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ATC Training

A group blog by ATC Training in Division Updates

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Contributors to this blog

  • Daniel Crookes 35
  • Andy Ford 33
  • Samuel James 30
  • Adam Arkley 24
  • Adam Farquharson 17
  • Oliver Rhodes 16
  • Alex Beard 9
  • George Wright 3
  • Fraser Cooper 3
  • Kieran Hardern 3
  • Nathan Donnelly 2
  • Sebastian Rekdal 2
  • Fergus Walsh 2
  • Chris Pawley 2
  • Jack Edwards 2
  • Will Jennings 2
  • Craig Stewart 1
  • Simon Irvine 1
  • Kye Taylor 1
  • Reece Buckley 1

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Entries in this blog

ATC Training

And Now For Something Completely Different: AFIS and Air/Ground

We are pleased to announce the release of our AFIS and Air/Ground Moodle course. This course is designed for members that want to try their hand at something a little different from your average aerodrome. These aerodromes are a hotspot for light and VFR traffic and often aren't large enough (to the relief of many) for the big tin. A big thank you to Callum Presley and Alex Hodgkinson for creating the course and also to Sebastian Wheeler and Ollie Latham for reviewing and adding the exam questio
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

54
ATC Training

Have Your Say: ATC Training

All, The purpose of this post is a general consultation of the membership regarding their opinions of the ATC Training Department and where its priorities should be over the next 12 months. Now I should start by saying that the department does have a vision for what it would like to achieve in the near future. This includes working towards reducing training times, mentor retention and also further developing our online learning resources - more consultations and opportunities to come i
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

41
ATC Training

Minor Changes to Heathrow Endorsements

Hello everyone, A couple of changes I wanted to bring to your attention regarding Heathrow endorsements.   Recency Requirements for Endorsement eligibility The reason behind the change to these requirements is to conform with division-wide recency for training places while also promoting Heathrow recency before progressing to the next endorsement stage.  To be eligible for a training place, you need to meet the following criteria. EGLL GMC Endorsement - At least 12
Fraser Cooper

Fraser Cooper in ATC Training

2
ATC Training

S2 Moodle Course Release

It’s finally here! After many years of anticipation and speculation (we’re not sure exactly when we started it, but we have found a reference to a new Moodle platform in some meeting minutes from October 2011), we finally have eLearning materials available on our Moodle platform for our S2 course! The course is divided into six sections - Introduction to ADC, Aerodrome Control Phraseology, Meteorology, Separation, VFR Traffic, and Aerodrome Operations - with a short quiz at the end of each
Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in ATC Training

4
ATC Training

OBS and London Gatwick S1 Changes

Hello one and all, This post announces upcoming changes to OBS Training in TG New Controller and also changes to restrictions regarding S1 rated controllers at London Gatwick. These changes will go live at 0000z on Monday 8th January 2017. London Gatwick Over the recent months, we have been monitoring feedback from pilots, controllers and mentors alike regarding the recent surge in Gatwick controllers. For historical context to this, prior to 2016, an endorsement was required
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

26
ATC Training

Meeting Minutes: Multi Airfield Mentoring

Hi all, The ATC Training department recently held a meeting to discuss a proposal from our TGIs regarding how we might implement S2 -> S3 mentoring across multiple airfields, as part of the wider project of Central Training. At this time, no final decisions have been made. However, productive discussions were held and the proposal is now being refined to take into account points raised. The minutes for the meeting are available here. If anybody has any questions or wishes
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

34
Staff Changes

Training Department

Evening all! As you have probably seen over the past few weeks we have been in search of two new TGIs for TG APP and one for TGNC. The search is now over! @Thomas Greer and @William Jennings will be joining the Approach Training Group working alongside @Charlie Watson, bringing the team back up to three! @Kye Taylor will be joining our New Controller Training Group working alongside @Fergus Walsh. Over the next week they will be getting up to speed with our current operations
Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in Staff Changes

27
ATC Training

And it's goodbye from me

Good afternoon all, There comes a time when everyone has to take a moment to sit back and look what what's going on. That time for me, as far as VATSIM is concerned, came fairly recently. I'll explain more about my decision in a moment, however last week I wrote to Simon and explained that after the implementation of Phase 1 of the Central Training project, I intended to resign my post as ATC Training Director in VATSIM UK. Following a protracted discussion, which I think was hard for both
Adam Arkley

Adam Arkley in ATC Training

32
ATC Training

ATC Training 2022 Q4 + Year Review

There was generally some good feedback from publishing the quarterly stats when I did so last month. If this type of thing is something that you would like to see continue then please keep letting us know (by liking or commenting on this post or reaching out to me another way). Exams Incomplete exams are excluded for clarity: S1 - 26 exams, 23 passed, 3 failed. This is a 62% increase in the number of exams conducted and a 11% decrease in the pass rate. S2 - 5 exams, 5 passed, 0 failed
Adam Farquharson

Adam Farquharson in ATC Training

3
ATC Training

ATIS 101

Hi all, Whilst provision of an ATIS is principally the responsibility of the TWR controller, members on all positions - including DEL/GND - are permitted to operate a VATSIM ATIS at any time. Please note that ATIS use is governed by the Global Controller/ATIS Information Policy. The following tutorial shows how to set-up a basic ATIS using EuroScope: 1. Click on the runway icon on the EuroScope ribbon for the runway selection dialog; 2. Scroll down to find the aerodrome
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

5
Staff Changes

Training Group 1 Instructor

Dear all, Please join me in welcoming Fraser Cooper back to ATC Training in the role of TG1 TGI. He will be working alongside both Jamie Paine and Nathan Donnelly within the TG. As most of you will be aware, Fraser spent a significant amount of time reviving the OBS-S1 process, starting the familiarisation sessions and reintroducing the 'Gatwick Endorsement' during his time as TGNC TGM. I'm sure his enthusiasm and commitment will also be reflected in his new position. Many thanks Ale
Alex Beard

Alex Beard in Staff Changes

19
Staff Changes

Heathrow Training Group Instructor

We are pleased to announce that James Yuen has been appointed as the Training Group Instructor for TG Heathrow. James will be working closely with Oliver and myself to re-ignite the S2->S3 training program at Heathrow, details of which will be announced over the next week. Good luck, James!
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in Staff Changes

26
Staff Changes

ATC Training Assistant

Folks, Please join me in welcome Alex Beard who is joining the ATC Training team as our new ATC Training Assistant. He's taking over my former role so any tickets or issues pertaining to ATC Training from an admin perspective will be dealt with by him. Alex has been a very mature, keen and motivated member of the Division, contributing many hours of mentoring both in SERTS and Essex and also on the Group OBS mentoring team and he has also been very helpful to me in my previous role as ATC T
Samuel James

Samuel James in Staff Changes

34
Staff Changes

Approach Instructor Staff Changes

Hi all! As we near the end of the quarter there are a few upcoming changes on the horizon in the Approach Training Group. @Charlie Watson will be leaving the team as an Approach TGI in the next week as he settles into his new job off the network. Anyone who has trained for their S3 over the past 3 years will know of - or at the very least will have heard of - Charlie, especially his 'S2 to S3 Progression Guide' 🤭 . Since his initial appointment in 2017 Charlie has been a key player in
Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in Staff Changes

22
ATC Training

CTS Phase 1 Preparation - Exitus acta probat!

Hi folks, In preparation for CT, myself and the Web Services team will be in the next 3 weeks merging all Training RTSs into the 2 new Training Groups (TG1 and TG2). As a student you may begin to notice small cosmetic changes to the CTS, however you should still be able to request mentoring provided you are listed as an active student with a mentoring place. For those members who are not currently training or are currently in a waiting list for training you will most likely receive an email
Samuel James

Samuel James in ATC Training

15
ATC Training

An Insight into Demand

When I was appointed to this post, I committed to being transparent with you all about all manner of different things. Specifically, I've committed to give everybody a view on the demand that ATC training is facing, at all ratings. Thanks to my colleagues in our Tech team, I have some data now that I can share with you. However, before we dive into any detail, it's worth saying that we can only work with the data that we have. We might draw many inferences from that data, but we'll never have a
Adam Arkley

Adam Arkley in ATC Training

13
Staff Changes

South East RTSM

All, Please join me in welcoming @Fraser Cooper as the new South East RTSM. He will be taking over the great work @John Batten has been doing keeping SERTS running smoothly. He brings real world aviation experience with him as well as some exciting ideas to further improve training. Welcome to the ATC Training team Fraser!  
Samuel James

Samuel James in Staff Changes

28
ATC Training

Self Study Exercises For Radar Students

To coincide with the impending release of the new S3 syllabus, the department has created a number of simulator scenarios for EuroScope. The purpose of these scenarios is to allow radar students to practice specific competencies on their own, with a few tips and aspects to consider provided - thus avoiding the distractions of trying to learn many things at once and also imperfect pilots. These are more directed towards the practical aspects of Approach Radar such as vectoring, rather than h
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

13
ATC Training

Shifting Focus: Approach Training

Following on from the restructuring of our S2 syllabus, we are now in a position to release the first version of our restructured S3 syllabus. Thank you to everyone who commented and gave feedback on the request for comments thread. The key points of this re-thinking of our syllabus are as follows: A number of competencies have been designated as self-taught. In the past, these were included in practical mentoring reports, which led to some students assuming that the mentor would teac
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

6
ATC Training

Waiting List Changes

Currently, all ATC Training Waiting Lists are ordered by list join date. Members on a list do not need to remain eligible for a training place while on the list. This means members on a waiting list who leave the network for a long period of time are returning at the top of a waiting list ahead of the members who have remained active within the division. In order to make the waiting lists fair for all members, from 21st December 2022, all members on the S2, S3 and C1 waiting lists will have
Adam Farquharson

Adam Farquharson in ATC Training

3
Staff Changes

TGNC Instructor Changes

Following the recruitment process for new TGNC TGIs, we have appointed @Reece Buckley and @James Taylor to this team to support Kye with the ongoing work with our members who begin training for the ATC ratings with us. We recieved some excellent applications and had great discussions with several candidates over the last few days. This  gave us some nice ideas about things to do in the future and also to get some feedback on what is working out well. Generally it was difficult to exclude ca
Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in Staff Changes

20
ATC Training

Time to say goodbye

Dear all,   It is with regret that I will be leaving my role as ATC Administrative Manager, with immediate effect.   For the most part, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time within the department. During my time, we have seen a huge improvement which has only been possible with the immense effort put in by each and every person within the department, both past and present. It also wouldn't have been possible without the mentoring team dedicating their time, and students showing a wil
Alex Beard

Alex Beard in ATC Training

24
ATC Training

New Phonetic Alphabet

Hi all, In order to keep-up with changing worldwide trends, we are today introducing a new phonetic alphabet to be used throughout the UK, effective immediately. Please could all controllers and pilots ensure that they are familiar with the following: Alpachino Bread Cucumber DIVISION! CLEAR THE LOBBY! Entropy Floxinoxinihilipilification Gnome Hexokinase Ionotropic Junior minister Kymograph Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrob
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

14
Staff Changes

Training Group Instructor

Folks, It is my pleasure to welcome Jamie Paine onboard as Training Group Instructor for TG1. He will be working alongside Matt Collier and Nathan Donnelly building on the great progress that has been made there so far. Jamie is no stranger to the Division as he has many hours of experience mentoring and controlling on many airfields around the UK. I hope you enjoy your new role and I encourage all members and staff to help support him and his colleagues to keep VATSIM UK going from strengt
Samuel James

Samuel James in Staff Changes

23
ATC Training

S1 Examinations - from March 31st

Hi all, We announced in November that we would shortly be introducing S1 examinations. Since then, members have been working to produce an S1 syllabus which was published to OBS mentors and ATC examiners two weeks ago, and the web team have worked their usual magic to set-up S1 examinations on the CT System. S1 examinations will be introduced at 23:59z on Tuesday 31st March. Until then, students will continue to progress through the current system, receiving a rating upgrade once
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

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