Blair S - 1358329

Hi All, The Q1 meeting minutes and department reports are now available for download: https://vatpac.org/about/minutes-and-reports/ Regards, VATPAC Board

Xander Dundon - 06/02/2022 Adrian - 04/02/2022 Luke Maynard - 19/01/2022

Hi All, The Q4 meeting minutes and department reports are now available for download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10gWg6VEm4-Atocdm3kPeXpnT1CuSHXP4/view Regards, VATPAC Board

Applications are now open for a Membership Assistant to join the Membership Team! Responsible to: Director of Membership Membership Manager Direct Reports: N/A Duties: Work within the VATPAC Membership team to organise, draft and execute any official Membership activities. Assists in developing relationships with VATPAC members and provide support if needed. Assist with the maintenance of the VATPAC Policies and Documentation. Dedicates 5-10 hours per month to carry out staffing duties. Maintains a minimum online presence of 8 hours per month on the VATSIM Network. Essential Criteria: Active participation in the greater VATPAC community for the last 6 months Be a member of good standing in VATSIM and VATPAC Be able to work well with other staff members and the VATPAC community as a whole. Be able to work well within a voluntary organisation Ability to use Microsoft Word and Google Docs How to Apply: Members interested in being considered for the role should apply by outlining their experience and suitability, addressing each of the essential criteria above. Applications should be sent via email to [email protected] APPLICATIONS IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE CLOSE AT 2359z on JAN 15

Great work William!

Hi All, Under Section 13 of the VATPAC Constitution, I hereby announce the next Town Hall Meeting will occur on 08th August 2021. Time: 08AUG21 - 0900z, 1700 AWST, 1830 ACST, 1900 AEST Location: VATPAC Discord (discord.vatpac.org to register your account/join) Agenda: Call to Order / Welcome Portfolio Snapshots, short/medium term plans Questions/Concerns/Suggestions/Feedback/Ideas to the Board If you have any questions you'd like to ask in advance, you can email them to [email protected] or contact me directly. Alternatively, you are encouraged to ask them on the day. Questions and answers will be minuted and made available for public viewing after the Town Hall for those who cannot attend.

Applications are now open for a Marketing Assistant to join the Membership Team! Responsible to: Director of Membership Direct Reports: N/A Duties: Work within the VATPAC Marketing team to create, plan and promote any VATPAC content. Assists in developing promotional material, video production and social media posts. Assist with the maintenance of the VATPAC Policies and Documentation. Dedicates 5-10 hours per month to carry out staffing duties. Maintains a minimum online presence of 8 hours per month on the VATSIM Network. Ability to work with Events, Operations and I.T to promote their content to the greater VATPAC community Maintain VATPAC Social Media accounts and content Essential Criteria: Active participation in the greater VATPAC community for the last 6 months Be a member of good standing in VATSIM and VATPAC Be able to work well with other staff members and the VATPAC community as a whole. Be able to work well within a voluntary organisation Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Microsoft Word Active Facebook Account Understanding of Graphic Design and Video Production Application Process: Applicants who proceed to the second round of application will be asked to submit an example of they would take an example piece of information and create a modern and creative press release. How to Apply: Members interested in being considered for the role should apply by outlining their experience and suitability, addressing each of the essential criteria above. Applications should be sent via email to [email protected] APPLICATIONS IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE CLOSE AT 2359z on July 1st 2021

Applications are now open for a Membership Assistant to join the Membership Team! Responsible to: Director of Membership Membership Manager Direct Reports: N/A Duties: Work within the VATPAC Membership team to organise, draft and execute any official Membership activities. Assists in developing relationships with VATPAC members and provide support if needed. Assist with the maintenance of the VATPAC Policies and Documentation. Dedicates 5-10 hours per month to carry out staffing duties. Maintains a minimum online presence of 8 hours per month on the VATSIM Network. Essential Criteria: Active participation in the greater VATPAC community for the last 6 months Be a member of good standing in VATSIM and VATPAC Be able to work well with other staff members and the VATPAC community as a whole. Be able to work well within a voluntary organisation Ability to use Microsoft Word and Google Docs How to Apply: Members interested in being considered for the role should apply by outlining their experience and suitability, addressing each of the essential criteria above. Applications should be sent via email to [email protected] APPLICATIONS IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE CLOSE AT 2359z on July 1st 2021

Some great feedback regarding Nick's VFR service.

Spotlight Series: ORBX YBBNv2 for Prepar3D v4+ | 20APR21 (0800z-1200z) The spotlight series will showcase new simulator products like planes, scenery and utilities from all simulators and clients. This semi-regular event will follow closely after the release of these new products giving you a great chance to experience these products in all their glory. This week we are exploring the newly released YBBN for P3D. Don't fear we will feature the latest addons from X-Plane and MSFS when they are released, and you definitely don't require these addons to participate. Who are ORBX? For those who don't know ORBX by now, they are leaders in flight simulation since 2006. Having published over 350 products, ORBX is known for high quality, modern and realistic sceneries including the likes of Cairns, Melbourne and Broome. Employing over 30 staff from Australia, UK and numerous other countries. ORBX have continued to maintain their Australian roots with one of their offices and CEO being based in Essendon field. Developing sceneries for FSX, P3D, Aerofly FS2, X-Plane 11 and MSFS; ORBX has created a wide range of products from airports to Autogen addons. Without ORBX, flight simulation in Australia would be extremely different without the 30+ product oceanic library ORBX has to offer. Brisbane Airport is the work of the Havant based ORBX team who have overhauled the airport effectively rebuilding the airport from scratch. Built using current modelling techniques, Physically Based Rendering (PBR) complements highly detailed textures. Custom SODE jetways, including T-style jetways, and VDGS integration (requires the SODE VDGS pack) ensure an immersive and accurate experience from gate to gate. Available now from ORBX Direct Event Details We recommend the following routes for you to fly during this event; however, you are more than welcome to fly to different airports within the coverage area. YSSY -> YBBN: TESAT H185 ENTRA Y245 BANDA H185 BN YBBN -> YSSY: BN H91 CORKY H12 TESAT ATC This event is not rostered. Controllers who wish to control during this event should log on early to secure a spot. Scenery Brisbane International Airport (YBBN): Payware - ORBX (P3Dv4+) Freeware - Ants (FSX/P3D) Freeware - CDG (X-Plane) Sydney Kingsford Smith (YSSY): Payware - FlyTampa v2 (P3Dv4+) Payware - FlyTampa v2 (MSFS) Freeware - AVSIM (FSX/P3D) Freeware - ISDG (X-Plane) MISC - Miscellaneous Items: Payware - AUSv2 (FSX/P3D) *Recommended by ORBX Airports* Payware - Sydney Cityscape (MSFS) Payware - Brisbane Landmarks (MSFS) VATPAC is not affiliated with ORBX Simulations and has not been payed to produce this content.

Dear VATPAC members, thank you for taking the time to read our latest newsletter. There have been a number of exciting developments in the last few months including VATSIMs latest announcement about the data refresh rate. I’m excited to see this in practice and the impact it has on everyone’s enjoyment within the simulator. We have slowly been chipping away at a few projects here, but my main goal has been stability and continuity. I’d like to extend a special thanks to Josh and his events team, for putting in a great effort, week in and week out, scheduling and organising the logistic for VATPAC events. The events are where everyone comes together, enjoys a busy frequency and hopefully a much more realistic experience to flying around by yourself on UNICOM! Thank you to a number of members who have stepped up in recent weeks to assist in moderate our Discord server. It’s great that our community can be so interactive - gone are the days of missed Teamspeak messages and being kicked for idling! This new connected world has created new challenges for us, as we manage the way in which our members use the discord and ensure it suits all of our members, from all ages groups, genders and locations. Thank you for your understanding and patience whilst we work through these issues - and please know that they ARE being worked on. In a short while, I’ll provide a separate and more detailed update to the community from myself through the forums so stay tuned for that. Cheers for your involvement in our great community. Zach

Membership Department From the Director Hi all, it is with pleasure I sit down to write my first Scope article as the Director of Membership for VATPAC. Firstly, to those who do not know me, or whom I have not met yet I would like to give you some background about my previous roles within VATSIM. Joining VATSIM and VATPAC in 2002 I have acquired 9424 hours online as a pilot and close to 900 hours controlling, supervising, or observing. In this time, I have assisted VATSIM in roles such as Supervisor, DCRM for VATPAC and held seats on the VATSIM BOG as VATGOV1. So be prepared for long hours and lots of fun as you explore everything the VATSIM and VATPAC network has to offer. Membership Department Report Since taking over the role at the beginning of the year I have been able to meet with the managers and we have started to plan out the direction for the next 12 to 24 months. The initial point of concentration is going to be within the confines of Marketing and will be looking at the VATPAC image and branding. Marketing has started to redesign the VATPAC brand, and along with that, the brief is to create a standardized image for VATPAC which is easily identifiable and unique within VATSIM. The aim being no matter where you see our logo or a forum banner it will be instantly recognizable as VATPAC. With this in mind, we will be looking to have all VATPAC Directors and staff using a standard forum signature and footers to ensure everyone can recognize our roles and know which one of us to contact when the need arises. Luke, the membership team and I will be focusing on new members and member activities once a data source has been secured. We will be looking at how we can assist new members in getting online and how we can remove as many of the first time nerves issues as we can. We will have more details soon regarding changes to this area. Going forward VASO will become a focal point for the team as we look at ways to get members engaged in online activities. Steven Cullen Membership Director

Technology Department A lot has happened behind the scenes with the move to new IT infrastructure and the development and initial implementation of new systems. Move to AWS The transfer of all VATPAC web services is now complete and are all now hosted on AWS. This has led to a reduction in costs by more than 50% as well as improvements in performance and reliability in services. While there were some initial teething issues upon migration, all of these are now resolved and all services are operating correctly. Legacy files Legacy files that were once hosted, on the old services have been made available to the relevant members of staff for their use in the future. Unified Password management The implementation of a password management system for VATPAC staff is being tested and will soon be deployed to all staff. This allows for efficient password sharing with access control to passwords. All passwords are hosted on VATPAC services and are protected from external access. This application is yet another tool to improve the security of VATPAC services. VATSIM Data API The VATSIM data api technology has come a long way and we can now use the data provided by VATSIM and build upon it to provide improved services. With this in mind the IT department has been spending significant amounts of time developing some data analysis technologies to improve and update the data in various VATPAC services. For example, soon we will have access to historical as well as live data from the feed to replace the old, inefficient IPS data collection system, this will allow for efficient queries of data that can then be used in statistics, such as top weekly pilot/controller, etc. This will also help in the redevelopment of VATPAX. VATPAX Steven Brown, the original developer of VATPAX, has reached out and will now be redeveloping VATPAX as a external service to VATPAC whereby it will be available to other divisions as well. The IT team will be working closely with him in any support he will need and provide access to various APIs from within VATPAC, such as the new data API.

ATC Training and Standards Department With the recent influx of members and the transition to new and exciting ATC client software, the Training department has created the ATC Standards role to help controllers develop their skills beyond their initial rating training. Stay tuned for regular tips & tricks, as well as additional resources to expand your ATC skillset. This month’s area of interest is airwork and ops normal times. Pilots may advise ATC of intended airwork in order to complete practice instrument approaches, survey work, SAR ops, or a range of other operations. Generally, this will involve advising the vertical and lateral boundaries of the airwork, and nominating an ops normal time, which is the latest time ATC should expect to hear back from the pilot once the airwork is complete. E.g. VH-NEZ is a Piper Arrow operating IFR outside controlled airspace who wishes to conduct a practice instrument approach at Mount Gambier. They are enroute and are currently receiving an identification service from Melbourne Centre. VH-NEZ: NEZ, airwork details. ML CTR: NEZ, send airwork details. VH-NEZ: NEZ will be conducting airwork within a 20nm radius of Mount Gambier, surface to 5000ft, ops normal 45. The Melbourne Centre controller should make a note of the intended airwork and acknowledge the ops normal time, then give the pilot directed traffic information on any applicable IFR or observed VFR aircraft who are currently within, or will be shortly transiting, the defined airspace. ML CTR: NEZ, copy ops normal time 45, no reported IFR traffic. VH-NEZ: NEZ. It is recommended that you update the aircraft’s tag with the relevant airwork details and utilise the timer system in your ATC client to ensure you don’t miss the nominated ops normal time. In vatSys, this can be achieved using the built-in clock timer, or preferably, by setting a SAR timer on the aircraft itself. Right mouse click the callsign to open the SAR Window, then select the nominated ops normal time to set the timer. If the pilot fails to report by the nominated time, the SAR alert will activate. If during the airwork period, a second aircraft was inbound to Mount Gamiber, they would need to be advised of VH-NEZ’s airwork boundaries so they can maintain their own separation during descent and landing. ML CTR: RXA4635, IFR traffic for your arrival is NEZ, an IFR Arrow, currently conducting airwork within a 20nm radius of Mount Gambier, surface to 5000ft. Remember to pass this traffic information to VH-NEZ as well. ML CTR: NEZ, IFR traffic is RXA4635, SAAB 340, inbound from the west, descending from flight levels, estimating Mount Gambier at 29. On completion of the airwork, VH-NEZ will report ops normal and may issue a departure report if departing the vicinity for another aerodrome. VH-NEZ: NEZ, ops normal, 3nm southeast of Mount Gambier, passing 2600ft, climbing 7000ft, estimate NOGIP 04. ML CTR: NEZ, identified, no reported IFR traffic 7000ft. Matt Kelly - Manager ATC Standards