VATCAN certifies as VATSIM's first ATO!

[Alan Taylor 825557]

Members,

 

It is with great pride and pleasure that I announce that this morning I audited the VATCAN ATO system and P1 VATSIM Pilot Rating Program and have certified them to begin training, testing, and issuing VATSIM P1 Pilot Ratings.

 

Their system is open to all VATSIM members in good standing and has both a standard track for novice pilots and a fast track for veterans looking to gain the rating in a short amount of time (they estimate a veteran pilot can accomplish the rating in less than an hour). The VATCAN ATO primary contact is Alan Taylor.

 

http://www.vatcan.org/ato

 

Please join me in congratulating VATCAN for making VATSIM history today and the opening of VATSIM Pilot Ratings to all VATSIM pilots.

 

I expect to certify about two more in the next two weeks, so stay tuned for further announcements as more ATO's come on line.

 

I would also like to extend my thanks to Mike Bevington and Keith Smith as past GOV14's; gents, your vision has arrived, thanks for paving the way forward.

 

_________________

Kyle Ramsey

VATGOV14

VP - Pilot Training

k.ramsey(at)vatsim.net

 

It is with equal pride and pleasure that I would like to announce the opening of the VATCAN Flight Academy this evening. We already have several students vying to be among the first VATSIM members to become P1 Rated on the Network. I would like to thank Kyle Ramsey, VATGOV14 for his [Mod - Happy Thoughts]istance and time to allow VATCAN to take it's place at the forefront of VATSIM history in the making...potentially changing forever the face of VATSIM and especially VATCAN in making a place for Pilots/members on the VATSIM network.

 

There have been countless numbers of people and time involved in getting to this point and I would like to thank everyone who has/is involved in this process, no I'm not going to name them all...just Thank them, with a special shout out to the Team at VATCAN who have made this possible.

 

Our goal with the implementation of the P1 rating is very simple...to get pilots online simply, expeditiously and have fun at the same time.

 

After you "graduate" from the Flight Academy you will have a P1 Certification & you will have a basic knowledge of:

 

* The software necessary to fly online on the VATSIM network.

* Radio communication procedures and phraseology.

* Aviation weather and it's interpretation.

* Flight Planning.

 

In short we will teach you how to get online, file a flight plan and teach you to be comfortable talking to ATC while flying online - without fear of "upsetting" anyone. We intend to, wherever possible use our "Training Facilities" at CYXU - London, Ontario to have our Flight Academy pilots interact with our NTU (National Training Unit) controllers - a win-win situation for all!

 

Welcome Aboard - School is in session!

[Michael Avila 1077868]

This is excellent! And a wonderful idea of putting the training at CYXU so the student controllers can train with them. Congrats to all of us here

[Robbie Nauffts 1045788]

Just finished up the reading material and learned a few things and polished the things that were rusty for me. This is a "must" for all pilots, you'll be glad you did it. I'm just getting ready to set up my check ride now.

[Alistair Thomson]

The Academy website, being database-driven, is sometimes a bit hard to work with. I know it's in transition. Are fixes in the pipeline?