It’s time for some brutal honesty – Winnipeg’s current controller inactivity process makes very little sense.
You know what one I’m talking about. You control for three hours per quarter to stay on the active roster. Three hours! That’s not so bad. That’s like an hour a month.
The issue, ironically, is what happens when you don’t get your hours.
Under the current policy, a controller who misses the minimum is contacted after the quarter ends by FIR staff. From there, they receive additional time to regain activity. That’s fair. But if they remain inactive, another warning is sent, this time cautioning about removal. That warning creates yet another timeframe before removal. A requirement that is supposed to be measured over one activity period can turn into a much longer process involving several notices and several opportunities to regain activity. In theory, you could end up with something like half a year(!!!), all over three hours of controlling.
That’s wild. And unnecessarily complicated.
An activity policy should be easy for controllers to understand and easy for staff to enforce! Controllers shouldn’t have to work through multiple stages of warnings just to figure out when they are actually at risk of being removed. Likewise, staff shouldn’t have to track a growing list of separate deadlines, warning periods, and final opportunities. That’s a lot of email writing!
So, we’re fixing it.
One requirement. That’s it!
The new process will be simple – you have your same, normal activity period (a quarter, as is mandated by GCAP) to get your three hours of controlling activity. If you can’t get your hours, you’ll receive a warning from an FIR staff member, which will be sent to your VATSIM-registered email, with 14 days to meet the previous quarter’s required hours. You’ll also see a warning on your WinnipegFIR.ca Dashboard as the end of the quarter approaches, if you don’t yet have your hours.
If you are still under three hours when those 14 days are over, you are removed from the FIR – it’s that simple.
This isn’t a crackdown. The requirement itself isn’t actually changing – three hours a quarter is still the rule. And a reminder, if you genuinely need time away from the FIR or network, you can always request a leave of absence. On top of that, as always, if you are removed from the FIR for inactivity, you’re always welcome to re-join the FIR – just with a re-certification from one of Winnipeg’s instructors.
We can’t act like an activity requirement is real, while giving people month after month after month to actually complete it. That’s all. A deadline should be a deadline! And policy shouldn’t make that complicated for no reason.
Speaking of activity specifics…
VATCAN’s Division Policy states that required activity hours must be completed within a controller’s qualification.
What does that even mean?
Well, it’s fairly simple: your activity hours should be captured on a position that matches either your current rating or the rating immediately below it. For example, if you’re an S3, your hours should be completed on a Departure, Arrival, or Terminal position – which matches your current rating – or on a Tower position, which would correspond to the rating below it.
Up until now, we weren’t tracking this either. Oops.
We’ll be watching that going forward, so make sure you’re controlling to your abilities, at least for your required quarterly hours.
Instructors, it’s time to, well, instruct!
Another key to keeping any FIR active and up to date is making sure the training team roster, instructors and mentors alike, is actually accurate and current. And that starts with activity in general.
If an instructor isn’t even meeting the FIR’s basic three-hour quarterly activity requirement, they obviously aren’t in much of a position to be actively training students either. Likewise, if someone has remained on the training team for a long period without actually instructing or mentoring anyone, our listed training capacity probably doesn’t reflect reality.
So, as part of our broader push for accurate rosters (including the activity and roster-removal changes that I talked about above), Winnipeg will also begin regularly reviewing the training team roster.
The goal, of course, isn’t to remove people for the sake of removing people – it’s to make sure the people listed on our training team are actually active, available, and contributing. After all, our training roster helps shape expectations. If the roster says we have a certain number of instructors and mentors, but several of them aren’t active or training, the picture we’re giving students isn’t accurate, and that’s not fair to anyone.
Accurate rosters mean more accurate timelines, better planning, and better information for students! This is an easy step toward making sure we’re providing exactly that.
“I’m still waiting for my training to start!”
The good news is, all of these changes benefit you too, fearless waitlister!
Obviously, controllers who are still waiting to begin training aren’t expected to meet a three-hour quarterly activity requirement. You literally can’t. But we do still need to know that you’re around and ready when your turn comes for a training slot.
When your name comes up for training, we’ll contact you using your VATSIM-registered email address. From there, you’ll have 14 days to reply, confirm that you’re ready to begin, and start planning training with your instructor. If you don’t reply within those 14 days, or you aren’t able to begin making plans for training with our training team, you’ll be removed from the waitlist and FIR roster.
Why removal? Well, training capacity is limited, and we can’t leave a spot sitting in limbo forever with someone who isn’t responding, or isn’t ready to use it. Of course, if you still want to train with Winnipeg later, you’re always welcome to re-join the FIR and waitlist.
So… what’s the benefit beyond a clear process for starting your training?
An accurate list of active instructors and mentors gives us a much better picture of how much training capacity we actually have. An accurate waitlist tells us who is genuinely ready to use that capacity. Put the two together, and we can share more accurate estimates and information, move through the waitlist more efficiently, and avoid leaving people stuck in line for no good reason. It’s a win for everyone.
A reminder for those waiting, your waitlist position now shows on your WinnipegFIR.ca Dashboard as well, live! If it’s missing for some reason, make sure to reach out to the staff team so we can squash that bug!
Oh, and while we’re on the topic of everyone getting emails… this is probably a good time to remind you to whitelist @vatcan.ca emails in your inbox! We don’t want important messages landing in your spam folder.