Ric Ruminski Air Traffic Manager
Anchorage ARTCC Welcome the Pilots
from Alaska Virtual VA.
Alaska
Authors have spoken of the uniqueness of Alaska. The 49th state,
Alaska comprises over 365 million acres with 33,000 miles of
coastline. In spite of the claims of a large state in the southwest
part of the country, when the entire state of Alaska from the
Aleutian Islands to the southeastern tip is superimposed on a map of
the U.S., Alaska easily spans nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48. Two
time zones and four different climates exist within its boundaries.
You can see why navigation and communication facilities are few and
far between.
There are about 600 public airports in Alaska and 3,000+
airstrips, many of which are private. Many private strips are also
seasonal and not maintained on a regular basis. Alaska has near rain
forest landscapes in the southeast, with lush forests and high
mountain ranges. It also has treeless tundra that has been frozen
for millennia. Glaciers are bountiful and beautiful.
Our mission is to make this exciting virtual air space available
to you, the online flying community. In the following months we
will be rebuilding our controller base and opening lines of
communication with Alaskan based VA's and the pilots who frequent
the area. You can expect some exciting events to take place in the
near future. To truly enjoy the Alaskan experience and take in the
huge amounts of scenery available you really must assume the role of
the Bush Pilot. Very shortly we will be hosting weekly VFR
scenarios and help you explore this frozen paradise while in the
company of fellow pilots.
This web site contains a huge amount of information and we invite
you to explore it's pages and provide
feed back to make it even better. We welcome you to join our
discussion forum and provide
comments and suggestions as we continue to grow.
Our first order of business is to get the lights turned back on
over the Anchorage ARTCC. All current ZAN controllers who wish to
remain on the roster need to register in the forums so we can
get things rolling. Visiting controllers need to reapply by using
the form provided in the controller
section. Controllers wishing to join up should read through our Policy and
SOP sections and follow the instructions provided there.
