First of all I just want to say a massive thank you to the entire mentoring team who have made 2025 possible in the Pilot Training Department!

Join the team

We are always looking for new mentors across our training courses: P1, P2, and TFP. Irrespective of your experience, if you are interested in contributing to the division and passionate about flying then please reach out!
Helpdesk: https://helpdesk.vatsim.uk/ (select “Pilot Training” as the department)

 

Overview

Hello everyone, I’ll start this post by introducing myself. I am Ben Carpenter, the new Pilot Training Director here at Vatsim UK. For those who don't know me, over the past year I’ve been working on the P1 course alongside Ben Arrowsmith. I came into this role at the start of September and so far I’ve been working with our amazing instructor team to implement new changes and start some new exciting projects which I hope to be able to share soon. A number of projects that have been launched this quarter include waiting list changes, mentor standardisation and the launch of the P1_PPL(A) syllabus V3. We are excited to bring a number of lessons learned from the P1 through to both the P2 and P3 and hope to have more news in the coming months. 
 

The numbers and graphs

P1 PPL(A)

 

 

In Q3 2025, we had 65 sessions for the P1 which is our 3rd best quarter of the year just behind Q1. However this is an abnormal result based on previous years as we tend to see a significant drop in sessions over the summer however we have maintained sessions just a couple behind last month. To put in comparison in Q3 2024 we only had 11 sessions. We’ve had our best year on record by an additional 82 number of sessions. Our total session number for this year is 202.

We launched our version 3 syllabus this quarter which has reduced the total number of sessions to 14 with only 7 of them being with a mentor which is down by 4 sessions. This has massively increased our output of students, reducing the average training time from 4 months to 3 months. 

We have had 8 exams this quarter with 7 of them being passes! This made it the best quarter and best year for exams since our launch. We have had a total of 13 passes this year which is 5 more than our previous best year which was 2021! 

 

 

P2_SEIR

The P2 has had a reduction in the number of sessions this quarter most likely due to the summer dip that most departments experience and we can see this in the number of mentors picking up a session has reduced. However 2025 has been the second best year in terms of session count so a positive trend we’re starting to see!

The P2 is yet to have any exams this year however we are proud to maintain our 100% pass rate since the launch of the P2. 

 

 

The Flying Programme

 

 

TFP has made leaps and bounds this quarter with the launch of TFP VFR which was launched earlier this quarter. TFP has had 14 sessions this quarter making it the best quarter of 2025 increasing the total number of sessions to 30 making it just 4 short of the total number of sessions last year. TFP has seen a rise in mentor activity with 3 mentors picking up 3+ sessions and 2 more picking up at least 1 session.

I would like to thank Riley for his hard work this year to launch both TFP VFR and engaging new mentors and working to increase the student output through increasing the number of sessions this year!

 

Department Updates

Waiting List Changes

P1 Changes
Earlier in Q3 we changed the requirements to our P1 waiting list which has helped reduce our waiting list from 188 to 97. We have set a maximum capacity of 100 on the waiting list to reduce excessive waiting times. We are still seeing a huge demand for the P1 with the waiting list rising by 7 in the matter of 2 days recently.

To join the waiting list:

• Must be a UK Home Member
• Hold 30 hours as a pilot on Vatsim

To Maintain your place on the waiting list:

• Maintain 10 hours in the last 3 months or;
• 5 hours if you are active as ATC on the network
• Complete the P1 theory within 1 month of being asked to
• Respond to regular activity checks
   

 

P2 Changes

We have also recently changed the requirements for the P2 waiting list:

• Must be a UK Home Member

To Maintain your place on the waiting list:

• Maintain 5 hours in the last 3 months
• When offered a training place you can only defer once
   

Mentor Standardisation

On the P1_PPL(A) course this quarter we implemented standardisation training and information for mentors which has meant mentors are now all teaching exactly the same items reducing confusion for students which increases the rate of their training as less has to be recovered due to differences between mentors. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion this quarter has been another big improvement for the PTD. We are seeing continued success with the P1 with it being the best year on record and it continues to be being improved with more exams coming up and new mentors joining the team. The P2 has some exciting projects coming up in Q4 2025 and we hope to bring what we learnt from the P1 into the P2 to increase the number of exams per year! 

The Flying Programme has continued to increase its capacity this year which is what we set out to do at the start of the year and with the launch of TFP VFR we are always looking to expand the scope and increase the capacity of TFP. 

P3 is still in progress, we’re always looking for more volunteers to help with the project, so whether you have experience or not please reach out as we always look for new volunteers!

I can’t wait to make real changes at the PTD and continue to work with the instructor team to make an efficient but high quality training programme.
 
Ben ✈️