Flying The Tracks: How Commercial Airliners Cross The North Atlantic Ocean

[@mikehenderson2039]

What an outstanding and easy-to-follow video, explaining a rather unique and complicated process! As a retired airline captain who has flown this oceanic route structure countless times, I had the opportunity to do this when constantly monitoring the scratchy HF radios was the norm and later enjoyed the phase-in of the newer CPDLC technology! Fortunately, I also had the opportunity to teach this concept and our company/airplane specific procedures for over 10 years...wish I'd had this exceptional video to lay the foundation for my students! Keep up the great work!

[@tailsorange2872]

I see that you went off the usual tracks to get on track to getting your voice back!

[@treatyoself0972]

That explains why we left North America off of Boston enroute to Paris. But on return to Dallas, we crossed England, Ireland, interior of Greenland, Hudson Bay and into US airspace around Chicago. Oh those ice/snowy views!

[@wadehiggins1114]

He's officially back 😊

[@TonyTheYouTuba]

Indeed and welcome back. But the stand-in did a fine job too, so all good either way.

[@jacrispy90]

😂

[@neillangridge862]

A beautifully written and presented video. As a private small plane pilot who has flown the Atlantic as a passenger many times I had heard of the track system from pilots but never really understood how it worked. Brilliant video keep up the good work.

[@TrizzGotWaves]

You guys should do a video on which airline to pick for New York to Paris like how you did New York to London

[@NigelDMarvin]

There are dozens of routes that I would like Simple Flying to do. New York to Paris is one of them.

[@AidanEyewitness]

This is a superbly informative presentation with excellent graphics. I find the 'tracks' system fascinating. I've seen pilots requesting oceanic clearance in various cockpit videos. How it all works and how the movements of so many aircraft is facilitated, its just fascinating. I see transatlatic flights over my head (and have occasionally been on one or two) and it's great to know how it all functions. I love the acronyms too, especially SLOP!

[@oneworld2642]

Thanks NAT for keeping us safe in the sky

[@captainzeppos]

That was an excellent but very basic explanation of how oceanic tracks work and the procedures involved. The reality is orders of magnitude more complicated but it would cause a headache to the target audience of this excellent video so I'm sure it was omitted by choice. Everyone interested to find out more about HF comms, NAT details, reporting at select points etc is encouraged to search for more advanced videos.

[@Ritz-mn8qf]

What a fascinating way to manage the highways in the sky.✈

[@csbalachandran]

This is an excellent geography teaching resource. The concepts are clearly and simply articulated. Thanks for uploading this. 🙏🙏🙏

[@benwilson6145]

I take it its Shannon and Prestwick. Used to enjoy flying the Prestwick to Chicago as you flew over Greenland and the uninhabited area of northern Canada

[@eamonahern7495]

Ah! I was wondering what the "wick" part was.

[@egpx]

Shanwick Centre is a joint venture between Prestwick in Scotland and Shannon in Ireland. The controllers are based in Prestwick and the communicators are in Balligireen, Ireland. Whilst most communication is done by CPDLC nowadays, aircraft must still maintain HF contact with the controlling authority which requires specialist communicators who transmit the controller’s instructions.

[@Periwinkle101]

Nice vid simple flying!

[@EuropeanRailfanAlt]

Great video

[@danielmengistu8862]

Very helpful

[@alexandroalvarez2464]

Excellent presentation containing most interesting information enhancing our daily lives while traveling. Thanks for compiling this information

[@timvlismas4578]

Interesting video. Surprised that there was no mention of communication via satellite data link.

[@greatcanadianmoose3965]

Glad to see Newfoundland makes an appearance! Just a heads up, it's pronounced Noof - un - land with the d being silent depending on the pronunciation. Great job with Labrador!

[@abhishekgarg5286]

Its no fun lad.

[@eaglerare1273]

Excellent

[@smcdonald9991]

All the flights from YUL to Europe leave between 18:00 and 22:00, and arrive the next day between 07:00 and 11:00. Unfortunately there are no flights leaving YUL in the morning and arriving in Europe in the evening. There are some at JFK though.

[@riddlecolo8198]

It seems easier for the biorhythm to adjust to the time zone difference doing it that way. That's especially true for the west coast where including time difference you'll arrive in Europe some 20+ hours later and you actually have some time trying to sleep during the flight. Don't have the experience flying from/to the East Coast though. The issue might be here not to run into issues with airport closures at night due to delays You also need to consider that no airline wants to park their plane overnight so they have to do one flight of the roundtrip at night. Also, connecting routes are aligned to these time windows. New York is a big enough market to be able to offer some other routes.

[@robk3005]

I've only done one trans-Atlantic crossing in each direction: LHR to YYC to the west, and YVR to LHR going east. If one looks at flight tracking software or apps, the tracks become obvious due to the amount of traffic crossing the pond at any given time of day.

[@iampianoman]

I sort of knew of the tracks thanks to NATS KZbin video from 2014 showing all transatlantic flights in a typical 24-hour period. Pretty fascinating! I also found it neat that NATS' video shows how the number of flights generally peak eastbound when night falls on the east coast of North America, and westbound when midday in Europe. Said video which the makers of this video captured some clips: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKGsaGqoaNR0rtk

[@FitzArias]

I wonder how airlines managed these ocean crossings during the propliner era. These are signs we are in the tomorrow people in the past tried to imagine. Impressive.

[@RetireEatsDelivers]

Cool info

[@Sacto1654]

Interestingly, thanks to StarLink, we may see a lot more planes communicate with the ground over an encrypted Internet connection.

[@danielbagliettoseymour2802]

Amazing!

[@andrewkosmowski3985]

Is there something similar for the north Pacific?

[@stickynorth]

Shanwick = Shannon, Ireland + Prestwick, Scotland for the uninitiated...

[@smalltounboy]

I didn't hear Prestwick get mentioned at all

[@XyrousCooper]

Can we please get a Pacific Ocean version of this? 🙏🏾

[@jean-mathieuleblanc6226]

Eu261. You get consumer protection with a canadian or european company.

[@Logan11thMEU]

Do we have the same for Europe ?

[@KarmaFlight]

No, we use normal airways over Continental Europe just like other places, but there are many different sectors in Europe with constant frequency changes on the radio.

[@egpx]

This system is for oceanic airspace. The reason it is different is that there is no radar surveillance over the ocean as the microwaves used by radar are line of sight and cannot see over the horizon. A different ‘procedural’ system of ATC is therefore required.

[@davidwebb4904]

What do airlines pay for this transiting?

[@johannesbols57]

Concorde flew three tracks: M, N, Q.

[@Kubir73]

❤❤❤

[@Theresabugonthewall]

THEY FLY

[@wotan10950]

And here is an example flying westbound on a North Atlantic track while two flights were on the track south of our track. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZamZYWPjteoeK8si=2h2XEspNn4Fj_lty

[@robdabob17]

Strategic Lateral Offset Position on my knob