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May 8th 2005, 20:30 Local time Jerusalem. I hear the knock and detach myself from the TV screen where I was just watching Maccabi Tel Aviv win the Euroleague Basketball cup and open the door. The two men at the door introduced themselves: "I am Avishai, this is Nir, our tutor. Yossi will be here in a few minutes." Yes, Nir is their tutor. He is also a first officer on EL AL's 737NG fleet. And he's tutoring Avishai and Yossi in EL AL's 737 F/O course.
Act I – How it all startedA few weeks ago, Kobi David (VATSIM Israel's CEO) received an interesting e-mail. An EL AL pilot, Alon Pereg, had heard from various sources about VATIL and wanted to meet and learn about what we do. Alon was going to command the next 737NG pilot's course in EL AL, and he had an idea - the trainees could practice Airliner procedures, 737 automation (FMC) and ATC communications during the ground school stages of the course by flying online (Most of these trainees come from the IAF, and have little or no civilian flight experience). Kobi demonstrated FS to Alon who was favorably impressed. Realizing the potential Kobi organized another meeting at Israel Roth's house for another demonstration, this time with full ATC. Alon sat in the pilot's seat of Israel's home cockpit, and took the PMDG 737 for a ride. Alon was very impressed with this demonstration, and now the ball was at his hands. Act II – Getting ready At this point Alon had to introduce the idea to EL AL, get approval, and all those things commercial firms do. After confirming EL AL's willingness to test this idea with us it was decided that 4 pairs of student pilots plus their tutors will come to the homes of our selected members on Sunday, May 8th, just after ONESKY4. In the meantime, VATIL's staff organized the logistics of this operation – we had to be ready with ATC and people that can host pilots and instructors in their homes. Kobi David and Ran Finkels met EL AL's pilots during a radio communication class held by Captain Ilan Margalit. Kobi and Ran introduced FS and VATSIM while Shmulik Lin held the LLLL_CTR during their demonstration. Then Ilan flew left seat while the trainees practiced right seat with him. All this was done while VATIL was preparing for the ONESKY4 and our own Passover 2005: Spring time control room event. Several EL AL pilots came to visit us during the event and were very impressed with what they saw. Alon himself took his first online 'solo' flight from home Saturday's morning, and later came to visit us at the control room. Alon later wrote in our forum he was honored to come and visit the Control room, and he was very impressed with our technical expertise setting up the whole event but more with our controllers' professionalism.
Act III – The training session Sunday, May 8th 2005. What a day. First Maccabi Tel Aviv wins the Euroleague Basketball cup, and now EL AL's pilots come to fly with us. The goals of this training session for EL AL were:
The pilots brought their own Dispatcher sheets with all needed data for the flight. The flight crews were:
The event management staff met at Israel's place: Alon Pereg and Kobi David ran the event on behalf of both EL AL and VATIL. Some senior managers from El Al Operations department also visited and observed this first event. The aircraft flew from Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv to Larnaca airport, Cyprus.
EL AL's people were very happy with this training session, here are some responses we got:
"Hello Alon and friends, Alon – it was Great! The added value is beyond anything I had anticipated and I am convinced we are laying the cornerstone for something much bigger for our air crews on all fleets!
I have to resent Eyal's last statement. We are getting SO much in return. An email from Alon to Kobi: "Hello Kobi, The ground school phase of EL AL's F/O course has ended today. In a debriefing held today all trainees mentioned the great value of the simulation exercise with VATIL. The virtual playground you placed at our disposal, including simulation systems and air traffic controllers helped the trainees fit the theoretical material in the big picture and practice some of the material. In the next few weeks we are going to have simulator training abroad. I estimate that this exercise contributed to the trainees' high level of readiness. As agreed, we will continue to develop the cooperation with you in the best interest of both parties. I have no doubt we can improve the training level for EL AL's pilots and VATIL members. Thanks you all, Alon Pereg." We are very excited about the relationship with EL AL and we believe both parties can contribute a lot to each other.
I would like to thank:
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