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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 Farquharson 17
  • Oliver Rhodes 16
  • Adam Arkley 10
  • 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
  • Simon Irvine 1
  • Craig Stewart 1
  • Kye Taylor 1
  • Reece Buckley 1
  • Will Jennings 1

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Entries in this blog

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

British Summer Time (BST) begins Sunday 29th March at 01:00

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring At 1am on Sunday 29th March the clocks will advance one hour. This means that 1am will immediately become 2am, cruelly stealing from us an hour of our day. <insert traditional joke here> For those of you
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

6
ATC Training

Introducing Training Tuesdays

Dear all, In conjunction with the Pilot Training team, I am very pleased to announce the introduction of Training Tuesdays. One of the biggest difficulties that the ATC Training Department face is generating enough traffic to make training viable on the live network, which in turn leads to mentors attempting to use Sweatbox more to generate traffic to train students. The vicious circle develops itself by pilots then seeing a lack of air traffic online in the UK and instead flying e
Adam Arkley

Adam Arkley in ATC Training

5
ATC Training

Shifting Focus: Tower Training

Following feedback received during and following the ATC Training Consultation, the department has been hard at work. One of the points raised during the consultation, that many of you have added your voices to since, is that as a division, we spend a lot of time in our training doing theory. Often, teaching the same thing multiple times and on topics that students should be able to learn for themselves. Some have gone as far as to say that some people expect to be spoon-fed information, like a
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

5
ATC Training

Solo Enroute Validations (S3)

Effectively immediately, the division will be utilising Solo Enroute Validations (SEV's... or SCV's, if you prefer the American term). These will be granted to S3 rated members upon submission for their CTR exam, in order to have a several days to practice solo without the guidance of a mentor in preparation for the big night. The validations will be valid for a single parent enroute sector and may be used to open relevant splits and TMA positions where division policy permits. The val
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

5
ATC Training

S1 AFISO/AG Validation: Additional Airfields

Now that things have had time to settle, we're adding some additional aerodromes to the list of those that S1 rated members holding the AFISO/AG validation may control. They are as follows: Barra (EGPR) Bodmin (EGLA) - airfield information sufficient to VATSIM needs is available on the airfields website - Bodmin does not feature in the AIP. Wolverhampton / Halfpenny Green (EGBO) We decided not to add Barrow/Walney Island (EGNL) at this time, due to instrument approach an
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

5
ATC Training

January Changes

Hi all, After a few months of testing we are adjusting the way that ATC exams are picked up. Previously our Head Examiner has assigned exams to our examiners, the new method will allow examiners to pick up exams without waiting for them to be assigned. Our aim is to minimise the time students are waiting after being submitted for an exam. To ensure that examiner currency and any potential speculative bias is removed, we have set criteria that governs whether an examiner can  pick up and exa
Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in ATC Training

5
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
ATC Training

C1 Training Place Allocation & Hour Requirement Changes

Hi all, Over the past few years, the enroute team have allocated C1 training places on a purely ‘first come, first served’ principle, changing the number of places available for each training sector to suit students’ eligibility. This has ensured overall fairness and parity, but can lead to uneven student:mentor ratios, and therefore uneven training times, on each sector. To rectify this issue, from Saturday 1st May, the number of places available for each training sector will be set,
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

5
ATC Training

S1 Gatwick Endorsements - Hours Checker

Hi all, From listening to the feedback we’ve had over the past few weeks about the recently introduced Gatwick endorsement scheme, we’ve realised that the requirements to start training for the endorsement could be made clearer.  From today, thanks to some fantastic work by the Web team, we’re introducing a new system to guide you through the process of gaining your Gatwick endorsement. If you are currently an S1-rated controller, you can go to this page to use the new system. If
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

4
ATC Training

Military PAR Course - Released

We are pleased to announce the release of our Military Precision Approach Radar (PAR) Online Moodle Course. This course is for those members that want to take their Military Approach controlling up a notch, offering pilots the opportunity to be talked all the way down the final approach (similar to a SRA), with vectors and glideslope information. A massive thank you to Trevor Hannant and Callum Presley for creating this course for us. The course is open for all members to view and self-enro
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

4
ATC Training

S3 Training at Heathrow

With the appropriate staff and support now in place, we are pleased to announce the resumption of Approach Radar (S2->S3) training for UK Students at Heathrow. Heathrow will draw from the existing waiting lists of TG1 and TG2. When a training place becomes available, it will be offered to the first eligible student on one of the lists. Completion of training will result in the awarding of an S3 rating and the Heathrow APP Major Endorsement. Solo Approach Validations (SAV's) will be handl
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

4
ATC Training

S2 and S3 Theory Questions: Revisited

Many of you who have taken your S2 and S3 theory exams recently may have noticed that quite a few of the questions weren't exactly relevant and some were, well, too easy. It turns out that some of our theory questions are very old, with some of the S3 questions dating back to the pre-GRP days when S2 didn't exist and S3 was in-part a TWR rating. You will all be glad to know (or maybe not, if you were hoping for an easy pass!) that we have removed a lot of questions and added new ones to ref
Andy Ford

Andy Ford in ATC Training

4
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

TG Tower Staff Changes

Hi all, Firstly I’d like to thank everyone for the kind messages following the announcement of my appointment as ATC Training Director. Having moved roles this left a space in the TWR team which a couple of people quickly expressed their interest in. Following a few discussions we have decided to appoint @Kye Taylor to the role.  Kye joined the Training Department 15 months ago as a New Controller TG Instructor. Having been involved in many projects including the development of th
Adam Farquharson

Adam Farquharson in ATC Training

4
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

4
ATC Training

Heathrow TGI Appointment

I'm happy to announce that @Fraser Cooperhas been appointed as the Heathrow TGI. Fraser brings with him a wealth of experience of multiple ATC Training roles (and other staff positions) both in the UK and throughout other divisions on the network. Over the last few days Fraser has been picking things up from Nathaniel and he will soon be up to speed with Heathrow. I'm excited to see what changes Fraser's appointment will bring to Heathrow. Welcome to the team Fraser!  
Adam Farquharson

Adam Farquharson in ATC Training

4
ATC Training

TG Enroute - Appointment

Good evening all, I'm tremendously pleased to announce the appointment of @David Woodward who will lead TG Enroute moving forwards. Dave is no stranger to VATSIM, having led ATC Training in Bahrain as well as having previously been Division Director in VATSIM Sub-Saharan Arica. Dave's been a home member in VATSIM UK for some time now, mentoring in TG Enroute and sharing his expertise from his day job with both the ATC Training and Operations departments. As Dave is appointed, we must s
Adam Arkley

Adam Arkley in ATC Training

4
ATC Training

S2s and Sweatbox

To resolve any confusion between who can and cannot run Sweatboxes as an S2 across the Division and to prepare ourselves for the onset of Central Training, from now onwards, S2 Mentors are permitted to run Sweatboxes without restriction. Naturally, as with all Sweatbox mentors regardless of rating, we would encourage those who are not particularly confident with its’ features to attend a ‘Introduction to Sweatbox’ seminar which will be regularly held and details of these will be promulgated on t
Samuel James

Samuel James in ATC Training

3
ATC Training

New CT S1 Training Programme Launched!

Hey folks, I'm pleased to announce the launch of our new CT S1 course. Main points: Comprehensive e-Learning/Moodle courses All S1 training completed within the New Controller Training Group All practical S1 training sessions conducted using London Gatwick   *Once process/event is complete, send a ticket to ATC Training to continue the process   I've just joined the New Controller Training Group (TG) - How do I join a Group session? You
Samuel James

Samuel James in ATC Training

3
ATC Training

More aerodromes for S1 AFISOs/AG operators

Hi all, By popular demand, we're adding another four aerodromes to the list of those which validated S1s may control: EGAD Newtownards EGCJ Sherburn-in-Elmet EGSQ Clacton EGHJ Bembridge Documentation for all four of these aerodromes - and many more - is available on the CIX VFR Club website.
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

3
ATC Training

S1 Examinations

Hi all, In order to improve and standardise the quality of our S1 training, and in response to feedback which we have received from mentors, students, and controllers, we will shortly be introducing S1 practical examinations, in line with the process followed at S2, S3, and C1. This will not change the process of training, whereby members initially attend in introductory group session, complete eLearning courses, and receive one-to-one practical training. However, instead of being reco
Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in ATC Training

3
ATC Training

ATC Training Staff Changes

Hi all, @Matthew Dean is leaving his role as Tower TG Instructor. With his personal circumstances changing he hasn’t been able to commit the time to the role that he’d have liked to and because of this has decided that it is time to step back from his VATSIM staff duties. I’d like to thank Matthew for his time and wish him all the best for the future. We have appointed @Daniel Blanco to join Kye in the Tower Training Group and Harry S who will be taking the role of Enroute TG Instructo
Adam Farquharson

Adam Farquharson in ATC Training

3
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

Gatwick eLearning Course (DEL/GND)

Hello all, Over the past months we have been writing a Gatwick Ground & Delivery familiarisation e-learning course. The course is now complete. You are now all able to self enrol on to the course. https://moodle.vatsim-uk.co.uk/ This course is designed for any member who wishes to further their knowledge of controlling either on Gatwick Ground or Delivery. Additionally, this will make up one of many future e-learning courses available for airfield familiarisation. These c
Samuel James

Samuel James in ATC Training

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