Welcome to IVAO United Kingdom

AD34 is now open for enrollment in the training centre. To be eligible you must have completed the intro course. The course will take place at Liverpool (EGGP) and commences July 19th.

We have a number of staff vacancies at the moment, all of which offer exciting new opportunities. Please visit our vacancies page for further details

You can find out all about it in our new promotional leaflet which can be downloaded here

Steve Sant from Sant Media has very kindly donated his time and resources to provide us with this leaflet design free of charge and we thank him a great deal for doing so. Please feel free to download the leaflet and pass it onto your friends!

The following people have been awarded the "Great Division User" award for the help and support they offered at the recent Flight Simulator Convention in Weston-Super-Mare. The event would not have been a success if it wasn't for the work put in by these people:

- Splendor Bouman
- Tom Moseley
- Tom Hurrell
- Martyn Tobin
- Carl Chamberlain
- Jordan Webb
- Tristan Marchent
- Dan Nicholas

AD32 is now open for enrollment in the training centre. To be elegible you must have completed the intro course. The course will take place at Stansted (EGSS) and commences April 30th.

Slots on the course will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Before applying ensure you are able to attend ALL the sessions in the calendar, and you must have passed ALL the assessments of the intro course or your application will be deleted.

When it comes to organising an event like this, a huge amount of work has to go on in the background, more than many people would imagine. I would therefore like to publicly thank the following people:

Luke Bowes for his work on the booking system. A few issues occured with the system but Luke (despite being in the middle of a house move with very limited internet access) managed to fix the problems as and when they occured without delay.

Lee Oxborough, Ross McLennan, Tom Hurrell & Karan Gorania for their initial organisation and promotion of the event across the flight sim world.

Splendor Bouman & Michele Galmozzi for their organisation of the ATC staffing and coordination with external ATC agencies.

Ben Horsfall for his creation of the Datalink clearance system

Samy Jay Greve, Conrad Oldcorn & Jake Cresswell for their collection and inputting of routes into the flight database

Chris Rolland for his technical expertise at the ACC

Nige Pay for donating a healthy supply of network cables that we will be able to use for future events

I would also like to thank the following controllers and support staff who took part during the event:
- Splendor Bouman
- Michele Galmozzi
- Luke Bowes
- Ben Horsfall
- Jake Cresswell
- Tom Moseley
- Samy Jay Greve
- Chris Rolland
- Karan Gorania
- Tom Hurrell
- Oliver Batt
- Stephen Young
- Conrad Oldcorn
- Tim Chambers
- Martyn Tobin
- Chris Globe
- Nige Pay
- Matt Davies
- Jordan Webb
- Dan Dvoracek
- Pavlina Pecoldova
- Les Cooper
- Iain Butler
- Mikkel Gylling Hangaard
- Robert Allen

And of course, the most important thank you must go to all the pilots that took part - Without you all, the event wouldn't have been a success.

I am very pleased that we managed to have yet another successful Heathrow RFE. The fact that we managed it is a real testement to the amount of time and effort people put into this hobby. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of such a fantastic network.

Thank you United Kingdom Division

Here's to many more years to come

Best Regards,

Gareth Richardson
Director - IVAO UK

The UK's biggest airport and the world's busiest international airport awaits you, fully staffed for an event you will never forget.

Over 500 real flights ranging from short domestic flights to international long hauls are available for you to book during this 6 hour event.

ATC will be provided from a live ACC in West Sussex with over 25 active positions! We are expecting a few real London controllers to join our team as well. 

If you like to be number 6 on the ILS, taxi behind 4 other aircraft towards the runwayor join a holding pattern with several other aircraft, then this is the event for you.

Make sure you're there, we're waiting.


 Further details available here

AD31 is now open for enrolment in the training centre. To be elegible you must have completed the intro course. The course will take place at Luton (EGGW) and commences March 22nd.

Slots on the course will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Before applying ensure you are able to attend all the sessions in the calendar, and you must have passed all the assessments of the intro course.

We hope you enjoyed the February version of Contrail, which is the UK Division's community magazine and we'd like to make it just that; a magazine written by members of the community for each other.

To that extent we'd like to invite everybody to contribute.

So - what can YOU do? Well we welcome submissions during any point in the year. They will be included in the next available edition of control. Here are some simple ideas:

- Letters to the editor (feedback, ideas, questions or suggestions)
- Letters to staff (send us a technical question and we'll answer it in the next edition)
- Flight Reports (Write an interesting report about your last flight? Add some pictures and send it over.)
- ATC Reports (Feel like writing about an interesting shift? Let us know.)
- Reviews (What was your latest FS addon? A must buy or a waste of money? Let us know!)
- Hardware tips (Any budding cockpit builders? Share your experiences with the community.)

And anything else you can think of that you'd like to have included

Please email all submissions to: gb-mc[at]ivao.aero & gb-mac[at]ivao.aero Replace [at] with @

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Thanks,

IVAO UK Membership Department

The United Kingdom division is pleased to announce the release of the 7th edition of our division newsletter, Contrail.

You can download the latest copy, as well as previous ones from http://ivao.co.uk/community/newsletter.

Features in this edition include:

• Division updates
• Destination focus - Bristol
• Real Gatwick write up

and much more!

We are always looking for members to contribute articles. If you feel you have something to contribute for future editions, please contact us!

Any comments or feedback can be left in our Contrail forum topic.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

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 wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for the feedback given to us over the years.

We would appreciate it if you could take 15 minutes of your time to fill out the survey

Please try to answer all the questions and answer them honestly and to the best of your ability. The survery is completely anonymous however if you would like us to respond directly to any of your feedback, please leave your name and a contact email address in one of the comment fields.

Important Note - Abuse of this survey system will not be tolerated.

Thank You

Here at IVAO UK, we pride ourselves in the fact that our most important asset is our active and friendly divisional community. As a member, you are not just a number to us. You are a valued member of the community. IVAO UK isn't only about flying and controlling, it is also a chance to meet new people and make friends with like minded people from around the globe.

There are a number of ways you can get actively involved with the community:

- Division Forum
- 24/7 Teamspeak voice channel
- 24/7 IRC channel

Division Forum

As a member of IVAO UK, we encourage you to use the forums. This is the best way to keep up to date with exactly what is going on in the division. If you are new to IVAO, this is a great place to get started. Feel free to pop along and introduce yourself and get to know other members of the division.

If you need help with anything, the forums is the best place to start. It is full of answers to all the questions you may be afraid to ask. There are always lots of people around to assist you.

We also run a monthly screenshot competition in the forum. Each month, we are dazzled by the fantastic entries. Why not give it a go? You may win one of the prizes we give out ever so often.

Visit the forums here

24/7 Teamspeak voice channel

We have a 24/7 Teamspeak channel located on the CC Teamspeak server. Details on how to connect can be found here

The channel is a perfect place to get together with other members and chat about anything. Members of the staff team are often in there so can assist you with any problems that you may be experiencing. Pop along and give it a try!

24/7 IRC Channel

We have a 24/7 IRC channel located on the IVAO IRC server. Details on how to connect can be found here

This channel is ideal for those members who are unable to communicate via voice or are apprehensive at doing so. Again, if you are having any problems or want to get to know people, give it a try!


The community is what makes IVAO UK - Come and be a part of it.

IVAO UK is pleased to announce, in conjunction with Fly UK Virtual Airways, Skylines Virtual & British Airways Virtual, another one of our famous real world meet up events at Manchester airport.

The meet up takes place on the weekend of the 27th and 28th March 2010.

On the Saturday, we will be meeting at the 'Airport Hotel' which is situated at the start of runway 23R and gives a fantastic view of arrivals and departures. After the daytime event, we will be doing what we do best and hitting Manchester City Centre. Please note, for obvious reasons, this part of the event is strictly for over 18's only. During the day on Sunday, it will be up to members as to what they wish to do. Usually, we visit the Aviation Viewing Park, but we will be open to any suggestions at all regarding the day's events.

Members are free to attend one or both days if they wish, the more people the merrier! Some people will be staying in hotels close to the airport from the Friday to Monday, anyone is welcome to join us. This event is a perfect opportunity for members of IVAO UK and our partner VA's to get together in one location, have a good day and a good laugh. We hope to see as many people there as possible - the more people who turn up the better the day will be.

The event itself will start at about 10:30am on the 27th, and we will meet in the beer garden of the Airport Hotel. The pub car park does require a £5 charge but you can redeem £4 of this at the bar once you purchase something. We will probably run through until mid to late afternoon and then try and be out in Manchester for about 20:00. Please remember to bring some form of ID with you, as many places in Manchester demand to see ID to gain entry.

Accommodation

There are various hotels situated around the vicinity of Manchester Airport and most of us will be staying at Bewleys near the Airport Train Station. It usually works out at about £60 - £70 per night per room, so two sharing is only £30 (ish) each. For further details on accommodation, see here: http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/BookHotels

Directions

Manchester Airport is easily accessible via train, bus or car.

For more information on the 'Airport Hotel' and for directions please see here: http://www.theairporthotel.com/index.php

For information regarding flights or other forms of transport to Manchester Airport, please see here: http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk If required, transport from the airport to the Airport Hotel can be provided to you by a fellow member. Please try to advise in advance if you require this.

If you plan on attending the event, please let us know via the forum so that we know how many people to expect

The third Member & Staff meeting will take place on Friday 29th January 2010 at 1900Z. The meeting will be held on the IVAO UK IRC chat channel. Full details on how to get connected to the channel can be found here: http://www.ivao.co.uk/community/irc (You may want to try to connect to the IRC server sometime in advance of the meeting date to check that you are able to connect without any problems)

The idea of the meeting is for members to come along and ask questions to the staff team about absolutely anything IVAO related. There will also be an opportunity for discussions to take place about any issue. There is no agenda, the direction the meeting will take will be entirely up to you, the members.

We would appreciate it if any questions you do have could be sent to us before the meeting takes place. This is so that we have an idea about the sort of things you are looking for answers to in case we need to go off and prepare anything in advance to be able to answer the questions. If you are unable to attend the meeting, you can also email your questions and they will be answered during the course of the meeting. A log of the meeting will be made available to all members afterwards. All questions should be sent to div-hq@ivao.co.uk

Don't worry if you cannot think of a question before the meeting starts, there will be an opportunity for people to ask any other questions once the advanced questions have been answered and discussed.

We look forward to seeing as many of you present as possible!

With the extended downtime of MoDA, we had to suspend reporting for our ATC/Training awards. Although MoDA is now restored, we only have partial access to manage non-tour awards. We are therefore planning to create an alternative system to MoDA for these awards.

In the meantime, we shall manage the awards manually, and are now accepting reports for the following:

• ATC Award (Participation in 10 Events)
• ATC Training Assistance Award
• Pilot Training Assistance Award

Reports

All reports should be emailed to members@ivao.co.uk.

ATC & ATC Training Assistance Awards

Reports should include:

- VID
- ATC Position
- Date of session
- Session start time (z)
- Session end time (z)
- No. of contacted pilots
- Any comments (e.g. disconnections)

Pilot Training Assistance Award

Reports should include:

- VID
- Date of flight
- Departure aerodrome (ICAO)
- Take-off time (z)
- Arrival aerodrome (ICAO)
- Landing time (z)
- Callsign
- Contacted ATCs
- Any comments (e.g. disconnections)

Already reported towards an award?

If you have already reported a session/flight in MoDA towards the above awards, we should be able to continue your tally.

ATC & ATC Training Assistance Awards

When you email Members your next report, please include a screenshot of http://moda.ivao.aero/moda/atc/hsesslist.php, so we can verify your past progress.

Pilot Training Assistance Award

When you email Members your next report, please include a screenshot of http://moda.ivao.aero/moda/pawards/hlegslist.php, so we can verify your past progress.

AD30 is now open for enrolment in the training centre. To be elegible you must have completed the intro course. The course will take place at Edinburgh (EGPH) and commences January 14th.

Slots on the course will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Before applying ensure you are able to attend ALL the sessions in the calendar, and you must have passed ALL the assessments of the intro course or your application will be deleted.

We are very pleased to announce the release of the 2010 division tours.

This year we have IFR, VFR and Helicopter tours, each with a unique theme. Additionally the Island Hopper, Scottish VFR and Historical tours are now available in the new tour management system.

For further information visit the Tours section of the website.

IVAO UK are pleased to announce the start of the "Airport of the Week scheme".

This scheme has been created to give an incentive to members to log on and control. We know that if we have the ATC online regularly, we will get traffic into the airports regularly.

For further details, see the Community menu of the website.

The UK Division staff would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2010!

2009 has been a fantastic year for IVAO UK - We look forward to making 2010 the best ever!

This month marks a major milestone in the UK division. It is now 10 years since the division was first founded. Over the last 10 years, things have changed massively. We would like to thank every single member of the division for their hard work, effort and dedication to our hobby. We wouldn't be where we are today without you.

A big thank you also to everyone who took part in our 10th birthday 36 hour ATC celebration event. Over the course of the 36 hours, over 1000 flights departed from/arrived to/overflew the UK skies and just short of 300 hours total ATC time was logged. A staggering achievement!

AD29 is now open for enrollment in the training centre. To be elegible you must have completed the intro course. The course will take place at Stansted (EGSS) and commences November 18th.



Slots on the course will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Before applying ensure you are able to attend ALL the sessions in the calendar, and you must have passed ALL the assessments of the intro course or your application will be deleted.

On Saturday 28th November 2009, we will be holding another one of our fantastic real world meet ups. Our last meet up was in the North so this time we are moving South to the best city in the world, London!

Times are hard and people are skint so we wanted to look for something to do that was relatively cheap. We have therefore decided to go for a visit to the Science Museum in South Kensington. The best bit about it - Entry is free!

For those who haven't been before, it is a fantastic day out. The museum is split into many different sections which contain lots of interesting and exciting exhibitions. There is an aviation section as well.

We plan on meeting outside the museum at 11am. Once you are in London, it is very easy to get to the museum from South Kensington tube station on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. When you exit the station, just follow the signs for the museum.

We don't anticipate that the visit will take all day, so those people who want to stay longer are more than welcome to do so. We will decide on the day exactly what we want to do afterwards whether that be go see some of the sights, go for a meal or find a nice pub.

For more information on the science museum, visit the following link: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

If you plan on attending the event please visit the forum thread here to confirm your attendance

We hope to see lots of you there! The last real world meet ups we have done have been great fun. You don't want to miss it!

AD28 is now open for enrollment in the training centre. To be elegible you must have completed the intro course. The course will take place at Bristol (EGGD) and commences October 26th.

Slots on the course will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Before applying ensure you are able to attend ALL the sessions in the calendar, and you must have passed ALL the assessments of the intro course or your application will be deleted.

A big thank you to all members who took part in the Real Gatwick event last Saturday. The event was a huge success!

A survey has been created regarding the event. It can be accessed here

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 5 to 10 minutes of your time to fill out the survey.

Please try to answer all the questions and answer them honestly and to the best of your ability. The survery is completely anonymous, however, if you would like us to respond directly to any of your feedback, please leave your name and a contact address.

Even if you didn't take part in the event, you can still fill out the survey (You will get a series of different questions)

The survey will be open until 2359Z on the 8th October 2009 after which the results will be collated and published to members. They will then be used to help improve future events which take place in the division.

Important Note 1 - Abuse of this survey system will not be tolerated.

Important Note 2 - Please ensure you hit SUBMIT once you have completed the survey otherwise your responses do not get saved.

Thank you in advance

The UK's 2nd biggest and the world's busiest single runway airport awaits you, fully staffed for an event you will never forget.

Over 250 real flights ranging from short domestic flights to international long hauls are available for you to book during this 6 hour event.

ATC will be provided from a live ACC in West Sussex with over 11 active positions! We are expecting a few real London controllers to join our team as well.

If you like to be number 4 on the ILS, taxi behind 5 other aircraft towards the runway or join a holding pattern with several other aircraft, then this is the event for you.

Make sure you're there, we're waiting.



Full details available here

We will be holding another real world meet up at Manchester Airport on the 8th & 9th August. Further details can be found here. Please confirm your attendance in the forum topic.

This year, our friends over at the BE Division are once again holding their (8th) annual FS Lan Party in Everberg, Belgium on the 3rd October.

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/

The first ever Member & Staff meeting will take place on Saturday 13th June 2009 at 1700Z (1800BST). The meeting will be held on the IVAO UK IRC chat channel. 

Full details on how to get connected to the channel can be found here: http://www.ivao.co.uk/community/irc

The idea of the meeting is for members to come along and ask questions to the staff team about absolutely anything IVAO related. There will also be an opportunity for discussions to take place about any issue. There is no agenda, the direction the meeting will take will be entirely up to you, the members.

We would ask that anyone who does have any questions could email those questions in advance so that we have an idea about the sort of things you are looking for answers to in case we need to go off and prepare anything in advance to be able to answer the questions. If you will be unable to attend the meeting, you can also email your questions and they will be answered during the course of the meeting. A log of the meeting will be made available to all members afterwards. All questions should be sent to div-hq@ivao.co.uk

Don't worry if you cannot think of a question before the meeting starts, there will be an opportunity for people to ask any other questions once the advanced questions have been answered and discussed.

We look forward to seeing as many of you present as possible!

On Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th May, IVAO United Kingdom will be exhibiting at the Flight Simulator Convention 2009, taking place at the Helicopter Museum, Weston-super-Mare.

This is the first year of what promises to be a great convention, featuring open cockpits, real helicopter flights, a 737 sim to fly and a collection of over 80 helicopters, making it the world’s largest collection of helicopters under one roof. Many other VAs, vendors and flight simulation organisations will also be joining us at the convention.

The event will be running from 1000 to 2100 local on Saturday as part of the museums at night initiative, and from 1000 to 1700 on Sunday.

We will be promoting both our division and the IVAO network with live ATC from our stand, allowing members of the public to have a go at controlling or a quick flight online with the assistance of our staff. It would be really nice to see some of our members there!

Fees for entry to the museum and convention are as follows (all of which will be donated to the museum):

Adults: £5.50

Children(5-16): £3.50

Family(2 Adults & 2 children): £15.50 

Family(2 Adults & 3 children): £17.50

Senior Citizens & Disabled Persons: £4.50  

If you are unable to make it in person however, find out how you can help us from home by taking part in our online Flight Sim Convention event.

For more information on the convention and the museum, please visit: www.flightsim2009.com

We look forward to seeing you there, whether it be in person or online.

A brand new version of the division website is now online and can be accessed via http://ivao.co.uk or http://gb.ivao.aero. 
Please report any errors that you find with the website via the contact us form which can be accessed here: http://www.ivao.co.uk/contactus

I would like to thank Luke Bowes, George Santos and Splendor Bouman who have worked incredibly hard over the last couple of months to get the website online. An awful lot of man hours have gone into its creation and it would not have been possible without them.

Note - All those divisions using the existing UK division template are more than welcome to update to the new version. Please contact the web team directly for the new template.

Congratulations to Ben Horsfall who has been appointed the new division Flight Operations Coordinator, and to Lee Oxborough; our new Assistant Events Coordinator.

We're pleased to welcome back Ben who has played a key role in our division's history and brings with him a wealth of experience. We're also excited to welcome Lee on board who will play an important role along with Ross our new EC, in bringing the division an exciting events programme.

We wish Ben, Lee and Ross all the best in their new roles!

It is with great sadness we announce that due to the pressures of the real world, we say goodbye to 4 members of the staff team:

- Robin Bilgil (TA2)
- Lucas Rothamel (TA5)
- Chris Rolland (FOC)
- Thomas Perry (EC)

We would like to thank each of them for their hard work and dedication over the years, it's not going to be the same without them.

We would also like to wish Robin and Tom good luck with their A levels and Lucas good luck with University.

Tom will still be staying in the EC role for a couple of weeks until we find someone to assist in the events department. Once Tom leaves, Ross McLennan will become the EC.

Once again guys, thanks for everything. You will be missed - Today is a very sad day for the division.

A big thank you to all members who took part in the Real Heathrow Event held on March 21st.

As usual, a survey has been created. The survey can be accessed here:

http://ivao.co.uk/surveys/index.php?sid=76994&lang=en

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 5 to 10 minutes of your time to fill out the survey.

Please try to answer all the questions and answer them honestly and to the best of your ability. The survery is completely anonymous, however, if you would like us to respond directly to any of your feedback, please leave your name and a contact address.

Even if you didn't take part in the event, you can still fill out the survey (You will get a series of different questions)

The survey will be open until 2359Z on the 31st March 2009 after which the results will be collated and published to members. They will then be used to help improve future events which take place in the division.

Important Note - Abuse of this survey system will not be tolerated.

We are proud to announce the release of the 2009 IFR Tour! The tour this year contains 12 legs.

Each leg will be released and made available to fly at 1800Z every Tuesday evening at the start of our online night for the next 12 weeks. This is to encourage people to fly each leg in groups.

We will try to ensure that the 2 airfields have full ATC coverage on the night so that you get even more enjoyment out of the tour. (Booking for the tour legs will be incoperated into the Weekly ATC Planner).

The first leg of the tour is between Exeter and Leeds. The leg is now available in MODA but reports will not be accepted for the leg until after 1800Z on Tuesday 10th February. Each leg can be flown after the online night, there is no restriction that it must only be flown on the night.

Further information can be found on the website: http://ivao.co.uk/events/enifr09.html

Enjoy!

There have been a number of staff changes within the division...

Stephen Ellis has stepped down from the SOC position. This is due to the amount of time it is going to take him to get BA Virtual up and running again with its new systems and website. He just doesn't have the time for IVAO duties as well at the moment. I would like to thank Stephen for his hard work and dedication over the months helping to get SO back on the map.

As a result, Nathan Aspinall has moved into the SOC position. We will now be recruiting for a new SOAC.

Adam Hillier has stepped down from the MAC position to carry out duties within another department. I would like to thank Adam for all his hard work in the membership department. Adam does intend to continue to help us out organising real world meet ups.

As a result, Chris Rolland has moved into the MAC position on a trial basis.

Adam Hillier has joined the Training Department as a Training Advisor and will be assisting with Aerodrome (C1) training.

Tom Moseley has joined the Training Department as a Training Advisor and will be assisting with Aerodrome (C1) training.

We thank those who are leaving positions for their work, and congratulate those in new positions.

2008 has been a very successful year for the UK Division. The division has continued to grow at a rate never experienced before and currently has around 450 active members. Just like in 2007, a number of tasks have been accomplished.

Here are just some of the things that happened during 2008...

January

- Lucas Rothamel left the EC position

- Tom Perry became the EC
- Splendor Bouman joined the staff team as TAC
- Wayne Basson joined the staff team as EAC
- Conrad Oldcord joined the staff team as TA3
- Iain Butler joined the staff team as TA4

- The brand new Introductory Theoretical and Aerodrome training Courses were rolled out to members
- The 2008 IFR and Special Operations tours were released
- The IVAO Route Database was updated with routes taken from the UK Standard Route Document
- The global IVAO event, Crowded Skies 5 was held with lots of coverage within the UK
- Matthew Landells won the January Screenshot Competition

February

- Luke Bowes left the TC position

- Splendor Bouman became the TC
- Iain Butler became the TAC

- A successful event called "Ski Charter" was held between several UK airports and Geneva.
- The "treasure hunt" event was held
- The 8th edition of the division groupflight event was held between Edinburgh and Bristol
- Mark Curtis won the February Screenshot Competition

March

- Wayne Basson left the EAC position

- The 2008 VFR and Heli tours were released
- The 9th edition of the division groupflight event was held between Bristol and Aldergrove
- The "New Heathrow" event celebrating the opening of the brand new terminal 5 was held
- Robin Bilgil won the March Screenshot Competition

April

- Samy Jay Greve became the EGGX-CH
- Ross McLennan joined the staff team as EAC

- The April edition of the division newsletter, Contrail, was released
- A new pilot guide was made available on the division website
- The 2007 division tours officially closed with a total of 2430 validated legs and 137 badges issued
- The 10th edition of the division groupflight event was held between Aldergrove and Luton
- Mike Chaplin won the April Screenshot Competition

May

- The brand new Approach training course was rolled out to members
- Some major FRA changes came into effect
- 4 new UK based Virtual Airlines became partners of the division
- The 11th edition of the division groupflight event was held between Luton and Liverpool
- The first of several new pilot nights started
- The "Europe Hubs" event involving Heathrow was held
- Splendor Bouman won the May Screenshot Competition

June

- Stephen Ellis joined the staff team as SOC
- Neil Boulton joined the staff team as TA7

- Fly UK Virtual Airways held a real world meet up at the Airport hotel next to Manchester airport which several IVAO members attended
- An Atlantic crossing event was held between Gatwick and Boston

July

- Rico Allee left the MC position

- Karan Gorania became the MC
- Adam Hillier joined the staff team as MAC

- The first special operations event, Operation Excalibur, was held
- Matthew Landells won the July Screenshot Competition

August

- Jake Cresswell joined the staff team as TA3
- George Santos joined the staff team as AWM

- Christoph Fuchs won the August Screenshot Competition

September

- Conrad Olcorn left the TA1 position

- Christoph Fuchs joined the staff team as EGGX-ACH

- The September edition of the division newsletter, Contrail, was released
- The division participated in the Sherburn Aero Club Event in Sherburn-In-Elmet, North Yorkshire
- A real world meet up took part at the Brooklands Aviation and Motorsport Museum in Weybridge
- Members from the division took part in the Belgium FS Lan Party
- The 12th edition of the division groupflight event was held between Liverpool and Bournemouth
- Zach Mehdizadeh won the September Screenshot Competition

October

- Splendor Bouman became the EGTT-CH
- Nathan Aspinall joined the staff team as SOAC

- Some major FRA changes came into effect
- The 13th edition of the division groupflight event was held between Bournemouth and Guernsey
- Robert Allen won the October Screenshot Competition

November

- The London and Scottish FIR's were restructured
- Our first eastbound Atlantic crossing event was held overnight
- Heathrow and Gatwick advanced airport procedures pages were created
- IVAO UK exhibited at one of the biggest flight simulator conventions, FS Weekend in Holland
- Robert Allen won the November Screenshot Competition

December

- A number of awards were given out to members of the division
- Several of the UK based VA's got together to hold a Christmas Event from several UK airports to Rovaniemi, Finland

2009 Preview

2009 is going to be another superb year for IVAO UK. Here are just a few things we are planning:

- New Division Tours
- Structured C3 course
- Structured pilot training course
- Completion of main AFCAD's, sectorfiles and quickviews (ATC and pilot)
- Various real world meet-ups throughout the year
- Several editions of the division newsletter, Contrail
- A possible LAN party
- Division promotional video
- Lots of external PR
- Lots of fantastic events
- Airspace Endurance scheme
- Website design, structure and content updates

We hope you look forward to seeing some of these exciting projects come to life. Lots more ideas will be added to this list as the year progresses. If there is something you would like to see included on the list, then please get in touch.

Thank you for your continued support to IVAO UK!

The 2008 IFR, VFR and Heli tour will be available to start until 2359Z on Saturday January 31st 2009. Members will not be permitted to start the tours after this time.

Members must then complete these tours before 2359Z on Tuesday 31st March 2009. NOTE - The Special Operations, Scottish VFR, Historical and Island Hopper tours are not affected. Individual closing dates will be announced shortly.

Details on the 2009 tours will be released in due course.

2008 has been a fantastic year for IVAO UK. We have accomplished a lot of things, none of which could have been done without the support from our members. Without you, we would not be where we are today.

In recognition of this, we have given out the following awards to members:

Tom Moseley, Ben Guest, Robert Allen, Tom Hurrell, Phil Reynolds & Karan Gorania have all been awarded the Great Division User Award for their all round willingness to assist members and striving to make the UK one of the best divisions around.

Chris Globe, Adam Hillier, Graham Johnson, Nathan Aspinall & George Santos have all been awarded the Documentation Award for all their assistance in creating things such as documentation, scenery, AFCAD's & sectorfiles.

Justin Van Den Oosten & Nigel West have been awarded the Pilot Training Assistance Award for all there help in controller OJT sessions.

Conrad Oldcorn, Splendor Bouman, Iain Butler, Robin Bilgil, Jake Cresswell, Lucas Rothamel, Samy Jay Greve & Neil Boulton have all been awarded the Online Support Award for all the hard work and effort they have put into the UK Training Department.

Finally, we would like to recognise Rico Allee who has been awarded the Division Spirit Award. Rico has done a lot of work for the UK division over the years and we can't thank him enough for his help and support.

A big congratulations to everyone who has been awarded - Without your dedication and support, the division would be nothing.

The IVAO GB Division are pleased to announce that a real world meet up will be taking place at the Imperial War Museum - Duxford on Sunday 11th January 2009. We will be meeting outside the main entrance of the visitor centre at around 10:00am. This event is open to anyone who wishes to come along and as always, the more the merrier, however due to legal reasons it is important that if you are under the age of 18, a brief email should be sent to gb-mac@ivao.aero from your parents or guardian stating that you are permitted to attend.

Duxford is located just to the south of Cambridge and is easily accessible via Stansted Airport and also junction 10 of the M11. A map of the general area can be found here:

http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00d002001

Admission fees to the museum are:

Adult (person aged 16-59 years) £16.00

Senior, aged 60 years and over £12.80

Student, (requires valid card) £12.80

However if we can get more than 10 people to attend, then we can take advantage of the group discount offer which will mean that adult prices go down to £12.80 per adult.

Duxford has a lot to offer in terms of displays and exhibitions, with more than 180 aircraft on show as well as countless other military vehicles and maritime vessels, it will surely not be a wasted day with so much to see. There are also a number of food and drink outlets around the museum, so at some point during the day we will make time to stop for dinner. The main restaurant is open between the hours of 10:00 and 15:30.

For more information regarding the Museum itself and what's on offer please go to the Imperial War Museum website at:

http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/

Get 2009 off to a flying start, we would really like to see you there! If you intend on coming to this event, could you please reply to this thread stating so.

Merry Christmas and Best Regards

IVAO GB Staff Team

The IVAO United Kingdom staff would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2009!

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