Briefing

December 2017

Overview	This year for our Christmas Caper, we move somewhere warmer, and will be visiting the Caribbean. The tour will start at the Virgin Islands and finish at Port of Spain Piarco International Airport.
Start Time and Place	The event starts on 1st December 2017 and finishes on 31 December 2017. We strongly recommend reading the 'Introduction' that is supplied with the download; you will find all you need to know in that document. To fly in company, it is suggested you use the forum to link up with other club members and choose a convenient date/time to fly any particular "day". If you do form a group don’t forget to inform Neville via a PM or forum post, as he may be able to arrange some form of ATC cover for your flights.
Planning Details	The route maps, flight planning information and Plan-G files for all 12 days are included in the Briefing Download.
Flight Logging	There will be two event stars awarded for the Caper, with one quarter (0.25) star being awarded at 8 of the en route airports, but of course we won't tell you which ones! Remember that Touch & Goes are not landings, so should not be recorded as a destination in your PIREPs. The Club Logger ignores them for this reason.
Weather... or Not	Before starting we will check the weather. If it is unsuitable for our trip as planned, then we will fix it. Something we can do in the simulator - wouldn't it be nice if we could do it in real life! FSInn has a "CAVOK" button. Click this and you get calm clear weather. Those using Squawkbox or or XSquawkbox will need to turn off the on-line weather updates, and select calm in the FS weather options. VPilot does not have a weather disabling feature.
What Aircraft can I fly	Any aircraft can be flown in this event as long as it is within the EASA GA category.
ATC	At the time of publishing this event plan, ATC has not been confirmed for the airports on the Caper route.
Radio Discipline	Take care not to let our Teamspeak chat cut across ATC. Stop any conversation immediately the R/T comes alive, then continue if "he wasn't talking to us". This is difficult because when transmitting on Teamspeak you can't hear the R/T. So be brief on Teamspeak, and be aware that ATC might be trying to get through. If anyone hears an R/T message which seems to be being ignored, just say "ATC is calling G-CIXN" if you have identified the callsign, or "ATC is calling us" which is a cue for everyone to be quiet on Teamspeak until ATC call again (which they will). Remember too that if asked to "Stand By" by ATC, you do not reply - not even "Roger", but simply wait until you are called again. Remember also that there are several different ATC frequencies in use, and you may not be able to hear when communications are taking place. Make sure you have set and know how to use a Teamspeak mute switch.
Acknowledgements	Event planning: John Lygo Briefing: John Lygo Edited by Peter Dodds.