IVAO Belgium

General

IVAO is an open community based on the principle of "accept the IVAO rules as they are and be welcome". One of the basic rules is to participate and have fun together without disturbing each other.

Mind hereby that everyone has his own idea of flying and controlling on-line. Some would just like to have the simple fun, others would like to advance and learn more and more and ..... more.

In any case, for yourself, know at least the minimums and you will have a great time here.

Pilot or ATC, in whatever way you would like to enjoy this free IVAO Network, there is a lot of training material and instruction documentation made available for your benefit. Even in the end, if you like, you could do exams to obtain a rating as a virtual ATC or a rank as a virtual pilot.

To inform yourself in general or to prepare properly for such exams, you will find a number of informative training pages here. Note that many of them refer to the general situation in IVAO, others are written specifically for the BE Division situation.

We have made different pages for pilots and for ATC.

More general information material is available in the IVAO ACADEMY when you click  here

ATC Training

This ATC section is divided in general information with a number of links to further documentation and a more in depth description of the different levels and exams that are offered to climb the ATC career ladder.

Newbies

Those who have just started or the ones that would like to have a deeper look at the basics of Air Traffic Control, in short ATC.

In the BE division we have made an interesting document that says it all, although it is in fact written for pilot training. Still, to have a good overview of how things work and in what relations, we recommend this document. Click here

In addition, have a look at the IVAO Academy, where you can find a lot of general information. Click here to start with the beginning.

More than for flying, ATC is a practical job that you mainly learn from practise. “Do it”, that's the way to learn it. Participate in the special training sessions provided by the BE training staff.

To start, log-in as an observer and try to listen in to what is happening on-line and why. Learn to understand that coded language that pilots and ATC speak. After that, start yourself at the first position to get used to being there and ….. to give your first ATC clearance to a pilot ever.

Further-on you will be the one to guide the aircraft safely on the platforms and along the taxi-ways of the airfield, where next you will climb the Tower. Overlooking the totality of the aerodrome you will clear aircraft to get into the air or allow them again to make a safe landing.

Advance further and learn how to use radar as a tool to separate aircraft that in fact you don't see at all since they are miles away from you. Guide them around the airfield, and, in the next stage, guide them through the airspace of the bigger Belgium airspace.

Only by following the step-by-step method you will be able to become that all round controller that can do it all, regardless the amount of traffic under your control. Practise, exercise and learn by doing.

Individual training sessions can be requested, whereby a BE training staff member will help you on-line with solving your problems of separating the aircraft. Main fact is and remains that reading the different documents is a must to get the notice of what the controlling basics are. Which rules to apply, what are separation minima, what are approach procedures, etc. Like in real life this is valid on IVAO as well, it is a mix of theory and practise.

ATC exams

For air traffic control there are basically 3 different ATC ranks available: Aerodrome Controller (ADC), Approach Controller (APC) and Area Controller (ACC).

The first exam for ADC is to assess your control abilities controlling the whole of the Aerodrome, which includes (flight plan) Delivery, (taxi) Ground Control and Tower Control.

As an APC you will use your radar tool to provide separation to all the aircraft departing and arriving in the bigger vicinity of one or more airfields. Guide them towards the instrument landing pattern so that they can make a safe landing, even in bad weather conditions.

Finally, after sufficient hours of experience, you will overlook the whole of the Belgium airspace and eventually control all that which is not already controlled by others. On the top, where you really have to jump from the one side to the other, from the one approach to the next departure. You do it all. No doubt that only many of hours of intensive training and practise will bring you to this desired top position.

To have a more detailed look at the different ratings and their requirements have a look here.

Update: 30/12/10