End of Year Message from VATSIM Middle East & North Africa

[Chriss Klosowski]

Dear VATSIM Middle East & North Africa Members,

From the residents to the visiting members and pilots, this has been another challenging year for all of us. With certain countries going into lockdown, students attending their classes online and people working from home lead us to have increased spare time from time to time to do what we love. To fly within our simulators or provide realistic air traffic services to our community.

During this time, several of our vACCs managed to get an increased number of ATC rating upgrades through (more than 90 issued this year!) , bring improvements to their communities, provide more activity, and push out more events than before, leaving a mark of their vACC on the map. I want to thank every staff member, instructor, mentor, and members who take the time to help out new members and push their vACC forward by keeping it active.

Each Marketing department in each vACC has been a significant amount of work by increasing the number of events this year by operating several different city pairs and experimenting between short, medium, and long-haul events from the Middle East and beyond. They have accommodated WorldFlight, and the signature Cross the Land event. Without them, you wouldn't be discovering their communities, their airports, and most importantly, their FIR on the Network. Thank you for leaving your mark behind on the map and showing who you are!

Big thanks to all the Division and vACC training staff who have donated their time in improving their quality of training, documents & materials, theory exams, and improving that standard. When I took on this role, one of my visions was to remove altogether the idea that the Middle East Division was the "tourism hotspot for ATC ratings," which we were known to be a few years ago. With the work of the Divisional ATC department, we have overturned that idea and made it clear that we are here to provide the Network with professional and realistic ATC services to our pilots. We have completely rewritten our theory exams, fine-tuned our examination system, and advised vACCs to improve their training methods. Our goal as a whole is to provide the best services to our members and increase our coverage and activity and aim to do this entering 2022.

The Operations Department has done a fantastic job this year, bringing our sector files as close as possible to the real-world counterpart with pictures and information that we have been able to gather throughout the year. We have managed to get our setups as close as possible, from the radar displays to the ground layouts, the symbology settings, and specific lists and tag items. So far, we have managed to complete these for the United Arab Emirates (OMAE), Oman (OOMM), Bahrain & Qatar (OBBB), Saudi Arabia (OEJD/OERD), Iran (OIIX), Jordan (OJAC), Lebanon (OLBB), Iraq (ORBB), and Kuwait (OKAC). Going through 2022, we hope to complete this project for the remaining of our ACCs, including our Open Skies ACCs.

Big thank you to our Membership department for processing all intra-division transfers and processing new members transferring to our Division. Let's not forget our Technical department who has been maintaining and keeping a basic system in place since we have lost the VATME HQ and maintaining the services for Cross the Land running.

We have many plans as we slowly move onto 2022 as we look to welcome a new vACC in North East Africa and our plans to find the right members to operate the rest of the North African vACCs that we are responsible for. Expect more events and the reintroduction of our previous monthly online day event, which we hope to bring back all our vACCs online on the map for one day, allowing pilots to fly countless city pairs across our Division. 

Once again, I want to thank every vACC staff member, instructor, and mentor who donated their time to our community and the Network. We have managed to pull ourselves together for one thing that we are all passionate about this year, and I'm proud of what we have achieved throughout the year and all the moments we had together. The Arabian vACC, Egypt vACC, Iran vACC, Jordan vACC, Kuwait & Iraq vACC, and Saudi Arabia vACC, a big thank you to you all!

Let's not forget the Divisions and Regions we have contributed with as well as several different teams we collaborated with to create events such as Cross the Land, Silk Road in the Sky, and many more short, medium, and long-haul events possible with almost near 100% ATC coverage from point A to point B.

We appreciate the relationships between our staff, air traffic controllers, and pilots. We value this along the way as we continue to improve our community on the map day by day.

From the Middle East & North Africa Division Staff and its vACCs we bid adieu to 2021, here's hoping that the new year brings us all peace and happiness.