Cross the Ditch 24: Winter 2023

Featured for Cross the Ditch 24

Airport Focus: Sydney, Australia
This event puts Sydney, Australia front and centre. The busiest airport in Australasia, Sydney's Kingsford Smith International (YSSY/SYD) is a hub in the operations of many of the region's largest airlines.
We will be bringing this bustle to VATSIM for Cross the Ditch 24 by using Sydney as the Australian airport in each of the event's Waves. 

Sydney (YSSY) will alternate as first destination, and then origin for five waves of flights linking Australia with three fan-favourite airports in New Zealand: first Wellington (NZWN), with its short runway and reputation for windy weather; then Queenstown (NZQN) with challenging approaches amid mountainous terrain; and finally Auckland (NZAA), New Zealand's largest city, recreating the two busiest international flight sectors in the entire Oceania region.
The Wave Schedule will allow enterprising pilots to complete all five sectors over the course of the day. Whether you fly only one wave or make it through all five, Cross the Ditch 24 will show why Sydney is such a special place.

What's it all about?

For twenty hours this June, 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, Oceania's two divisions – VATNZ and VATPAC – will be providing full gate-to-gate 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 twenty hour event is timed to allow pilots from all over the world to join the fun:

• UTC: Saturday 10th June 2023 18:00 - Sunday 11th June 2023 14:00
• AEST: Sunday 11th June 2023 04:00 - Monday 12th June 2023 00:00
• NZST: Sunday 11th June 2023 06:00 - Monday 12th June 2023 02:00

Waves

This season's event is organised in waves. Each airport will have a three-and-a-half-to-four-and-a-half 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 twenty hours!

The Waves for Cross the Ditch 24: Sydney Waves are:

Calling all Pilots and Controllers

Flight plans are available from the Flight Plans section.

Book your flights now from the Flight Bookings page. Bookings made on this site help us plan for the event, and will also show up in vroute.

Controllers wanting to get in on the action can also apply now at the event's ATC Applications page.