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I'm please to announce that @Riley Casement has been appointed as our new VFR Flight Instructor! Riley will be working alongside @Benjamin Arrowsmith Riley has been the Initial Flight Instructor for the flying programme course and has been making some amazing change and has transformed the department. He brings some amazing experience and I look forward to seeing Riley starting to take over the responsibilities of the role over the coming weeks! I wish all the best to Riley and please join me in congratulating him on his new role! Ben

Hi all! I am pleased to announce that with Riley's appointment as the VFR Flight Instructor we will be recruiting a new Initial Flight Instructor to run the Flying Programme! The Initial Flight Instructors main responsibilities will be: Has overall responsibility for training of both the flying programme IFR and VFR; Assisting new pilots with gaining experience on the network Maintains training standards of the Flying Programme course; Select and train new mentors for the Flying Programme course; Organise group seminars as appropriate; Organise group flights as appropriate; Issue training places to students on the Flying Programme course; Manage students on the Flying Programme course; Is the point of contact for mentors of the Flying Programme course; Work with the Operations department to produce and review documentation as required; Continuingly review opportunities to develop elements of the flying programme; Provides the Pilot Training Manager with administrative support in relation to the Flying Programme course were appropriate; Holds a continuous review of the Flying Programme course and leverages opportunities for improvement where appropriate. To be considered for the role, you must: Be a home member of VATSIM UK or able to transfer to the UK division as a home member; Be passionate about pilot training and aviation Be a member in good standing. No Pilot Rating is needed Those who are interested should send their application to jobs[at]vatsim.uk. Your application should include a brief explanation as to why you think you are best suited to the role and any other information you deem relevant. If you would like to discuss the role and its responsibilities further, or you have any other questions regarding this position, please contact Lewis Hammett or myself and we will be happy to arrange a short call. Please submit all applications in writing via a Helpdesk ticket to ‘Jobs and Applications’ before 22:59z on 9th December 2025.

Hi all! I am pleased to announce we will be recruiting for a new Advanced Flight Instructor who will co-run the department alongside our current advanced flight instructor @Tarik Merrylees. The advanced FI is responsible for creating and maintaining the P3_CMEL(A). The Advanced Flight Instructors main responsibilities to begin with will include: Working alongside the current advanced FI to create the P3_CMEL(A) Oversee the development of the P3 CMEL(A) Moodle, lesson plans, and associated course content; Ensure course compliance with relevant PTD documentation such as the MCS; Work with other Pilot Training staff members to align the course with current standards After the course is launched the main responsibilities will include: Has overall responsibility for training of the P3 CMEL(A) course in accordance with VATSIM UKs P3 CMEL(A) training syllabus; Maintains training standards of the P3 CMEL(A) course; Select and train new mentors for the P3 CMEL(A) course; Organise group seminars as appropriate; Issue training places to students on the P3 CMEL(A) course; Manage students on the P3 CMEL(A) course; Is the point of contact for mentors of the P3 CMEL(A) course; Work with the Operations department to produce and review documentation as required; Provides the Pilot Training Manager with administrative support in relation to P3 CMEL(A) course were appropriate; Holds a continuous review of the P3 CMEL(A) course and leverages opportunities for improvement where appropriate. To be considered for the role, you must: Be a home member of VATSIM UK or able to transfer to the UK division as a home member; Hold a P3 rating or above, or a real world equivalent Be passionate about pilot training and aviation Be a member in good standing. Those who are interested should send their application to jobs[at]vatsim.uk. Your application should include a brief explanation as to why you think you are best suited to the role and any other information you deem relevant. If you would like to discuss the role and its responsibilities further, or you have any other questions regarding this position, please contact Lewis Hammett or myself and we will be happy to arrange a short call. Please submit all applications in writing via a Helpdesk ticket to ‘Jobs and Applications’ before 22:59z on 31 October 2025.

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 ✈️

Good Evening All, I am thrilled to announce that @Ben Carpenter will be joining the Division Staff Group after his successful application to the role of Pilot Training Director! Ben brings a wealth of real world experience to this role and has been a long time member, controller, and pilot instructor within the Division. The P1 course in particular has thrived under Ben's previous stewardship, and I look forward to seeing similar future improvements rolled out across the whole Pilot Training offering. Please join me in congratulating Ben - I look to forward to working alongside him and I wish him all the best in his new role. Ben

The Pilot Training Department is responsible for managing the VATSIM UK Authorised Training Organisation (ATO), through which VATSIM UK provides training for Pilot Ratings in accordance with the VATSIM.net Pilot Training Department guidelines. The Pilot Training Department is also responsible for managing The Flying Programme, which aims to further develop pilot knowledge and competence within the UK. The Pilot Training Director’s main responsibility is to provide leadership to the Pilot Training Department. Other responsibilities of the role include: Continually - Provide leadership to an active, volunteer staff team of instructors and examiners Continually - Provide, develop and implement long-term strategy and vision to the department Continually - Manage and oversee the maintenance of Pilot Training documentation, course content, and syllabi Regularly - Manage the award of training places, review student progress and ensure efficient use of mentoring resource Regularly - Act as a liaison between VATSIM UK and the VATSIM Pilot Training Department as the Responsible Representative. Occasionally - Assist flight instructors with practical and theoretical queries regarding student sessions and progress The Pilot Training Director sits on the Division Staff Group and reports to the Division Director. Members of the DSG are expected to: Prepare for and attend DSG meetings Prepare quarterly departmental reports for the EMEA Region Contribute to internal discussion on matters related to the running of the Division Contribute to the Moderation of VATSIM UK services and maintain an active presence on the Network Attend Town Hall meetings and other ad-hoc meetings where possible The successful candidate must possess the following: Be a full UK Home Member in good standing Excellent written English skills and the ability to communicate effectively The ability to lead a small volunteer team Excellent self-organisation skills and the ability to work to monthly deadlines A thorough understanding of flying practical skills, theoretical knowledge, and UK VFR/IFR procedures The motivation to learn and develop into the role A minimum of a P1 pilot rating The successful candidate may possess the following: Previous experience and understanding of the VATSIM Pilot Training system and ratings Previous experience as a flying mentor, instructor or examiner, either within the VATSIM Network or from elsewhere If you would like to discuss the role and its responsibilities further, or you have any other questions regarding this position, please contact Nick Marinov or myself and we will be happy to arrange a short call. Please submit all applications in writing via a Helpdesk ticket to ‘Jobs and Applications’ before 22:59z on 31 August 2025.

Changes to The Flying Programme We’re pleased to announce the launch of a brand new VFR (Visual Flight Rules) course within The Flying Programme, built specifically to support everyday pilots who want to fly light aircraft confidently on the VATSIM network without getting too buried theory or technicalities. This course provides a practical, no nonsense introduction to VFR flying, focusing on the essential knowledge and skills needed to operate competently in the online environment. Unlike the highly detailed P1 course, this VFR module keeps things simple and actionable, just enough theory to understand what you’re doing, with the focus squarely on application. Why This Course Exists The Flying Programme has always aimed to guide pilots to full VATSIM competency, and that mission hasn’t changed. What has changed is how accessible that pathway can be. This new VFR course acts as a foundation, not a shortcut. It gives new pilots a solid, confidence building first step into online flying and serves as a great lead in to more advanced training like the P1. As mentioned by Darren in a previous blog post, completion of The Flying Programme’s VFR course now grants a reduced hour requirement toward the P1 rating, meaning you’ll not only be better prepared but also one step closer to certification. What You’ll Learn The course covers the most important areas of VFR operations on VATSIM, including: VATSIM Mandatory Knowledge (Flight Plans and Connecting) Radiotelephony Basic Aircraft Knowledge Airspace and Flight Rules Operations of Aerodromes Meteorology and Altimetry FISO and A/G Operators Standard VFR Procedures All training will use common GA aircraft like the Cessna 152, Cessna 172, and PA28, the kind of aircraft most people are familiar with. Who It’s For The course is aimed towards: Pilots who want to fly VFR without getting bogged down in technical deep dives Newcomers who’ve never used the radios or flown a circuit before IFR focused pilots looking to expand into the VFR world Anyone preparing to take on the P1 rating and looking for a stronger foundation Ready to Get Started? The VFR course is live on our Moodle platform and available to all eligible members.

I am pleased to announce that James Bayliss-de Gruchy has been appointed as the events manager. I have been covering this role for a while whilst James got to grips with the department. He will now be supporting me with the events side of operations, whilst support the events assistants.

As we head into the summer of 2025, the Operations Department is short of a few staff members. We would like to recuit one events assistant and a handful of operations assistants. If you have any questions about the roles, including suitability then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Myself and peter are keen to foster some more home-grown talent in the department - we do not expect anyone to be the complete package when they apply for staff roles - training and guidance will be provided. I would be keen to receive applications from newer and more experienced members alike. Vacancies I am opening applications for the following roles: Operations Assistant Enroute Operations Coordinator Events Assistant The Operations Assistant role is a very fluid, as their primary responsibilities can be within Enroute, Aerodrome or the Sector file. It is suited to both experienced and inexperienced members. Currently in our assistant roles in the department, we have some of our most experienced writers who work on projects rather than coordinating the entire branch. We equally recruit less experienced members to work on Aerodrome or Sector File projects and to develop their skills. The Enroute Operations Coordinator is the department’s subject matter expert on area control. For this reason, a C1 rating (or greater) is required. No-one is an expert on every sector and I do not expect applicants to be (I am certainly not one!). We are lucky to have many contributors, all with their own knowledge bases whose experience you would be required to draw upon in the role. The Events Assistant role, will report to the Events Manager . You will be helping the events manager to organise the UK’s event schedule including Hogmanay Fly-ins, Mancheaster and any new events! You will also be working with the Community department to help them advertise our events, organising our Events Team of volunteers who produce rosters and help to manage events on the day (including flow management). More detail can be found on these roles in the Operations Handbook. If you wish to discuss any of these positions, particularly if unsure how you might best fit into the department, please feel free to contact me or Peter, either via Discord DM or via email archie.middlefell[at]vatsim.uk To Apply Please submit an application by email to jobs[at]vatsim.uk. Please write a short application (max. 300 words) outlining your relevant experience and why you are interested in the role. We are not expecting long applications! Application Deadline EDIT: Applications will be accepted until latest 23:59z on Tuesday 19th August for the Operations Assistant and Events Assistant Role. Applications for the Enroute Operations Coordinator will remain open UFN.

Good Afternoon, I'd like to start by announcing the departure of @Thomas Hallam from the team. After years of dedication, hard work and valuable contributions, Tom will be stepping away from his role in the Outreach Team. Tom began in the Marketing team where he helped deliver numerous successful events, with a particular focus on the graphical elements that came with them. Since the disbandment of that team, Tom agreed to continue some of his responsibilities within the newly formed Community Team, where he has been a great help that will be missed. On a more positive note, I am pleased to announce that @Callum Hicks, @Noah Murdochand @Charles Newman will be joining the team in the role of Outreach Assistants. All three bring fresh ideas, and new skills to the team, allowing us to make consistent progress across multiple projects, designed to help us better engage with both current and prospective members, improving the overall experience across the board.

Hi all! Please take note of the purple supplements/corrections to the original post for changes made on 2 July 2025 after further consultation with members and PT staff.

What's Changing? Each of the Pilot Training waiting lists can be subject to three types of restrictions: Minimum network experience This requires members to have a minimum number of flying and/or ATC hours on the VATSIM network Minimum activity This requires members on the list to maintain a minimum amount of activity on the VATSIM network Maximum list size This will close enrollment to the list if it reaches a predetermined size The implementation of these three control measures will vary with time and the demand for any given course. The following controls remain in place: The P1 PPL(A) course will not be available to visiting members This is due to the demand for the P1 from home members and will be continually assessed Both the P1 PPL(A) and P2 SEIR(A) require Moodle course completion to receive a training place Note: these changes, along with the full policy for training place allocations, will be formally written into a policy document within the next quarter. How will it work? The maximum list size will be handled automatically through logic in the self-enrollment system. Additionally, the Community team will not process waiting list additions manually if the list has reached its capacity. Minimum network experience will be determined manually by the Pilot Training Department team through software tools. I estimate that these checks will be run on a weekly basis. If a member joins the list with insufficient network experience, they will be removed from the list at the next check and notified of the reason for the removal. The member may rejoin the list without any restriction at a later date once they have the minimum network experience. Minimum activity will also be manually tracked by the Pilot Training Department team through software tools. Activity will be assessed over a fixed period, beginning on the first day of the month following the member’s initial join date. The member will be notified at the end of the activity period if they did not meet the minimum activity requirement. A member will be removed from the list if they receive three two or more activity reminders without providing mitigating circumstances. For example, if a member joins a list with a 3-month activity window on 12 May 2025, their activity will be measured from 1 June 2025 at 00:00:00z until 31 August 2025 at 23:59:59z. If the member accumulates 10 hours within this period then they are considered active and their next activity window will begin on 1 September 2025 at 00:00:00z. I'm currently on the list. What happens now? The activity window for all members currently on the list will start on 1 July 2025 at 00:00:00z. Members on the list who do not meet the minimum network experience will be given the opportunity to engage with the network and acquire 10 hours of network experience by 31 July 2025 at 23:59:59z. If the member meets this, they will be expected to acquire the remaining minimum experience before the end of their activity window. An email referencing this post and explaining how it is individually applicable will be sent out over the next few days to all members of the waiting list. Supplement for clarification (2 July 2025): Activity will be measured for the period 1 April 2025 00:00:00z to 30 June 2025 23:59:59z to determine the initial activity for everyone on the waiting list. The "strike system" will come into effect, with the first strikes being issued on 1 October 2025. If a home member has at least 10 hours of flying (or 5 hours if they are an active ATC) in that period, they will receive an email notifying them of these changes. If a home member has less than 10 hours of flying (or 5 hours if they are an active ATC) in that period, they will be informed by email. Between 1 July 2025 00:00:00z and 30 September 2025 23:59:59z, the member must complete at least 10 hours of flying (or 5 hours if they are an active ATC). If the member has not completed the minimum hours, they will be removed from the waiting list. A visiting member must complete 10 hours of flying (or 5 hours if they are an active ATC) before 1 August 2025 00:00:00z to be moved to the master list with their original join date. P1 PPL(A) List Controls The P1 PPL(A) will receive the strictest control measures due to the excessive demand for the course. Minimum network experience Members with no ATC experience are required to have a minimum of 30 hours of flying time logged on the VATSIM network Members with ATC experience are required to have a minimum of 15 hours of flying time logged on the VATSIM network In the future, members who have completed The Flying Programme will be credited with a reduced hour requirement Minimum activity Members who do not control within the specified activity period are required to have a minimum of 10 hours of flying every 3 months Members who do control within the specified activity period are required to have a minimum of 5 hours of flying every 3 months Maximum list size The maximum size of the P1 PPL(A) waiting list is 100 members Note: Members are required to complete the P1 Moodle course before receiving a training place. Any members near the top of the waiting list without Moodle completion will be notified and given 1 month to complete the course. P2 SEIR(A) List Controls The P2 SEIR(A) will receive the following control measures. Minimum network experience Members are required to have a minimum of 60 hours of flying time logged on the VATSIM network Minimum activity Members are required to have a minimum of 10 hours of flying every 3 months Maximum list size The maximum size of the P1 PPL(A) waiting list is 20 members Note: Members are required to complete the P2 Moodle course before receiving a training place. Any members near the top of the waiting list without Moodle completion will be notified and given 1 month to complete the course. Why is this necessary? Firstly, these changes are long overdue. The P1 waiting list has been unmanageably long for a significant amount of time. This has meant that we could not give accurate waiting times for people on the list. Since the P1 started, we used the Moodle course as the only criteria for people to get a training place. However, this has proved to be unhelpful. Students get to the course having forgotten most of the theory and it has not been an effective stopgap in managing the list size. As of 16 June 2025, this is the distribution of people on the list sorted into bins by join month: As is evident by the massive spikes this year, the majority of people on the P1 list joined within the last 2 months. I then looked at the amount of network experience people on the list had with flying and controlling on VATSIM: The list has 189 members on it. The vast majority of people on the list do not have any ATC experience. 84 of the people on the list have less than 50 flying hours on the network, of which 73 have less than 30 hours. Worryingly, 30 people on the list have never logged onto VATSIM as either a pilot or an ATC. While we strive to offer training opportunities to as many students as possible, practical limitations make this unachievable. Data consistently shows a strong correlation between a student’s network activity and their engagement with the P1 course. Furthermore, those with broader foundational experience on the network tend to perform significantly better when operating in controlled or high-traffic airspace. Prolonged waiting times, caused by slow training progression and an imbalance between demand and available mentors, can demotivate even the most promising candidates. We believe this has, in some cases, led to the loss of potential mentors. The P1 course is currently our strongest performer and ranks among the highest-performing programmes in the division. After reviewing relevant statistics with both our Flight Instructors and the Pilot Training Manager, we have concluded that introducing additional restrictions to all training lists is the most effective way forward. These changes will enhance the overall quality of training, increase the conversion rate from student to mentor, and enable us to provide more accurate waiting time estimates to those on the list. The effectiveness of these changes will be monitored over the next two quarters of 2025 and will be reviewed in Q1 2026.

Waiting Lists Are Now Self-Enrollable! We’re excited to announce that all ATC and Pilot rating-based waiting lists are now self-enrollable. These are available through https://www.vatsim.uk/mship/waiting-lists If you meet the required rating and hour criteria, you’ll be able to add yourself directly, meaning no more waiting to be manually added by a staff member. This change brings several benefits: Reduces the workload on our Community Department. Ensures a faster and fairer process for members. Helps the division move towards greater automation, allowing staff to focus more on development and support. Note: Some ATC endorsement lists such as Heathrow TWR/APP are unavailable for self-enrolment. These lists require prerequisite endorsements that must be checked manually for the time being. Please continue to submit tickets for these as normal. A huge thank you to our Technology Team for making this possible! Their continued work behind the scenes is helping us create a more streamlined and modern experience to members. Going forward, any questions about ATC waiting lists (e.g. "Am I eligible?", "Why isn’t it moving?", "Where am I on the list?") should be directed to the ATC Training Department, not Community.

Thanks for your hard work Cole! Don't be a stranger a ✈️

Good job Cholay! Good luck cooking your own steaks ❤️

Hi everyone, After joining the VATSIM UK Pilot Department in September 2023, I’ve made the decision to step down from the Initial Flight Instructor role. It’s been a genuinely rewarding experience to contribute to The Flying Programme, especially during a period of significant growth and change across the division. Life, however, has a habit of catching up with us all, and I’ve found it increasingly difficult to give the role the time and attention it deserves. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to contribute and grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such dedicated and passionate individuals and wish everyone the best of luck for the future. A huge thank you to everyone who’s supported me along the way - it's been a pleasure to be part of the team. Cole

Good afternoon, James, I've only quoted your post in the hope that you get some sort of notification; I am conscious that I am days late in responding to you owing to a work trip. I hope you're well. Thank you for taking the time to write and to not only read but also consider what I have written. I agree with many of your points - this is in fact just 'data'. But the purpose behind providing it is to attempt to illustrate to everyone - those who are supportive of our efforts, those who are critical of our efforts and those who have self-serving interests or demonstrate perpetual impatience - just what's going on within VATSIM UK and the efforts we're going to in order to try to expedite training. As you say, people come here to have fun but they need at least an S1 to do it! I think that perhaps your best observation is one that I whole-heartedly agree with - other than 'good nature', mentors have little reason to mentor. There is no incentive for them to do so and I have mentioned, I think, in other blog posts that we do intend to do something about that, but our plan relies rather a lot on being able to track rather a lot of things and getting everything in line to do that is challenging to say the least - you are no stranger to the lack of resources that we have and thus, all things take time. Had this been a corporate entity, we'd have delivered it long ago! With respect to KPI, my focus is rating upgrades. Whilst recognising that we have few mentors, if we can at least make the process more efficient, we get better value from the precious time that our mentors do provide. You are also right that much of VATSIM's culture stems from .Net. In a late-2023 conversation with Simon, I shared with him my views on the Region/Division/vACC structure within VATSIM and that almost overwhelmingly, the reason for that structure relates to the provision of ATC, both training and for events. That is not to diminish the excellent work of our Pilot Training Team, but given that there is neither an obligation for divisions to provide pilot training, nor is it necessary for a .Net accredited ATO to sit within the division structure (think BAVirtual), it is not a requirement for the hierarchical structure to exist for the provision of pilot training. Accordingly, we are very limited as to our influence over network-wide pilot quality. That is not to say that we are doing nothing about it. Whilst I agree that the survey results are, again, just data, they're perhaps the most meaningful data that we have - it demonstrates a first-hand understanding of why people are voting with their feet. It is not actionable by us, but it's definitely something we can wave in front of other people's faces and do something with. If nothing else, it demonstrates that we, at least, are listening and part of what I have told people stoically from day one is that I'm here for them, to represent their interests. I've already presented the numbers to representatives of the Region and we'll be following up with some of our neighbours - watch this space. Your final comments on community are, honestly, challenging to address. We're very conscious of the topic within the DSG and I feel that addressing that in full is perhaps better left to others within the DSG. But, rest assured - I do have fun in my role. I very much enjoy teaching, I've had some cracking mentoring sessions recently and I still control independently when I'm not developing. What's important to me is that me and my team facilitate training so that others can enjoy their ratings and I think we're doing OK at that. To me, that's worth the stress. Take care, James - thank you again for sharing your thoughts. Adam

VATSIM UK Live! 2025 VATSIM UK Live! is back for the 12th edition and you are invited to join us! This year’s event takes place on the 2nd and 3rd of August 2025 at Conference Aston – a meeting space and hotel located close to the centre of Birmingham. We'll be taking over their large event room providing a space for everyone to fly, control and socialise in person with dozens of other members from across the network. The weekend offers a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes how VATSIM Controllers work, sit side-by-side with your colleagues, coordinate traffic, or learn from experts in the room, with in person training and mentoring. Conference Aston and its surroundings offer a range of options for meals over the weekend, with the option to join groups for dinners or make your own plans. The weekend is informally organised without a strict timetable to adhere to. Be sure to bring your own equipment (PC, laptop etc.) – all power and (wired) internet will be provided. We've also secured a hotel discount for up to 10 people at the Aloft Birmingham - Thank you @Craig Stewartfor organising this. Rooms include breakfast, Wi-Fi, and a king-size bed for one (with the option to add a second guest for £13). Bookings are flexible and cancellable up to 23:59 the night before, and must be made by 4th July. Rooms are limited and availability is not guaranteed - send us a ticket if you'd like access to the discounted booking link. Tickets cost £29 for a one day ticket, £39 for a weekend ticket and can be purchased now at live.vatsim.uk We look forward to welcoming you to Birmingham on the 2nd and 3rd of August! Facebook Instagram

Hi Adam, I appreciate your transparency over your time as a member of the DSG for publishing this data. Unfortunately, that's all it is: "data". Before you think what I'm about to say is an insult against your hard work, it's not because trying to keep mentoring rates at the level they are is not easy. What I'm about to say is just my take on everything. Firstly I agree that VATSIM UK is like a (sub-division of a) corporate organisation and to a degree, it has to be. It's a large operation, there are lots of people and lots to do and there needs to be some structure. What I don't believe in is why it feels like a corporate organisation such that member's names have had to be hidden because... well I don't know exactly why but it seems like students are going against each other instead of helping each other. That *data point* says something about the overall culture amongst students Secondly you gave a mentoring statistic about how # of sessions has changed year on year. Well, instead of looking at Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024, let's look at Q1 2025 vs Q1 2014 which is when I joined VATSIM. Looking at the CTS booking calendar, it seems that the amount of mentoring sessions (on average per day) has stayed somewhat the same/increased only very slightly despite having a dial-up voice codec, somewhat bad simulators, RTS's and very u-centralised training. My overall message is to ask you: what really is your KPI? If it's number of sessions/ratings, yes that's your ultimate goal but remember VATSIM is all about people. Mentors giving away endless hours of their time for... nothing? No fast track waiting list, no fast track ratings, no monetary remuneration... so why do they do it? The only statistic that I've pulled is that despite the number of active members in VATSIM UK growing in the past 11 years, mentoring sessions have not increased significantly. Why don't I mentor anymore? Because I live 7 times zones away from the UK and have a full time job. Of course, culture stems from .NET. Certain things like pilot quality are not going to be within your control. Other things are. When I was Heathrow TGI, one of my lessons in my 'lesson plan' was an RSIVA sweatbox but where people's times ended up on a leaderboard. It was fun to run, everyone walked away learning something and was a bit of a competition in a sense. The community of Heathrow controllers was always at reach; complaints reached my Discord inbox and were actioned more or less instantly and in 90% of the cases, those who received the feedback took it on well. The other 10% of the cases, they remained stubborn and realised they weren't going to be controlling Heathrow for a very long time. RTS's worked well because each person belong to a smaller community amongst this 'corporate' and 'bureaucratic' organisation ( @Oliver Rhodes we go way back...) and it makes the whole experience FUN. I'll leave it at that. We all appreciate what you do as ATC-TD Adam, it's tough. I just don't want you to waste your time/effort running a corporate organisation for nothing. It's going to drive you nuts and you won't get any enjoyment; just endless stress.

Good evening, We've had really rather a lot of discussion during my tenure so far about the capability for S1s to mentor others hoping to achieve their S1 rating. Whilst we've allowed S1s to mentor at Gatwick Ground for some time and more recently expanded this to Heathrow, there have been two key impediments that have prevented us permitting S1s to mentor others on Sweatbox: On average, our S1 controllers - whilst competent - represent some of the least experienced controllers on VATSIM and, thus, tend to have the least exposure to the varied traffic presentations that we might see. To that end, our position remains that on average, S1s are not typically suitably equipped to introduce others to all that VATSIM has to offer. There are also technical limitations. In short, the back-end servers that facilitate connections from pilot and controller clients permit people connecting to Sweatbox to elevate their rating (do not do this on the live network - you have been warned!) by one. However, for seemingly arbitrary reasons, the developer of Euroscope sought to impose an additional limitation, preventing Euroscope from making connections to Sweatbox to run a scenario - whilst they can connect to join an existing scenario. One of our lovely Operations staff opted to reach out to Gergely, who has very kindly provided a version of Euroscope with this limitation removed. Accordingly, we now have no technical impediment preventing us from allowing S1s to mentor Observers for their rating training. We're left with a question of competence. Through long discussions between myself, Will, Ben and the TGNC leads, we're going to invite a small number of our more active S1 Gatwick mentors to join the TGNC team as rating trainers. We recognise that this will likely stir some debate, but given the significant increase in the rate at which people join the waiting list, we must take measures to ensure that we're meeting demand. We've already invited the first three of our existing Gatwick mentoring team to join us and we'll be onboarding them as rating training mentors very shortly. I've laid clear to them my expectations and all understand that they'll need to work closely with the TGNC team, me and Will to ensure that this is a success. Moving forwards, further invitations will be made after an initial trial period. There is a preferred pathway towards being invited and once we've evaluated the success of the programme, that pathway will be outlined in the ATC Training Handbook. For now, we anticipate that: Prospective S1 mentors must have held their S1 rating for a minimum for six months. Prospective S1 mentors must have amassed a good number of controlling hours at a variety of aerodromes post the award of their rating. Prospective S1 mentors must have mentored at Gatwick in advance of their consideration to begin rating mentoring. Prospective S1 mentors would ideally have mentored at Heathrow in advance of their consideration to begin rating mentoring. We'll all be keeping a very close eye on this in the hope that we can make some meaningful impact to the S1 waiting list. I hope to be able to provide a further update on progress in around three months. As ever, if there are questions or comments please let us know! Best regards, Adam

Hello all, As ever, things have been changing within the ATC Training landscape and it's important to me that people remain informed of what's happening. All of us on the DSG are 'servant leaders', in that we volunteer our time to lead within VATSIM UK for the enjoyment of others and this is one of the driving factors behind my intention to be as open and transparent as possible - we have nothing to hide here! It's worth noting that much of the content of this blog entry follows on from the original demand blog post. Just over a year on and with some changes introduced, we're in a position to start to draw some new inferences from our data, try to measure the impact of various things and clearly identify where the challenges are. Total Joiners In the last 90 days, in excess of 21,200 members have joined VATSIM, or 6,900 in the last 30 days. This is a marked reduction from the 8,500 that we saw in February of last year, but as before, we must be careful to draw too many conclusions from this data. February 6th is close enough to Christmas that we may have seen a peak in new member registrations following Christmas, but we have no way to determine whether this is the case. Many of our tech team are currently on their holidays and they deserve some rest - so we can't quite get all of the statistics that we used last time. However, using the revisions to the OBS > S1 waiting list that Tech provided us with recently, we can see that since the 5th April, 186 people have joined the OBS > S1 waiting list. Perform some really bad extrapolation and we can conclude that about 92 people a month - 276 in three months - joined our S1 waiting list. Roughly 1.3% of all VATSIM sign-ups, globally, end up on our waiting list - huge numbers. Training Demand Of course, of particular focus for me is the demand on our ATC Training process. Thanks to our colleagues in Tech, we now have access to detailed information on when people joined the ATC Training Waiting Lists at all ratings, giving us the ability to report directly on those lists. In the past 14 days, a total of 51 people have joined the OBS > S1 waiting list. We still don't yet have a clear view as to whether or not those are joining for the first time or re-joiners, but we do have the information. Those 51 people means an average of 3.6 people join the waiting list per day - although there is an interesting anomaly. 10 people joined the list on the 17th May; I've spoke with one of our Community team to identify whether or not we had any social media engagements on that date and there were none. So - there are inexplicable variations in our member recruitment rate. However, this represents a significant increase in demand. Looking back at our 2023 stats, an average of just over two people per day joined the waiting list for training. We're up on that now almost 50% given our average of 3.6 people per day. Importantly, this doesn't reflect people returning from absences and requesting training for recurrency under GCAP, nor does it consider transferees - but I'll touch on both of those categories later. Suffice to say, the tap is running faster than it was and we have no ability - nor inclination! - to turn it down or off. Subsequently, we must explore ways in which we can increase capacity - more on that story later. Elsewhere, we continue to experience massive demand for ATC training, although we're chipping away at various things: We currently have 116 people on our S2 waiting list, down from 120 at the end of Q1 2024 but up from 101 at the end of Q1 2025. 14 students currently have training places, up from nine at the time of my previous demand blog. We currently have 53 people on our S3 waiting list, up from 31 at the end of Q1 2024 and up from 47 at the end of Q1 2025. Nine students currently have training places, down from 14 at the time of my previous demand blog. We currently have 21 people on our C1 waiting list, up from 16 at the end of Q1 2024 and up from 15 at the end of Q1 2025. Six students currently have training places, up from five at the time of my previous demand blog. Before we consider a statement on demand, we must consider the availability of resources. 'Demand' can be something of an illusion - it may appear that demand is going up, but if the number of people requesting training is constant but the capacity to deliver is reduced, we paint a different picture. In TGNC, in Q1 2024 we delivered 220 mentoring sessions. In Q1 2025, we delivered 186. In TG TWR, in Q1 2024 we delivered 99 mentoring sessions. In Q1 2025, we delivered 102. In TG APP, In Q1 2024 we delivered 97 mentoring sessions. In Q1 2025, we delivered only 58. In TG ENR, in Q1 2024 we delivered 42 mentoring sessions. In Q1 2025, we delivered 60. We must also consider the quality of training: In TGNC, in the month of April, we issued seven S1 ratings. It took these students an average of five (4.7) sessions to achieve their rating. We didn't gather statistics for this in my original demand post. In TG TWR, in the month of April, we issued four S2 ratings. It took these students an average of eight (8.25) sessions to achieve their rating, a significant reduction from 14 across 2023. In TG APP, in the months of April and March, we issued three S3 ratings. It took these students an average of 15 (14.6) sessions to achieve their rating, up from 12 in 2023. In TG ENR, in the months of April and March, we issued three C1 ratings. It took these students an average of 23 (23.3) sessions to achieve their rating, a significant increase from 14 across 2023. We must note, however, that none of the radar ratings issued in April and March of this year included fast track candidates - these tend to significantly reduce the average, often requiring only two or three sessions to achieve a rating. Subsequently, we must again take those numbers with a pinch of salt. It is challenging to draw conclusions from this. Our mentoring capacity is down at S3 and S1 - significantly - and we're working hard to address this. But our capacity at S2 and C1 is up - and so is quality. I've not included it in the statistics, but a recent C1 candidate passed with only seven sessions which shows the variety that we see in training, whilst we also see marked improvements in TG TWR. On the whole, I have to say that it feels like demand is increasing and that it's becoming more challenging to mentor - so let's talk about that. Feedback Surveys I've now been able to take some time to review the feedback submissions that people submitted in our Member Retention and Mentor Retention surveys. Many thanks to those that submitted responses already but it's not too late - the surveys are still open and I will periodically return to review feedback. Member retention survey Out of a total of 48 respondents, 65% (31) said that they either stopped controlling, or have never controlled for, events. Of those 31: 58% (18) said that pilot quality influenced their decision, of which eight strongly agreed with the statement. 23% (seven) said that peer competence influenced their decision, of which three strongly agreed with the statement. 32% (10) said that traffic volume influenced their decision, of which five strongly agreed with the statement. 10% (three) said that the way in which events are organised by VATSIM UK influenced their decision, of which two strongly agreed with the statement. 48% (15) said that their availability influenced their decision, of which four strongly agreed with the statement. 35% (11) said that 'something else' influenced their decision, of which six strongly agreed with the statement. Out of all 48 respondents: 52% (25) said that pilot quality caused them to either stop controlling or reduce the frequency of their controlling, of which 12 strongly agreed with the statement. 25% (12) said that peer competence caused them to either stop controlling or reduce the frequency of their controlling, of which four strongly agreed with the statement. 23% (11) said that the traffic volume on VATSIM caused them to either stop controlling or reduce the frequency of their controlling, of which two strongly agreed with the statement. 23% (11) said that the administrative culture in VATSIM UK caused them to either stop controlling or reduce the frequency of their controlling, of which four strongly agreed with the statement. 17% (eight) said that other issues within VATSIM UK caused them to either stop controlling or reduce the frequency of their controlling, of which three strongly agreed with the statement. 46% (22) said that personal issues caused them to either stop controlling or reduce the frequency of their controlling, of which eight strongly agreed with the statement. 63% of respondents (30) left their CID with their submission. Of those, 28 stated that they were happy to be contacted about their feedback. The respondents were comprised of: 21 S1 rated controllers. 10 S2 rated controllers. Five S3 rated controllers. 12 C1/C3 rated controllers. Mentor retention survey Out of 31 total respondents: 55% (17) said that pilot quality stopped them from mentoring, of which four strongly agreed with the statement. 42% (13) said that student quality/effort stopped them from mentoring, of which two strongly agreed with the statement. 19% (six) said that the training process implemented by VATSIM UK stopped them from mentoring. None strongly agreed with the statement. 29% (nine) said that the training culture in VATSIM UK stopped them from mentoring, of which two strongly agreed with the statement. 45% (14) said that the culture in VATSIM UK generally stopped them from mentoring, of which two strongly agreed with the statement. 68% (21) said that personal reasons stopped them from mentoring, of which eight strongly agreed with the statement. Respondents were asked whether they would apply for a staff role, either now or in the future. Of the 31 respondents, 39% (12) said that they would not. Of those who said they would not: 26% (eight) said that they would not because of the culture in VATSIM UK. 19% (six) said that they would not because they did not want to work for the department head for roles they were interested in. 29% (nine) said that they would not because they lacked time to commit to a role. 13% (four) said that they would not want the responsibility. 26% (eight) said that they believed that they lacked the skills or experience to contribute to the role. 61% of respondents (19) left their CID with their submission. All 19 stated that they were happy to be contacted about their feedback. The respondents were comprised of: One S1 rated controller. Seven S2 rated controllers. Nine S3 rated controllers. 14 C1/C3 rated controllers. Summary There are clear trends here. Events and mentoring are seriously hampered by pilot quality issues and I have already raised this with the Region last night. Our plan is to invite some of our neighbours to run their own servers in order to try to present a broad range of evidence to the Board of Governors for their consideration, in the hope that some focus can be given to the issue in the hope of identifying a resolution. We can take some comfort from the fact that the rate at which members are joining VATSIM _appears_ to be slowing. A recent BoG Report suggests that new member registrations have slowed - a graph on page 22 seems to show it best, including a statistic - a 33% reduction in new member registrations per day in Q4 2024. It is believed that the new P0 examination is likely a contributing factor to this. As a DSG, we're also conscious that the culture in VATSIM UK is remarked upon often as a contributing factor for people being less willing to contribute. Thankfully, many of our respondents indicated that they would be happy to receive feedback and we'll begin to approach them directly in the coming days or weeks to understand in more detail how we might change that - culture is a very broad topic which means many things to many people and we can only change things if we understand more. Narrative Feedback A number of those who submitted feedback left comments for the DSG to address. Some of these comments are challenging to address, particularly publicly, for two reasons: commonly, people who leave comments do so anonymously and so we can't follow up with them, or those who have left comments allude to things without providing specifics. We're very grateful for everyone's contribution to these surveys, but our ability to meaningfully implement change is reduced if we don't understand the specifics of what people mean. There are some quick themes which we can address, however: Demotivating delays: A number of respondents comment that they are less interested in controlling now, purely because of the delay in training meaning that they cannot progress to attain other ratings. We're doing everything we can to try to improve the throughput of training, but it's incredibly challenging without sacrificing quality. Peer competence: Many respondents indicated in their feedback submissions that peer competence was of note, specifically at the aerodrome level. We encourage everyone to make use of the feedback system (https://vats.im/atcfb) and rest assured that action is taken on these - more on that below. Bureaucracy/Big Business: A few commentators felt that VATSIM UK was either too bureaucratic or operated too much like a corporate organisation, with a hierarchy that creates a disconnect with the wider membership. In some areas, it's not clear what commentators mean by this, but I have to challenge part of this: several commentors complain that their feedback goes unactioned and yet I can count on one hand the number of occasions in the last 16 months on which someone has approached me to discuss something. I cannot speak for other members of the DSG, but I know that they strive to be as open as I am. My DMs are never closed and I welcome conversations on what we're doing and why and I hope that the publication of statistics related to the feedback surveys we sent demonstrates that. Transparency: A number of commentators left feedback about transparency, either with respect to waiting times or with respect to what the DSG are doing. Minutes of our DSG meetings can be found here and we are working on providing documentation to detail VATSIM UK's expenditure to indicate where people's donations go. I had hoped that any question of transparency about waiting times would be address with my quarterly blog posts; if anyone has questions, please feel encouraged to ask. Initiatives As ever, we're pursuing a number of initiatives to try to improve training capacity in VATSIM UK: Transferees We're acutely aware that a number of people have been brazenly gaming the transfer system, transferring outside of VATSIM UK to pursue a rating, waiting their 90 days and then apply to transfer back in. There is roughly a three month wait to transfer at all ratings and so this method is a shortcut for many. I have spoken with the Region on this matter and obtained their full support. Anyone that we suspect of gaming the system in this way will have their transfer rejected. It is materially unfair that we occupy training places with impatient people, rather than paying diligence to those who have patiently waited in our length queue for training. Only recently, one member has been told that **VATSIM UK will never provide them with ATC Training** for their apparent gaming of the system twice in less than six months and I have the full backing of the region to do this. OBS > S1 Mentoring I held several discussions with the Region recently about the topic of S1's being unable to run Sweatbox sessions. The region were sympathetic and explained restrictions that are in place. FSD is actually more permissive than we thought and I believe that **we now have a solution to permit S1s to mentor using Sweatbox**. Some planning is required but we're on the cusp of really being able to unlock this - watch this space... Moodle Team In order to ensure that we have high-quality content available for our members to support them in their controlling, including after the award of ratings, Will has created a Moodle Team of enthusiastic members who are currently combing our documentation to ensure it's up-to-date. Over time, we'll work on the provision of new courses to provide supplemental training to people on specific areas. We also recognise the need for up-to-date C1 and transferee Moodle courses S3 Syllabus In order to reduce the administrative burden on our S3 mentors, I'm reviewing the syllabus to try to condense a number of elements. For example, currently, discrete boxes exist on the mentoring reports for Basic Service, Traffic Service, Deconfliction Service and UKFIS - quite a lot of writing in quite a lot of boxes when we can meaningfully condense this without losing content. I've drafted this with Will already, we have an agreed new syllabus that simply needs to be documented and rolled out. Exam Grading Criteria Exam grading continues to be an area of some scrutiny - and rightly so. It's important that we mark consistently and fairly. We've agreed a plan of action to document what we mean in each of the grading criteria in more specific detail. Controller Feedback There's been rather a lot of recent conversation - including some narrative feedback within the Member Retention Survey - to the effect that feedback about VATSIM UK's controllers is ignored, or that standards are slipping. This couldn't be further from the truth. Only this week, I've had conversations with four controllers within VATSIM UK - all of whom will, of course, remain anonymous - regarding their controlling. That might stem from a quick conversation to point a mistake out, to following up on feedback or an offer of remedial training where it is warranted. We currently have a variety of controllers receiving remedial training with other offers on the table. Equally, where trends are identified in exam results, those trends are passed to the TGI responsible and that feedback should be cascaded regularly to the mentors in order to ensure that this is addressed in the course of regular training. We've been discussing for really quite some time the implementation of a 'feedback team' to review and address negative feedback. This is still on the list of things to do, but comes with all manner of data protection concerns (how do we give the feedback team the ability to message controllers without giving them an e-mail address?) and tech considerations (I am likely to ask for some changes to how we manage feedback soon) before we can do it. Everyone in VATSIM UK is a volunteer and these things take some time to implement - but I am keen for nobody to be under the false impression that feedback doesn't matter. I will openly admit that we don't action each and every single submission of feedback - a quick scan suggests we receive something like 7 submissions on average per day and the overwhelming majority of these are ATC feedback submissions. We simply lack the capacity to verify the feedback, look for trends and send messages for all submissions, but where we spot patterns or trends, they absolutely are addressed. In Closing ATC Training remans a challenging environment for VATSIM UK to deliver, with high demands on the time of everyone involved. We are, as ever, open to suggestions on how we can improve and I urge people to be courageous and come and have conversations, whether you think we're doing something right, doing something wrong, have suggestions or criticism. I had a very productive meeting with a number of community members some weeks ago which they indicated they found helpful - we are not just saying that we are transparent, we really mean it. Please feel encouraged to speak to me, to Will or to any of my team and we'll be happy to help. Of specific note, if anyone has mentored previously, or has considered mentoring, and a conversation would aid in your return to mentoring, I would be very grateful if people could reach out to me or Will. A number of respondents to our mentor retention survey indicated that they felt they lacked the skills or experience to help; the DSG are all committed to ensuring that we support people who are interested in volunteering and we encourage people to reach out. All the best, Adam

Hola! Long time. Your last feedback submission was indeed the 28th July 2024. You'll either need to either blow hotter or colder to solicit more. We discuss automagic feedback periodically, but the problem is that sometimes, there's utter waffle submitted, or things submitted in the wrong name and so on, and we currently have no mechanism to unshare feedback. To that end, the process remains manual for now. A

Hello there, Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but could the feedback be automatically shared with the recipient? My last bit of feedback was in 2024, and I am nowhere near as active as I used to be, but I find that hard to believe that nobody has said anything tepid about my controlling since then. I understand it to be a manual process to share the feedback with the recipient, and I understand why to some degree, but surely a simple profanity filter or reporting function would weed out the probably minute levels of inappropriate and/or 'hurtful' feedback? I shall return to my cave.

Do remember that this is a nearly 8 year old post so things do change... Feedback: https://www.vatsim.uk/mship/feedback/new VATSIM have removed the option to search for CIDs via name. You'll need to use a mapping tool to get the CID unless the controller uses the CID rather than name for the display in which case it will show when hovering over the position name in your pilot client

This seems an outdated link. I cant find it. I flew tonight from EGLL to Copenhagen and back, UK is absolutely incredible for ATC. So professional and can really deal with high volume of Flight Simmers. Unbelievable service.