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Contributors to this blog

  • Chris Pawley 44
  • Simon Irvine 37
  • Daniel Crookes 27
  • Ben Wright 22
  • VATSIM UK 7
  • Nathan Donnelly 5
  • Kris Thomson 2
  • VATSIM UK Web Services 2
  • Andy Ford 2
  • Oliver Rhodes 2
  • Adam Arkley 2
  • Gdpr Removed 1
  • Loui Ringer 1
  • Adam Farquharson 1
  • Kieran Hardern 1
  • William Shaw 1

About this blog

Entries in this blog

Training Department Q1 2020

Afternoon Folks! I cannot say that 2020 has been a very nice time for any of us so far, nor can we even begin to understand how some people are being affected by these terrible times. But what I can do, is reflect upon the amazing work that you have all made possible through your contributions as pilots, students, mentors, instructors, chief tea maker, you name it and I guarantee you will have helped somewhere.   ATC Training We saw the beginning of the end for our Central Tr

Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in United Kingdom

[MINUTES] DSG Meeting - 21st November 2016

Folks The minutes of last month's DSG meeting are now available for download here. I'll be making a short post when the minutes are published to add some colour to them and give a short overview of what is happening in the Division.  I will aim to post the minutes and write this blog within a couple of weeks of the meeting taking place.  It's worth pointing out that this was the last DSG meeting of 2016 although we do have an "all staff" meeting in mid December. Most of what is po

Simon Irvine

Simon Irvine in United Kingdom

Marketing End of Year Message 2020

Hello everyone, please see below the end of year statement from the marketing department.   I can’t believe we’re at the end of 2020 already, where has the year gone? Before I break down different areas of the department, I would like to take a moment to share my appreciation towards every person which makes the clock tick in marketing, the Graphics, Livestreaming and Rostering teams all make this possible, so it is now time to follow in the footsteps of training and take a break

Loui Ringer

Loui Ringer in United Kingdom

VATSIM UK Live! 2023 - Bookings now open

We are pleased to announce that tickets for VATSIM UK Live! are now available to purchase from our website (live.vatsim.uk). Here you will find tickets available for purchase, options for hotel accommodation as well as other information about the weekend. Due to the great support of members previously and the pricing from the venue this year, we’re offering an inflation busting price match to last year. Weekend tickets are available at £30 and day tickets are available at £20.   If you

Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in United Kingdom

Global Control Adminstration Policy (GCAP) feedback

The UK Division has provided a lengthy feedback document privately to the authors of the new global controller administration policy (GCAP). We are broadly supportive of a new policy which unifies some of the key policies which determine how many elements of our division operate. With this in mind there are some concerns which remain in the current draft. We believe it is especially important to ensure that all divisions are treated equally; regardless of their (internal) structure. In addition,

Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in United Kingdom

New Member Services Director

Hello All,   I'm pleased to announce that @William Shaw will be joining the DSG as our new Member Services Director. Will has been an active staff member within the Member Services Department for almost 2 years and many of you will have already interacted with Will through this capacity before. He brings a number of new ideas to the Department, and will be working closely alongside the ATC Training Department in particular as we embrace GCAP and look to open Visiting and Transferring f

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

VATSIM UK Live! 2022 - Bookings Now available

We are pleased to inform you that bookings are now available for VATSIM UK Live! 2022 at Conference Aston in Birmingham, UK. You can book via our website - live.vatsim.uk Our event tickets will cost £20 for a single day (either Saturday or Sunday) or £30 for the whole weekend. Accommodation:- this is available at Conference Aston itself, we recommend either booking directly via their website or via a third party provider (hotels.com or booking.com) - this year there is no option to bo

Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in United Kingdom

October 2024 Update

Good Evening All,   Time really has been flying as of late, and as I write this I realise it’s been 6 months since the last update was posted to the forums! As I’m sure is the case for most of you, summer has been particularly busy for me but (thankfully for my wallet) the summer socials are over and winter appears to be on the way all too fast. It’s been great to have some more free time lately, and I’ve very much enjoyed getting back on the Network to fly and control. It seems as tho

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

Christmas 2019

Hi all, Believe it or not, Christmas is just under one week away, so it is inevitable that activity on and around the network will reduce. From Friday 20th December to Thursday 2nd January (inclusive), training staff will not send out the normal session request/availability reminders. Students will not be required to maintain a session request or availability during this period. Reminders will be sent on or shortly after Friday 3rd, and students will have until the end of Friday 10th

Oliver Rhodes

Oliver Rhodes in United Kingdom

TVCP Update 1: Visiting/Transferring Eligibility, Restrictions and Training

As some of you may be aware, an updated version of the Transferring and Visiting Controller Policy (TVCP) was recently published. This will be implemented worldwide between now and 01 June 2024 and, although the majority of the changes have been made to align TVCP with GCAP, there have been other changes which will affect Visiting and Transferring Controllers across the Network.  You may view the full policy via the link here. We will endeavour to provide further details on how the Transfer

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

New Operations Director

Good Evening All,   Following the departure of @Jack Edwards from the role of Operations Director, I am thrilled to announce @Archie Middlefell as his successor following the conclusion of our recruitment process last week. Archie has a wealth of experience within the Operations Department as well as a number of ideas he wishes to implement moving forwards. I am certain that the Operations Department will continue to thrive under Archie's leadership, and I look forward to working along

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

Training Department Q2 Review

Six months down; six to go! Firstly, to all those who’ve had their head glued to a textbook for the past few months, welcome back! And to those of us who’ve had to listen to the perpetual sighs of students... hallelujah, it's over! Here’s what the Training Department has been up to over the past three months: April: With several members of the team focusing on academic exams, things were reasonably quiet on the ATC side of the fence.  Pilot Training led most of the development

Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in United Kingdom

VATSIM UK Live! : Tickets now available

Tickets for VATSIM UK Live are now available for purchase from our site - https://live.vatsim.uk Our event is open-door, meaning every VATSIM member is welcome to join us for this in-person event over the weekend of 10th and 11th August 2024. This is the one chance each year to fly, control and socialise alongside other VATSIM members from across the network hosted in the UK. It is not only a moment to deepen the experience of the network, but also learn and collaborate with other members. 

Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in United Kingdom

New Division Director

The last few weeks have been busy, as you can imagine, but even so, this message is well overdue. Firstly,  thanks to those people who have taken a moment to welcome me to my new job. I have agreed with Simon that my appointment should be of fixed term, lasting no later than the 1st February 2022. At this moment there is an opportunity to terminate the appointment or to re-appoint me as division director - but this is a choice to be made by the regional director.   I am grateful to Simon

Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in United Kingdom

VATSIM UK Open Evening - Sunday 24th July 1815z

On Sunday the 24th of July between 1915 and 1945 local there will be a VATSIM UK Open Evening, This is your chance to quiz the DSG team.  I'll be there along with Callum, Adam, Ant, Alex, James and Barrie.  This will give you the chance to ask about ATC training, events, community, pilot training or anything else that's going on in the Division. This will take place in Teamspeak. I hope to see you there!! 

Simon Irvine

Simon Irvine in United Kingdom

New Operations Director

Good Evening Everyone,   I hope you enjoyed your weekends and I write to you with good news! This morning @Dave Woodward accepted my offer of the Operations Director role, making him the latest addition to the Division Staff Group. Dave will be known to many already, having served as our Enroute ATC Training Group Instructor since the beginning of this year, and he brings a wealth of practical and procedural knowledge to the Operations Department. I would like to welcome Dave to the DS

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

January 2025 Update

Good Evening and a Happy New Year!   An update is once again long overdue and as the beginning of a new year is always a great time for both reflection and looking to the future, I can think of no better time than now. Starting in somewhat standard fashion with staff changes, in November 2024 we welcomed @Jack Edwards into the role of Operations Director. Jack agreed to take this position to enact a number of internal changes in the Department, with one of the primary focuses being to

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

Training Department Q4 2020

Hi all, Please see below a summary of our new projects and achievements in quarter 4. ATC Training Our approach TGIs have been working to produce 'APC Aerodrome Introduction' PowerPoints for our S3 students, allowing key areas of the vMATS to be boiled down into short and focused presentations. Alongside these new PowerPoints, each of our Approach training aerodromes has a dedicated 'Quick Reference Sheet' - similar to the current crib sheets, but with the added element of essenti

Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in United Kingdom

December 2023 Update

Hello Everyone,   Before people start heading away for the Christmas break, I wanted to take the time to formally introduce myself, as I am conscious that many of us have not had the pleasure of meeting before. I am no stranger to VATSIM UK, having joined the Division in early 2016 and, for the last four and a half years, I have served as the Marketing Manager under Loui Ringer's leadership. During this time, I have risen to the somewhat dizzying heights of VATSIM Network Supervisor, B

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

April 2024 Update

Good Evening Everyone,   I hope you have all enjoyed your long weekend. I can assure you this is not a late April Fools joke, but simply another opportunity to update our members on what has been going on ‘behind the scenes’ since my previous post. Beginning with recent staff appointments, @Archie Middlefell and @Alice Ford were appointed as an Aerodrome Operations Coordinator and Operations Assistant respectively. Last month we also welcomed @Dylan Parkes into the Member Services

Ben Wright

Ben Wright in United Kingdom

Changes to CTS Emailing

Due to the incredibly large volume of emails currently flowing from the CTS (because there's a lot of ATC and Pilot sessions right now!) which pushes us very close to our monthly quota, we're going to be be removing a couple of the email categories. These ones have been removed partly due to the amount of traffic they generate and also their perceived usefulness. They are as follows: Notification to mentors that a session request has come in. Notification to mentors that they h

Andy Ford

Andy Ford in United Kingdom

Merry Christmas from VATSIM UK

As 2020 draws to a close (a year many of us will be happy to see the back of) we have spent some time reflecting on recent achievements and saying thank you to the important contibutors within the division (You can find here the end of year messages from Training and Marketing). Both on and off the network, there have been many challenges which we have not always been in control of or predicted. Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers the division continues to grow and rise to mee

Chris Pawley

Chris Pawley in United Kingdom

Member Support Department

Over the past few months, you may have heard some rumours about a new department in the Division (known to some as Department X ?).  I am pleased to say that I can give some more information on our plans. Since we disbanded the Community Department we have been looking at ways we can best serve you, if you are looking for help and support in the Division. The new department will deal with most of the administration that we deal with in the Division allowing the other departments to concentr

Simon Irvine

Simon Irvine in United Kingdom

Training Department Q2 2020

Afternoon all! Please see a summary of our progress and achievements throughout the second quarter of this year! ATC Training This quarter saw the restructuring TG1 & TG2 into a Tower Training Group and an Approach Training Group, with instructors dedicated to each rating programme. This move towards a more linear structure has allowed our mentors to operate across different positions more easily, and has drastically improved our instructors ability to personalise our students

Daniel Crookes

Daniel Crookes in United Kingdom

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