Guten Abend!

1 down, 3 to go! What a quarter it has been!

Here’s a short summary of what the team has achieved since January this year.

January:
The month started off with the addition of EGAD (Newtownards), EGCJ (Sherburn-in-Elmet), EGSQ (Clacton) and EGHJ (Bembridge) to our collection of AG/AFISO aerodromes; followed closely by the release of the UKCP (thanks to the Rt Hon gentleman Andy Ford). Since the release of the UKCP, TGNC have integrated its use and setup into the OBS session in order to increase the number of controllers using the plugin.

Later on in the month, a small revision was made to the way exams are assigned to examiners. After a 2 month trial period of examiners picking exams up instead of being assigned it has been decided that we will continue with the old method of examiners being assigned exams.

The role of Senior Division Instructor (SDI) was removed and former SDIs are now Division Instructors (DIs). This decision was made in order to ‘level our playingfield’ and emphasise that instructor ratings aren’t issued on a legacy basis, but as a direct result of the commitment and knowledge of individuals who have the relevant experience to share with our team and the community.

The month drew to a close withoverdue

 the great success of the ‘VATSIM First Wings Event’ and the beginning of the P4 (IFR Pilot) and P5 (Advanced IFR Pilot) merger in preparation for the release of the vIR(A).

February:
February was kicked off by the long overdue merging of the S2 and S3 waiting lists. In 2017 it was announced the that RTSs would be merged into 2 training groups which we now know as TG1 and TG2 in order to reduce the discrepancies in waiting times between RTSs. The merging of the waiting lists is another step in order to further reduce the discrepancies in waiting times.

Along with policy change, we saw a tsunami of new faces joining the Training Department in February, bringing with them new ideas and enthusiasm which has most definitely been noticed by us all.

March:
March was by far the month of automation! After discussions with web, an automatic S2 and S3 training place checker has been created in order to save TGMs hours and hours of checking users statistics in order to determine their eligibility for a training place; the first step in project #automation.

Further to the S2 and S3 training place checker, significant headway has been made on our new waiting list which we hope to have released soon! 

On the other side of the road, Pilot Training trialed a new P1 group session in a similar layout to our OBS part 1 sessions. Talks have recently been completed between FIs and mentors with very positive results, so we are hoping to change our P1 training so that the process is very similar to the currents OBS to S1 process. This will increase our output of P1 students whilst allowing us to retain our high standards.

Statistics:

Sessions :
January - 191
February- 174
March - 198
Q1 Total - 563 (845 hrs)

Exams:
January Passes - 8 Sat, 3 Passed
February Passes - 7 Sat, 6 Passed
March Passes - 8 Sat, 8 Passed

Put quite simply, 40% of this year so far has been spent mentoring, which is quite hard in itself to understand considering you should all be sleeping and working... (but I’m not complaining!).

As we progress into April and May many of you will have fast approaching GCSE, College or A-level exams which means, as it always does, things will begin to slow down in the TD. As a large majority of our mentoring team is comprised of people who will be going through this period, the frequency of sessions will more than likely waiver over the next 8 weeks, so take this as an opportunity to brush up on your theory or use your S_V to its full potential!

As always, thank you to everyone who has been involved in the Training Departments success this year, it’s all down to you guys, lets see what we can do before summer!

Thanks,

Dan ✈️