Air Traffic Report Requested

Hi gang!

First of all, thank you for all the kind notes and well wishes. I’m feeling much better. Had just a touch of a weird flu, but doing okay now.

And Happy Operation Merry Christmas! We’re eating a fabulous red cake with white frosting, made by Elf Marky here in the RTC in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada. Marky loves Operation Merry Christmas and always decorates the office here for this day. It’s fun.

Anyway, I got in today to find a strange request from North Pole Flight Command for our sector. They want us to do an Air Traffic Report sometime this weekend.

Frankly, I thought this was a mistake. My thought was that someone up there was thinking it is December 24th, not November 24th. So I called them and sure enough they put this request in today, November 24th. They really DO want us to do an air traffic report.

I’ve never seen them ask for one of these so early. This report is normally to help warn Santa of weird stuff flying around when he’s out and about on Christmas Eve. But that’s not what this specific request is about.

North Pole Flight Command is testing some new experimental radar system that’s run off of cell towers. Weird stuff. It isn’t a system that is going to be ready soon – a couple of years away is what they told me. But they are testing it this weekend in several areas and they want these reports to see if they can trust the results they are getting in their test.

Basically, if you elves send in observation of what you are seeing in the air space where you are they can compare it to what this new system is reporting.

So, let’s help them out, shall we?

If you have never done an air traffic report before, this will be good practice for you. We usually send out a request for one of these on Christmas Eve when Santa is about ready to enter our sector. So doing it now will get you ready for the real deal next month.

I’m just getting back to the office after being out for a few days. But my plan is to review where we are at and to send out an update to you, likely on Monday. I think we’re in good shape but we have SO MANY new elves and I think we might need to re-organize some things come next week.

Thanks all for your help on this one. The air traffic report can be accessed at this link.

About this Elf: Elf Pinky

Elf Pinky was recruited from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1992 and has since served as an instructor in sleigh flight theory at the North Pole Institute of Aviation. She worked very hard to earn her elf credentials, working a second shift first as a tool repair technician in Santa’s workshop and then as an engineer in the Wrapping Department designing wrapping machines. Pinky in recent years was a recruiter and trainer of sleigh test pilots and flies under the call sign Barracuda. Last year she served as a Flight Operations Director and demonstrated outstanding judgment and maturity in her duties supervising more than 400 elves, pilots, reindeer handlers and sleigh freighters.