I have been flying with VATSIM for a few months now (over 100 hours)and would like to try my hand at controlling. I am registered with VATSIM.UK and have tried to register as a controller there. As yet I have had no response at all and even my requests for a mentor have been ignored. I have a PID obviously but not a CID. Are both the same?If there's anyone out there who can help me get started with this I would appreciate it. I have a long background in aviation and am pretty well versed with ATC procedures and would like to give back a little of what I've taken but it's proving harder than I expected.RegardsTimPID 840351

Tim pop over to the VATSIM UK webpage -http://www.vatsim-uk.net/vatsim-uk/and click on:JOIN Good luck...Richard GreenVATUSA4Events and VA Director

RichardI've done that already about a week ago! I selected London ATC area then nothing. I requested a mentor 2 days ago and nothing. I'll have another go and see what happens.Just tried again and get this message when I click on "submit---------------------------------------------------------------------Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The changes you requested to the table were not successful because they would create duplicate values in the index, primary key, or relationship. Change the data in the field or fields that contain duplicate data, remove the index, or redefine the index to permit duplicate entries and try again. /vatsim-uk/Membership/thanks.asp, line 51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------Now what?regardsTim

Hello Tim:I'm glad to hear you have an interest in trying your hand at controlling. There are many exciting developments coming for ATC fans in the next few months so you have picked a great time to join.The problems you have been experiencing sound like an issue we have recently discovered in our registration program (which handles transfers and assignment requests). I'm certain that the VATUK website ties into VATSIM's main program which is how you encountered the problem.As I indicated, we have discovered this problem only in the last day or two. If you would, give us a few days to correct it and try to transfer/join towards the end of the week. We will hopefully have the issue resolved by then.Thank you and everyone else for your patience and once again, welcome.Best Wishes.George S. MarinakisVP Operations (VATSIM6/VATGOV2)VATSIM Board of Governors

George,Thanks for the info, I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything. I'll try again in a week or so.regardsTim

Tim,Stick with it - is is really worth it! I was in the same position as you, having discovered how rewarding it was to fly online and wantng to assist with the controlling as well, to help bulk up the numbers and "give back" some small contribution. I am now a Senior Student just getting my Voice rating, and very, very much looking forward to the release of the new controller software, which looks spectacular!Good Luck.LiamLiam S. Dunch, Ex-pat AussieTour Manager, Collette Vacations

.. by looking at the text, I can say that it failed as it tried to re-add a value that was already there (in this case, it wanted to add you to the member database, but you were already there!).However, VS-UK is currently rescheduling it's mentor programme, that is the main reason you haven't been appointed a mentor yet. I suggest that you log on as an observer on a sunday night and see how the CTR and CTR+'s handles the LHR inbound traffic.