VATNZ Announces New ATC Training Team

VATNZ is thrilled to announce the appointments of the new Training Director and Assistant to the Training Director.

The new Training Director is Gary Parata. 

Gary has about 30 years and 18,000 hours of real-world flight experience as a pilot, including 4,000 hours’ instructional delivery at all levels.

Like many in the aviation industry, Gary was furloughed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this has seen him put in many hours on the VATSIM Network flying and controlling, and he has been a valued member of the training team mentoring new controllers and sharing his experience.

The new Assistant to the ATC Training Director is Fenton Loveday.

Fenton has amassed over 2400 hours online as a Controller and has been a member of the training team for many years, on and off. Fenton has an Instructor rating and has been responsible for training and developing many of the controllers that we have in the Division today.

We would like to thank Cam Tyson for his work while he was the Training Director and wish him well with his studies and aviation career.

Thanks also to James Ford-Hathaway who worked as the Assistant to the Training Director with Cam and has moved into the newly created Community Engagement Director role on the VATNZ Board.