Hi, well I always love flying to/from ESSA and I have been flying this event from ESSA to EKCH for a long time now.
In the event yesterday we were told it was very busy at EKCH, which I fully understood, no problem, looking at the traffic going in/out of EKCH it was busy, although I have done events where it has been higher. Quite rightly we were assigned EOBTs to deal with this, no problem at all.
Where I had the problem, and ask if this can be improved, is that after waiting a long time to get my off-block clearance, I was cleared and passed to Ground who stated that EKCH was very busy, that I would have to wait a long time further and recommended that I change my route.
This is the bit that needs looking into. This should have been stated by Clearance Delivery up-front, what was the point of the off block clearance??
Also, a lot of us spend a lot of time preparing flights, flight plans, wxr analysis, cockpit setup and briefing. To change route at last minute is no use, this needs to be flagged up-front bty Clearance Delivery or maybe even better, in the ATIS.
I have flown on vatsim with busy routes like this and, for example, EKCH DEP have in their ATIS a link to register your EOBT. This and their multiple runways mean that departures from EKCH go very well.
ESSA has multiple runways, but I think needs to look into online EOBT too and making sure that large delays are flagged up early and certainly that pilots do not wait a long time for off-block clearance to be told by GRD to expect more delays or change route. I eneded up having to log off and fly offline.
Pls look into this operationally, many thanks for the attention, otherwise I and others will have no option but stay clear of this event
