The "highway in the sky." One of the most lucrative routes in aviation history: the transcontinental trip from East to West Coast. The competition between airlines on this route is fierce with planes leaving almost every hour of the day from either side.

In our own community, it is so popular that there is always at least one person traveling the route at a time. But something stands in the way of the sky highway's fame: the trip across the pond from the American East to the European West. This route has garnered a reputation for being one of the most popular routes of all time on Virtual ATC networks, with pilots flying it by the double digits.

It is no wonder that after over 10 years, VATSIM's biannual Cross the Pond event is back for the 2019 Eastern Crossing this month on October 26th, 2019 at 1100z (7am EDT). With over 500 departure slots in previous years, the Cross the Pond event is Vatsim's biggest event.

For those new to Cross the Pond, the event features coast to coast coverage from pre-chosen airports in North America and Europe. If you choose to participate, you sign up, bid on a slot, then are sent a route to follow for the event. Once the day comes around, you launch your favorite simulator, fire up your engines, and fly your way from point A to point B, chatting with multiple air traffic controllers along the way and trying your hand at oceanic clearances.

VATSIM has just completed the voting process for departure and arrival airports and they read as follows: Boston (KBOS), New York-John F. Kennedy (KJFK), Orlando (KMCO), Miami (KMIA), Chicago O'Hare (KORD), Toronto-Pearson (CYYZ), Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM), Copenhagen Kastrup (EKCH), Dublin (EIDW), London-Heathrow (EGLL), Munich (EDDM), and Warsaw-Chopin (EPWA).

Differing from previous years, the October 26th event will feature the network's new codec, dubbed "Audio for VATSIM" which vastly improves on their old audio codec. This will be one of the first major uses of the new software. The new codec will be releasing in just under two weeks time, on October 14th.

You can find VATSIM on Facebook here, or the official Cross the Pond website here.