New Training Procedures

[Richard Walls]

On January 1 the new VATUSA Global Policy went into effect and the intention was to standardize training and certification standards across VATUSA. Tom briefly summarized this in a post in the General Discussion section. The SOP's and exams are being updated to reflect the affect of those policy changes on ZOA. In the meantime I'll give you a more detailed summary of training and certification progression in our facility.

1.) Passing ZOA SOP exam certifies student to work any Twr (Class D & C) except SFO.

2.) Passing ZOA SOP exam also allows student to train on SFO GND.

3.) Passing SFO GND OTS certifies the student on SFO GND and allows him/her to take SFO Class B exam.

4.) Passing SFO Class B exam allows the student to train on SFO TWR.

5.) Passing SFO TWR OTS certifies student on SFO TWR and allows him/her to take S3 exam (if not already S3 or higher) and to take NorCal exam.

6.) S3 status allows student to work non-NorCal approach sectors. (Strongly suggest working with a mentor or train on NorCal before jumping in here doing things incorrectly and developing bad habits).

7.) Passing NorCal exam allows student to train on NorCal.

8.) Passing NorCal OTS certifies student on NorCal and allows him/her to take the C1 exam.

9.) Passing C1 exam allows student to train on Center.

10.) Passing Center OTS completes training !!!

Rich

[Tom Flanary]

It is important to note the use of "Work" "Certifies" and "qualifies."

Just because you're qualified, doesn't mean you can work, without a mentor or instructor. Keep that in mind.

[Greg Marcoux]

Ok now I am a bit confused as well. Passing the SFO TWR OTS and the S3 exam allows anyone to sign on on lets FAT or RNO APP withouth any training?

[Richard Walls]

Replaced "qualifies" with "allows" to reduce confusion. This means you CAN train or you CAN take an exam.

Certifies means you are "Certified" on the position and can work it without supervision.

According to VATUSA CONTROLLER RATING STANDARDIZATION, see the VATUSA website:

S1's can control any DEL, GND or TWR position EXCEPT MAOR & LCTP facilities. SFO is our MAJOR and we have no LCTP facilities.

S3's can control any DEP/APP EXCEPT MAOR & LCTP facilities. NorCal is our MAJOR.

Additional training is required for MAJORs.

[Anthony Ta]

So, am I an exception to these training policies at the moment? Because I'm an S3 but haven't finished SFO twr yet.

And I'm a bit confused about S3's on minor APP. Do you need to take an exam/mentor session first?

[Daniel Oordt]

To work FNO or RNO APP do we still need a S in our callsign?

[Tom Flanary]

yes, and you'll need to do an approach Written before doing approach training... I believe, gonna confirm this.

[Daniel Oordt]

But not with Reno and Fresno I thought. The written (which I have passed) was for NORCAL which is the major approach. For FAT and RNO they are minor so what I think it said in Rich's post was that we could work it just like S1 can work Class C TWR. Thats what I understood :confused:

[Tom Flanary]

No, you're going to wait until you work with a mentor and they let you do it. You haven't taken any Approach Exams and thus don't fall under this new policy. Once they say "yeah i'm comfortable with you working approach" then you can work it by yourself. And you must use the _S_ until you're checked out on it.

[Daniel Oordt]

Ok to clarify, I talked to Rich on teamspeak and he said I could work a basic approach sector without the _S_ in my callsign (RNO/FAT) . And I have passed my norcal written. Correct me if im wrong.