IVAO United Kingdom > News Archive

The US and UK divisions of IVAO are proud to present another collaborative event like no other before! More information is available here and also on the forum.

Congratulations to Robert Allen who won October's competition with his entry 'Final Destination'.

Entries for November's theme, 'Formations', are now being accepted. For more information, see the competition forum.

As some of you may be aware, the international Flight Simulator Weekend is about to start in the Netherlands. Staff and members from several IVAO divisions will be there flying the flag, including the GB.We will have UK ATC and pilots demonstrating at the show.

Therefore it would be really great if we could see as many of us as possible online over this weekend, either controlling or flying, to make a good impression on the show's visitors, and attract more members!

The show will be running from 0900z until 1600z on both Saturday and Sunday. We look forward to seeing you online soon!

IVAO GB will be holding a real world event at The Brooklands Aviation and Motorsport Museum (Weybridge) on Saturday 13th September. Members will be arriving at the venue from around 10:30am. Entry for adults (over 16's) is £8.00 and anyone under the age of 16 is £5.00.

A small information PDF file about the event can be found here

Anyone is more than welcome to attend. Full details are available in the forum

This year, our friends over at the BE Division are once again holding their (7th) annual FS Lan Party in Everberg, Belgium on the 20th September.

This is a very popular event and a great opportunity to meet lots of IVAO members. Several members from the staff team will be heading over for the weekend to fly the flag. It would be nice to see some of you join us.

Full details (including accomodation details) can be found on the Lan Party Website:

http://www.fslanparty.be/

There have been some changes within the membership department

Rico Allee went away 2 months ago to visit family for a couple of days and we have not heard anything from him since. Despite several attempts to get in contact with him, we have been unable to do so. We have therefore taken the difficult decision to remove Rico from the MC position. We would like to publically thank Rico for his hard work and dedication in the position over the last couple of years and hope that he is safe and well.

Karan Gorania has been promoted to the MC position - Congratulations to him!

We are now accepting applications for the MAC position. All people interested can find out more and fill out an application by visiting Division Staff -> Vacancies

This month's screenshot competition is now open for entries. In celebration of the summer months, the theme is 'VFR Flight'. For more information see the forum topic.

The United Kingdom Division Training Department is pleased to announce the introduction of Pilot Training Nights! Held every fortnight, albeit on different evenings, these Pilot Training Nights are a perfect opportunity for new and experienced pilots to improve their skills in a relaxed and friendly environment. Multiple instructors will be on hand to assist you in your flying.

The first Pilot Training Night will be held at Glasgow (EGPF) aerodrome on Wednesday 4th June at 1830z (1930 UK local). All pilots, new and experienced, are very welcome to attend!

For further information please see the event web page.

We're proud to announce the release of the Pilot Training Assistance Award. To earn this award, all you have to do is help out at Controller On-The-Job Training sessions by flying in or out (or even just circuits)!

For more information see the forum announcement.

We are pleased to announce that our approach courses will shortly be available for student enrollment via the training system. The first course (AP1) will commence on Wednesday, May 14th.

The new approach course teaches all of the knowledge, skills, and techniques required to approach radar with accuracy and efficiency. These courses will replace individual training for C2, which has been halted for the last few months.

In our ongoing aim to provide high quality ATC within the division, all members wishing to take the C2 skills test are required to participate in the approach radar course.

If you have any further queries concerning the new system please contact us at training@ivao.co.uk or post in the training forum.

Congratulations to Ross McLennan who has been appointed to the position of Events Assistant Coordinator. We wish him all the best in his role.

The April edition of the Division newsletter, Contrail, has now been released.

Contrail can be viewed by visiting Members -> Newsletters.

We would like to thank everyone who has put a great deal of time and effort into producing this edition, especially Karan (GB-MAC) who has put a tremendous amount of work into it - Well Done!

Please feel free to leave feedback in our community forum

The FRAs on Heathrow Tower (EGLL_N/S_TWR) and Heathrow Ground (EGLL_N/S_GND) have been increased to a C1 FRA between the hours of 16Z (1700 local) and 23Z (0000 local). Outside of these hours, they will remain an S3 FRA.

If you would like to join the ever growing number of high standard controllers within the division, there are many places available on our C1 training courses.

Congratulations to Samy Jay Greve who has been appointed the new Shanwick FIR Cheif. If you have any questions about oceanic controlling/flying, visit the Shanwick FIR website or contact Samy directly.

The United Kingdom Division would like to draw your attention to the New Heathrow Event Survey.

We would appreciate it if as many members as possible could take a few short moments to complete the survey (even if you didn't take part).

The IVAO UK division is proud to present an event at the airport you've all been waiting for - Heathrow.

For full details, see the event's web page.

We're pleased to announce that the United Kingdom VFR and Heli tours for 2008 are now ready to be flown.

For full details, see the events section of the website. We hope you have fun flying them!

We would like to congratulate Splendor Bouman who is our new Training Coordinator, and Iain Butler who has taken the position of Training Assistant Coordinator. We wish them all the best in their new roles!

We are pleased to announce that our aerodrome courses are now open for student enrollment here. The first course (AD1) will commence on Tuesday, February 5th.

The new aerodrome course teaches all of the knowledge, skills, and techniques required to control delivery, ground, and tower positions with efficiency. These courses will replace individual training for C1.

For more information see the forum.

In May 2007, it was decided that the way training is conducted in the UK division would be changed. The first stage of this program is about to be rolled out.

There will shortly be 4 main courses available to members: Introductory Theoretical Course, Aerodrome Course, Approach Radar Course, Area Course.

For full details, see the forum.

The 2008 IFR and Special Operations tours are now available - These can be accessed on the "Events" section of the website.

The 2008 VFR and Helicopter tours will follow in the coming days.

We are pleased to announce 4 new members to the division's training department: Conrad Oldcorn (TA3), Iain Butler (TA4), Chris Prophet (TA5), Samy J Greve (TA6).

These new members to the training department will prove incredibly useful when our brand new controller and pilot training systems are released.

We also welcome Wayne Basson, our new Assistant Events Coordinator who will assist Tom in the organisation, preparation and publication of events within the division as well as assisting to keep the events section of the website up to date.

Congratulations to all our new staff!

Congratulations to Splendor Bouman who has been appointed to the position of Training Assistant Coordinator. Splendor brought us his vision of a new training system, one which will soon become a reality thanks to his continued support.

We wish Splendor all the best in his new role.

The United Kingdom staff would like to wish all members a very merry Christmas and a prosperous 2008!

The staff will try to help you as much as possible over the festive period but please be prepared to experience a slight delay.

Thank you to all members who took part in the Real Manchester TMA event yesterday. Overall, the event was a huge success and has really helped to put the UK Division on the map of IVAO Worldwide!

As always, we want to know your opinions of the event. A survey has been made available for memebers to fill in. The results of this survey will be used to improve future events within the division.

Entry for the December Screenshot Competition is now open. To give us a festive feeling, the theme for this month's competition is "Winter Wonderland".

As it is Christmas, we have decided to offer a fantastic prize to the winner. That lucky person will win a real one hour flying lesson in a PA28!

Full details can be found in the Screenshot Competition forum

Voting is currently underway for the November Screenshot competition. Cast your vote here

Details on an exciting December Competition will be posted in the next few days - The prize is going to be fantastic!

We are pleased to announce that the first in a series of free AFCAD files has been released.

If you are using the default MSFS scenery for Heathrow, we strongly recommend that you download this file (which is easy to install), from our Resource centre on the division website.

The second edition of the Division Newsletter, "Contrail", has been released. Contrail can be downloaded here Any Comments can be posted in our Community Forums

Division updates, announcements, and any other things along those lines are now be sent out via a mailing list.

You do not have to sign up to the mailing list, but it would be in your best interest to so that you can keep up with whats going on in the division.

To sign up to the mailing list, visit Members > Members Services > Subscribe to Division News or click here

Congratulations to our Division Director Gareth Richardson, who has received the Spirit of IVAO award!

Gareth has been a big and positive influence in the division since he joined staff, and has lead the team to make it into the great division it is today. With his strong commitment to both the division and ATC Operations, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank him for all the hard work and time he has put into IVAO so far.

Entry for October's screenshot competition is well under way. The theme for this months competition is:

"Weather"

Each screenshot must include some sort of visible weather phenomena.

Full details can be found in our Screenshot Competition Forum

On the weekend of 3rd and 4th November 2007 the World's Biggest International Flight Simulation Event will take place again in Lelystad (EHLE) in the Netherlands.

IVAO, along with many other organisations, will be present. This is a perfect opportunity to meet like minded aviation enthusiasts!

Full details can be found on the FS Weekend website

We are pleased to announce that we can now offer Oceanic Controller and Pilot training. Visit the Training section of the website and select "Oceanic" in the ATC/Pilot speciality section

Voting for the next Destination for the Division Groupflight, which will be held on Friday 12th October, is now open. Options this time are Aberdeen, Isle of Man and Doncaster Sheffield.

Vote here

Thank you to all members who participated in the Cor De Jong memorial flight last Saturday. It was a huge success and a perfect tribute to a wonderful man.

Rest in Peace Cor

Voting for the September Screenshot Competition is now under way. Cast your vote here

Today is your last chance to enter the September Screenshot Competition! The theme this month is "Island Hopper Tour". Full details can be found in our forum

The prize for this month is still to be finalised but it's an exciting one!

Unfortunately Faraaz De Belder has stepped down from the position of GB-FOAC. We would like to thank Faraaz for all his hard work over the months and wish him good luck with his first year at University.

There have been some new staff appointments in the division this week.

Robin Bilgil has been appointed GB-TA4. We wish him every success in his training role, helping members get started with ATC.

Ken Hughes has been appointed the new GB-SOC. We wish him every success in his new role and look forward to seeing special operations revived in the division once again!

Tom Perry has been appointed the new GB-EAC. We look forward to seeing lots of exciting events from the newly formed Events Department!

Graham Johnson has been appointed the new GB-AOAC. We look forward to seeing lots of new ATC material from Graham!

Congratulations to all!

Congratulations to Aaron Postle who won August's screenshot competition with his fantastic shot titled "You've Got Mail... Or Maybe Packages!" We are now accepting submissions for September's Screenshot Competition. The theme for this month is "Pilot Hopper Tour" - All screenshots must be taken whilst flying the Division Pilot Hopper tour. Full details can be found here Good luck to everyone!

Thank you to all members who participated in the first group flight event. It was a fantastic event and proved more popular than expected. Voting for our 2nd flight, to be held on 14th September, is now under way. The options for our next destination are Belfast Aldergrove, Prestwick and Newcastle. You can vote for you preferred choice here in our forums

Voting has begun for the latest screenshot competition. Please take a few short moments to vote for your favourite shot here Thanks to our friends at Just Flight, the winner of this months competition will win a free copy of any Just Flight product of their choice, regardless of the price! We are still looking for ideas on themes to base future competitions on. If you have any ideas, tell us about them here

Congratulations to Luke Bowes who has been appointed to the position of Assistant Director of the UK Division! We wish him every success in his new role.

Voting for the first Division Group Flight event has been closed. It was a close call, but I confirm that our first flight will be between Glasgow (EGPF) and Cardiff (EGFF). Further details can be found here.

We are pleased to announce the release of the Screenshot Gallery on the Division Website. This can be found under Members > Community > Gallery This is a place for you, the members, to share your experiences in the form of pictures to the rest of the community. Before being visible in the gallery, all screenshots have to be approved by members of staff. This is to stop abuse of the system. We hope you will enjoy this new feature

Unfortunately, Conrad Oldcorn has stepped down from the position of GB-EC. He will be staying in the staff team as a Training Advisor Lucas Rothamel has stepped into Conrad's shoes and has been appointed the new EC. We are now looking for someone to join the staff as an EAC. Interested applicants should visit The Division Staff > Vacancies

The Division is proud to announce the Group flight event. This will be the first of a series of regular Group Flight events which will be happening every second Friday. Our first departure destination has been chosen completely at Random. Glasgow (EGPF) will be that airport. Each week, a poll will be created in our forums for members to decide our next destination out of a list of 3. The 3 for our first flight is Cardiff, Stansted and Jersey. Vote for your favourite here The first event will take place on Friday 31st August - Get voting!

A number of changes have taken place in the United Kingdom division over the last few months, hopefully for the good of the division. Feedback from members is something which we value enormously so that we can try and improve things to make your online experience the best it can be. We would appreciate it if you could take 10 minutes of your time to fill out the following survey Please try to answer all the questions as honestly as possible. Without input from you, the members, the division could not continue to achieve the things it has done recently. Thank you

The "Who's Online" script on the right hand side of the website has been fixed. A big thanks to our web team who solved the problem.

Congratulations to Robin Bilgil who has won July's screenshot competition! Submissions for the August screenshot competition are now being accepted. This months theme is "Touchdown". Full details can be found in our forum

We are currently experiencing problems with the "Who's online" script on the homepage. We are fully aware of the problem and hope to get it fixed within the next few days. Thank you for your patience

We are pleased to announce the first IVAO UK Screenshot competition has been created. The theme for this month's submissions is "Landmarks". Thanks to our friends at UK2000 Scenery this months winner will receive a free copy of UK2000 Gatwick Extreme for FS2004! Full details can be found in our forum

The brand new Island Hopper Tour has been released. This tour is the first of its kind ever to be released on IVAO. Full details can be found here

There have been a number of changes to Area Control Centre callsigns. Full details on these changes can be found here A number of Sector Files have also been completed and are available for download. Full details can be found here

The United Kingdom Division of IVAO is proud to announce the release of a brand new "Live Help" system to the division website. The live help system is for members to get in contact with any staff who may be online, to ask any questions without having to open up any software and connect to the network. Perhaps you have a quick question about something you have seen on the website, and need a quick answer but don't have the time to email? Or you are flying through the UK and want to ask a question about the procedures? - Then this is the system for you! The staff will try and be as active as possible in the system. The system link can be found in the top menu of this page.

Pages for London Heathrow (EGLL) and London Gatwick (EGKK) are now complete - These can be accessed via Controllers > London FIR > LTCC.

The results for the recent Real Gatwick event survey have been published. They can be found here A topic has also been created to discuss the results in our community forums. Join in the discussion here

The GB Flight Operations Department is proud to release yet another spectacular tour. This time it is the long awaited 2007 VFR Tour! This tour will have you crossing the length and breadth of the UK, flying along the coast, over the mountains, and weaving through some of the busier traffic areas in the UK. We've introduced some airfields we have never visited before with a variety of different landing surfaces to test you. Full details can be found in the events section of the website - Happy Flying!

The United Kingdom Division is pleased to announce the launch of its new Website. The navigation has been improved, and sections have been reworked to ease navigation for members. We hope you enjoy the result!

The new Special Operations tour "Active Fields" has been released. This features 16 legs starting at St.Mawgan and ending at RAF Scampton. You can also find a TACAN file with scenery and addons to these airfields. You can get the tour legs here