Below are outlined some of the additional rules regarding Controller Bookings. These rules are not designed to prevent you from controlling, but instead to give everyone the opportunity to log on and control. Above all, please remain considerate of others when making controller bookings and ensure that you arrive and control for any bookings you make.

General

• A booking on the CT System shall reserve a position on the VATSIM network during the time period specified. Bookings may synchronise to external sources, however must appear on the CT System in order to be considered valid;
• A controller may only make a booking if they are currently allowed to control that position and will be allowed to do so at the time booked;
• A member may make a maximum of six advance bookings up to 90 days in advance at any one time and no more than two of these bookings may be on Gatwick Ground (EGKK_GND) or Gatwick Delivery (EGKK_DEL) in any combination.
• Members may not book less than two hours in advance unless they are currently controlling that position and are booking to extend their current controlling session.
• Bookings shall not be excessive in duration (note that an excessive duration at an aerodrome that is more in demand by controllers will be different than at an aerodrome that has lower controller demand);
• A controller must vacate a position if a member with a valid booking arrives to take over;
• Members should honour their bookings (including allocated controlling during events) and not book positions they are unlikely to be available for.

Validity

• A booking ceases to be valid if the member is more than 15 minutes late logging onto the position or voluntarily vacates the position unless specified otherwise below;
• If a student does not arrive in adequate time for their mentoring session, the mentor may choose to assume the booked time for their own controlling, or nullify the booking. Mentoring session bookings ceases to be valid if the student or mentor has not logged in to control within 30 minutes of the session start time;
• Bookings may be overridden by mentoring sessions. This includes bookings for underlying splits, for example a GND booking for a TWR mentoring session;
• Active exam or endorsement bookings remain valid until completed. Such bookings override other controller bookings, including when the session continues beyond the booked time;

Events

• When approved by the Marketing Director, controllers may be allocated positions to control. Allocated controlling shall take priority over controller bookings.

Split Positions

• When a position split is opened, the first controller to book may choose the split position they will control, regardless of the positions booked on the CT System, with the exception of:
  • Controllers wishing to bandbox two or more primary area sectors should book a single sector and then log on to the bandboxed position. Other members may then log on to or book the other Primary or Secondary sectors without the need for obtaining the first controller’s preference;
  • If a controller does choose to book a position bandboxing the Primary area sectors, other controllers may choose to log on to or book a contained Primary or Secondary sector without obtaining the first controller’s preference. This action must leave the bandbox controller with a minimum of one Primary or Secondary sector to control.

Primary and Secondary Sectors are defined on the Area Sectors page.