
I'm the first aircraft in the blue circle). The overloaded tracks are people who didn't manage to get a slot for Cross the pond (there are about 4 specific NAT-tracks that are not controlled and where those pilots have to maintain separation themselves.
I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed to make this possible: Developing FlightGear, developing wonderful aircraft, developing Swift to be able to connect to Vatsim. For me it feels like a great accomplishment that I 've managed to participate in CTP.
If you're interested, I 'll keep you posted about the rest of the flight. I also captured my screen and audio from clearance to climbout, but I did the narrative in Dutch as it 's mainly intended for my family. If any Dutch speaking/understanding FlightGear aviator is interested I can always send a link
It provides a nice insight in the 777's operation too. I 'll try to think about doing the approach in English if anyone is interested in that phase.